Thanksgiving

Pumpkin in a Can? Marshmellows on Sweet potatoes? Australians eat pumpkin everything, but putting it in a can, well that's just crazy. I explained to them that eating the pulpy stringy stuff that you try to get rid of when carving a pumpkin, is just not going to happen. So I'm still not convinced about pumpkin, but we managed to make them fall in love with candied yams.
Prior to the day we decided to have Thanksgiving, Meribeth and I planned out all the dishes we would make. Little did we know that Australia doesn't carry have the ingredients needed to make a Thanksgiving dinner.
Meribeth and our friend Louie went grocery shopping for the event and they had spent about 2 hours trying to find all the ingredients needed to make the meals. Everything is different. Marshmellows are kind of flat and very surgery. As mentioned before pumpkin pie was out because they don't have it in a can. Mayonaise that actually tasted like mayonaise was very hard to find. They didn't have banana pudding for a banana cream pie. Their turkeys are not over 8lbs. The Aussies were shocked when we told them that we have turkeys that are about 25 lbs.
After the shopping we had set to work to make the dinner. We made mashed potatoes, candied yams, ham, turkey, broccoli salad, corn and green been casserole, deviled eggs, fruit salad, rolls, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, and we bought apple pie.
We worked from 10 am in the morning until about 5 pm. It turned out great. We had about 15 people altogether.
After everyone arrived and the food was ready we had everyone in the kitchen and Meribeth said thank you to everyone for everything they have done for us. The speech ended in tears and it was a very touching moment.
We all helped ourselves and dug in. Overall it was a very great event, and if anything we left footprints in the Aussies tummies, and they will never forget Thanksgiving in November again. I think we may have started a new tradition here. I am very excited to make some dishes for our family Thanksgiving next year.