No white Christmas for us today, we had our snow a couple of weeks ago! The recent cold snap was enough to convince us we're probably better off on this side of the country, without having to worry about digging out our driveway each morning.

We had lots of fun opening all the presents I brought home from Australia - lots of CDs, DVDs, books and desk calendars. No wonder my suitcase was heavier on the way back! The big gift this year was a diamond necklace and earrings set from Andy to match my engagement ring - a combined anniversary/Christmas present ... he'll keep .

Off to Steve & Di's place in the afternoon for a late lunch - turkey, ham, roast veg and all the trimmings! Yummo. Great to spend Christmas with friends when family is too far away ... Merry Christmas, everyone!

Today was our first Thanksgiving in the US - Andy had experienced the festivities during a trip last year, but it was all new for me. We volunteered to host a gathering at our place, and had a lot of fun planning the menu - thankfully everyone was quick to offer to bring a plate, so we weren't faced with spending night and day in the kitchen beforehand.

The main attraction on offer was the Turducken - a traditional Thanksgiving turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a chicken ... when one type of bird is just not enough! I'd heard about this last year on a radio 'only in America'-type segment, and thought it was just another internet myth ... uh-uh, they're real! We also discovered they're rather popular up here, after we tried to order one in to our local supermarket and ended up having to ring around the Eastside just to track one down. Note to self - next time, buy the first one you see!!

The preparation went surprisingly well, none of the horror frozen bird stories you hear about here - only one tripped circuit breaker when we were cleaning up (and discovered the vacuum and the turkey roaster didn't like being on the same circuit!). We also had to do a little improvising at the last minute when we realised we were one seat short at the table - Andy counted 'us' as one seat rather than two, so we rustled up an extra setting. Now we know we can fit eleven in the dining room!

Following with tradition, we had waaaay too much of everything -there was a bit of maneuvring required to get all the dishes around to everyone at the table. Everything was fantastic - pumpkin soup, roast veg, ginger green beans, twice-baked sweet potato, turkey and gravy, lots of stuffing, turducken, smoked ham, cranberry sauce, and home-made apple pie for dessert. Yummo!

Good food, good friends and a bottle or three of wine - you can't ask for much more than that. Happy Turkey Day everyone!