Happy Thanksgiving!

Today we celebrated our third Thanksgiving! It is one of our favourite holidays as there are no obligations to decorate the house, wear special clothes or buy gifts. Basically you just need to eat and be thankful. Tonight we were invited next door for a turkey dinner with Margaret & Daryl and their friends Chris & MaryBeth. Chris brought along his excellent home-brewed wheat beer and Daryl roasted an awesome juicy turkey on the bbq. We finished the meal with a traditional pumpkin pie and a not so traditional packet of tim tams. The kids all played really well together, however at one stage 2 of them were found naked in Ava's bedroom playing dress ups! We watched a bit of the American football and then came home to watch the Charlie Brown Thanskgiving special.

Sugar Plum Fairy

On Sunday we headed downtown with Alexis and Lilia to Thalian Hall to see a performance of The Nutcracker. It was Lucy's first big outing to a theatre/cinema/live performance and she was excited (ie standing in her bed at nap time shouting that she wanted to go to the ballet NOW!) Dressed in a pretty pink butterfly dress and matching buttergfly shoes, she was a little overwhelmed by the crowd of people and was curious that the lights were switched off during the performance. She was extremely well behaved during the first half and sat very still. However the second half she was less co-operative and needed to go to the bathroom half way through! She lasted until 5 minutes before the end of the show which worked out perfectly as we could get away before the crowd. So my purple sugar plum got to see the sugar plum fairy and she thought it was magical!

Product of the week - Olde time candy

Our source for this candy is Cracker Barrel. They have a store attached to the restuarant that sells all sorts of strange and interesting things, mostly around holiday themes. But they also sell a lot of candy that used to be sold everywhere but has gone out of style. We tried these coconut style candies and whilst good where not great enough to make us want to purchase them again.

Andrew's Pizza Wilmington opens

Andrew's Pizza Wilmington opened on Saturday 22nd November 2008. And we even have the matching t-shirts to prove it!

The bricks in the dome were still pretty wet from construction so most of the heat from the fire was used to dry out the bricks rather than to heat them for cooking. Also it was about 2 degrees celsius outside and given that there is no insulation around the oven, it didn't get very hot inside. And the wood was wet.

All that sounds pretty bad but we were still able to turn out a couple of okay pizzas. First course was a pesto pizza (with home grown basil!), second was a more traditional pizza with cheese, ham, tomatoes and corn and lastly we had a dessert pizza, half with nutella and banana and half with peaches and honey. The main issue with the pizza was that the base was soft and not always cooked (a sign the oven wasn't hot enough) Andrew was happy with his secret dough receipe but there are still some cooking techniques to be perfected.

Also we have to get some tools as I am not allowing my springform cake tins to be used anymore nor is it wise to be using a spade as a pizza peel. We also have to get a supply of firewood as the couple of bags from HT we grabbed were mouldy.

There's still a lot of construction to be done but at last we have reached an exciting milestone!

Death

Yesterday I went to a funeral.

When we moved to the US we were looking forward to getting involved in a community and attending events. One of our goals is to be invited to a Southern wedding (we're still waiting on this and there are hopes for one next year) but I hadn't really thought about funerals.

Last week my friend A's 19 year old son was killed. He was robbed for his paycheck and cell phone. His body was found at one of the elementary schools which was subsequently closed for the day. A's two younger children attend that school.

An African-American funeral is an experience! The funeral was held in Burgaw (my first visit there) and it was the first time in my life I have been conscious of having white skin.

We spent 2 and half hours in the church (this is before the cemetery and the wake) praying, singing, listening and clapping. There were hundreds and hundreds of people. 60 teenagers answered an altar call.

And at the end we all filed past the open casket, one by one, a sombering reminder of our own mortality and a reminder of our need to get right with God.

Fresh spots

A lot of restaurants along Market Street in Wilmington have billboard signs with changing messages. Outside Whitey's this week it says "Fresh spots". Fresh spots to sit? Fresh spots to eat? Freshly painted areas to eat in?

What are spots?

It seems that spots are fish! And they are prevalent along the coast here. Bon appetit!

Product of the week - Reese's cookies

Ahhh another product of the week, another Reese's product! Since we moved to the US Andrew has hardly eaten peanut butter cups. Which is surprising given that he was willing to pay $2.50 for 2 in Australia. In any case I made him try these Reese's cookies just for that you readers.

The reaction: a good chocolate biscuit but with little peanut flavour - the chocolate overpowers to such a degree it is difficult to tell its a Reese's product.