Thanksgiving in the city

I got a little ambitious this year. Not content to just let one of our fine American holidays pass us by, I decided to host my first ever Thanksgiving Dinner. I mean, it really doesn't matter if your kitchen is tiny, you're in a foreign land with hardly any familiar ingredients, and you've never.even.thought. about making a Turkey before, riiiight?

Well, surprisingly it all turned out really well. We invited our friends, the Grace family, that we first stayed with when we landed in Auckland. All 9 of us fit quite comfortably outside on the balcony - even if we froze our behinds off in the cool breeze! They were at least good sports about it.

So, here is my documentation of 'the feed':

Their sweet potatoes here are called Kumera. I tried to find only the orange kumera, but a few yellow ones slipped in there. (They also have purple kumera.) They don't have real marshmallows here, but luckily Jon spotted some in the 'lollies' (candy) aisle in the dish-it-yourself-bulk canisters. The Grace family LOVED the marshmallows and brown sugar on their familiar kumera. Funny though, they didn't really go for the orange ones. They ate all of the yellow ones first. :)

This is my tiny kitchen table, which we moved outside for seating. I had NO counterspace to work with and Jon had to move his office desk into the kitchen to serve as a buffet counter.

Right before I started preparing the turkey, I called my mom in a panic! Everything I read online warned against stuffing the turkey and the risks of foodborne illnesses. I certainly didn't want to make my guests sick! As she always does, she calmed my fears, told me to stop being silly, and move on. I Love You Mom! One of the sites mentioned putting the turkey on a bed of carrots and celery and onion for more flavor. Mmmm. A nice crunchy bed for the turkey.

And here it is, ready to go! I couldn't find kitchen string or skewers anywhere to keep the legs together, so she's a little immodest.

She fit! Once I saw the turkey in the pan I panicked again, fearing it would be too big for my little microwave size oven!

Part 1 of the spread: (Don't ask me why I didn't remove the foil from the meats so the finished product was shown! I was in a rush!)

Part 2: (Kumera, Mashed Potatoes and gravy. I don't think they cared for the mashed potatoes. We had a TON leftover, which is weird for us since that's usually the first thing to go at our family dinners!)

Hungry kids! Destiny (13), Aniva (9), Manessah (6), and Elijah (5). Their oldest boy, Skye (17), is not pictured because he came after his touch rugby practice.

Jon, Dean, and Dolly.

Everyone trying to get warm after we froze them outside. The little kids loved running outside on the balcony to see what color the neighboring Sky Tower was lit up - my favorite was the rainbow. And the big kids were so awesome - they cleared the table and did the dishes while I packed up all of the leftovers! The great thing is, this is common over here. Their kids always clean up and do the dishes...without being asked! Good kids. Great family!

Us. See my tiny kitchen in the background? Yep, that row of cupboards is pretty much it. The mini-fridge and oven are all below counter on that wall. Oh, and how do you like Jon's beard and long hair? :)

The kids had fun taking pictures with the camera. Elijah loves to be the spotlight and jumped in any picture he could.

And that was our Thanksgiving. A huge success, if I do say so myself!

Happy Thanksgiving!