Being American, it’s hardly surprising that today I am writing about Thanksgiving, that incredibly huge and indulgent holiday held the last Thursday of November each year. Having lived here for 16 years, I haven’t really celebrated Thanksgiving in Australia. However, this year I have met several other American mums at my children’s school, and we decided to host a Thanksgiving for several of our Aussie friends.

At first I was pretty nonchalant about it, but then as the time came, I started getting excited about sharing this traditional American holiday with my Aussie friends.

The day ended up being a huge success! Each family was responsible for making a part of the meal (salad, pumpkin pie, turkey, stuffing and so on). We rented a church hall (where else could we fit 18 adults and 24 children!), decorating two long tables (one for adults, one for children) complete with maple leaves, pumpkin and corn cobs. My friend made placemats with individual ‘Thanksgiving sayings’, some serious and biblical, while others just very funny (usually relating to the fact most people eat the Thanksgiving dinner within 12 minutes - which is the amount of time for half-time of the football game!) We also got to write our own quote about the day - most were very funny, about the dramas of making our meals!

It was such a great afternoon though. All the fathers took the children across to the local oval for a play, while the women prepared the hall for dinner. When the fathers and children returned, we started the meal. We all held hands, and although not everyone is religious, shared a prayer of thanks for the food we were about to eat and for the friends there sharing it with us.

It was another day of appreciation for me. It really hit home for me that I do have a good network of friends, who are like family to me. We all pulled together and had the most amazing day, giving and sharing with each other. It was so fun to see the dads able to relax and talk with each other.. the children running amok and having a fantastic time (even putting on an impromptu play on the hall stage), and the ladies sharing, laughing and cooking together. It really was good old fashion fun!

So enjoy the moments that bring you and your friends together.

Until next time, here’s to your success!
Cheers, Ann Eldridge

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As Chris has mentioned, our suburb went through a terrible storm last Sunday 16 November, 2009. The worst of it (a mini-tornado or category 2 cyclone) only lasted 30 minutes, but I have never been so terrified in my life — we had water leaking (pouring!) through four of our downlights, the sky lights ripped off the roof allowing more rain/hail in, and a gum tree crashed through our pool fence and into our pool causing a muddy mess. We were so worried about the damage we received, thinking we were the only ones with damage.

I just kept telling the children that at least we were alive and no one was hurt, trying to put things in perspective for myself as well! But really, I couldn’t sleep that night — I was so upset that there was no electricity, we had water damage, and our beautiful yard/property was a complete mess… And my sister was arriving from America for a week’s visit the next day. Stupid storm!

When daylight came the next day, all the neighbours gathered out on the street to assess the damage. So many people had trees crash into their yard, breaking roof tiles or sections of their roof. One house lost its entire roof, and the family had to move out. It was such an eye-opener as to how much worse it could have been for us.

I thought it was a good lesson in being grateful for the children - but it turned out to be a great lesson for me as well. We were so lucky that we had minimal damage… the bit of water on the floor, the discoloured ceiling due to water damage, and the crashed pool fence were really nothing in the scheme of things. We really were lucky that no one was hurt and we still had our home intact. Everything at my place was a mere inconvenience; there were others who had a serious

I actually ended up enjoying the aftermath… It was quite nice not having electricity! We didn’t have a BBQ, so our neighbours would invite us around for a BBQ dinner and some wine, sitting around their camping lantern while their daughter played guitar and sang to our children. The comraderie amongst the neighbours was incredible. We met more people in the neighbourhood than ever before! People pitched in to help cut down the trees in each other’s yards. It really brought our neighbourhood together.

So for that I am thankful… we were safe and sound, the damage was minimal and really, just cosmetic stuff… and I got to meet and really get to know some of our neighbours, which may not have happened if we weren’t brought together by the storm.

Until next time, here’s to your success….
Ann Eldridge

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