Thanksgiving in New Zealand

Hey Everyone!

Thanksgiving is always a holiday I really enjoy. To me it means getting together with family, reflecting on the many blessings in my life, going Christmas shopping, eating great food, and of course, the start of the Christmas season. I have been impressed at how easy it has been thus far or me to be away from home for so long, but I have to admit, not being able to share this holiday with my family for the first time in 21 years is pretty difficult. Instead of wallowing though, I decided to bring as much of Thanksgiving to New Zealand as possible. Today with my class was awesome. I taught them about the history of Thanksgiving; made them a pumpkin pie, and we made a turkey project with our handprints. I was a lot of fun! I even learned about some New Zealand history in return as they have many connections as far as what happened between indigenous cultures and European immigrants. It was fascinating to see the similarities!
The pumpkin pie was probably one of the most memorable parts of the day too. I successfully cut it into 30 tiny pieces and passed one around to each student in a circle. They had to wait until everyone had a piece before we proceeded. We went around in a circle and each person had to say one thing that they were thankful for. I explained that this is an important Thanksgiving tradition for many families in the U.S. Then they were able to try it for the first time. Since the majority of them had never tried it as a dessert before (only as a vegetable), they had perceptions of it being salty or bitter. About 90% of the class loved it, exclaiming things like “Oh it’s really nice!” or “Yeah, it’s yum!” It was really cute! The other 10% curled up their faces in disgust and couldn’t eat any more. What an experience. ☺

Tonight Laura and I cooked a Thanksgiving meal for our host families. It was amazing! It was a joint event, consisting of 10 people total. Jan and I cooked a turkey and another pumpkin pie and brought it over to Rachel’s where we all toasted with wine and feasted on turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, veggies, and cranberries. Pumpkin pie was for dessert. As with tradition before eating, we went around the table and said something we were thankful for. It was incredibly heartwarming! Even though I couldn’t be with my own family, they all made it such a great and special time.

I think that’s all for now, we are off to Rotorua this weekend with Jan and Cory where we will rent a cabin and do some luge-ing!

Until next time, Happy Thanksgiving! ☺