We decided to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday for two reasons: (1) we wanted to combine it with Xavier’s birthday party and that was easier to do on a Friday (no school the next day) and (2) it was Thanksgiving in the U.S. when it was Friday in New Zealand. Given that the third Thursday/Friday of November is not a special day in New Zealand, Beth ordered a fresh turkey from the butcher in Warkworth well in advance. Unfortunately, on the day of our first turkey meal in New Zealand, the butcher had no turkey. The butcher made an error and had ordered a frozen turkey. But even the frozen turkey had not arrived (and of course, it would have been no use to us at that point). So the butcher called around to various other shops in the area, but no turkey. The butcher knew he goofed in a big way, so he handed us two complementary chickens along with many apologies. We graciously accepted the chickens and told him we would be back soon. Thus, we have yet to have a turkey meal in New Zealand – but nobody seemed to mind that we were eating roast chicken on a Friday to celebrate Thanksgiving. At the end of the day, we had many “Thanksgiving” moments to cherish, thanks to a kind butcher and a table full of eager, happy and very polite feasters.
Xavier had three friends over for his birthday/Thanksgiving meal – Isaac, Rafael and Richard (from left to right in the photo above). Rafael goes by “Ref” because apparently the Kiwis can’t quite pronounce his name right. (Curiously, Ref has a sister named Eleanor. In the states, we have friends that have two children – Rafaelle and Elena.) Rafael’s father is Mexican and his mother is Kiwi. Richard’s mother is Norwegian and his father is Kiwi. Isaac is pure Kiwi, but backpacked for eight months with his parents in Europe (and is a certified diver!). Xavier has made some worldly, creative friends who are also colorful conversationalists. It was a pleasure to have them at the table.
Xavier and Quentin received archery sets for their birthdays. The bows and arrows became one of the main sources of entertainment at Xavier’s birthday party. The crew also started a project building a landscape model with paper mache. Finally we all enjoyed the dinner, which included, in addition to the already mentioned roast chickens, cranberry relish, stuffing (a big hit), mashed potatoes (another big hit) and black beans.
