Happy Thanksgiving!
The Snook and I celebrated last night with Amy and Rob at a special dinner hosted by the Democrats Abroad. As you might imagine, the group had a lot to be thankful for! There were some very hearty toasts and cheers happening. We talked about exactly the type of things you’d expect: why Australians who romanticized snow were CRAZY, how stupid the American healthcare system is, what was wrong with Sydney’s public transport, how we all wanted to marry gays and give tax money to druggies. You know, that type of thing. I have to say I was a little surprised at the demographics. The only DA event I’d attended before was the primary, and I remember noticing that everyone there was… older. Well, they were pretty much all older last night too. I’d guess that the average age was probably 50+. Snookums guessed that the younger expats just might not be as politically active. Another random observation: I saw more black people (as in, people of African heritage) last night than I have in the previous eight years of living here, I think. Anyhoo, we had a great time and got to meet some cool people, and none of us had to cook a turkey. WIN!

I did, however, bake on Wednesday night. I made Martha Stewart’s Sweet Potato Pie with Pecan Topping for us, and a traditional pumpkin pie to take in to the office. The pumpkin pie was more difficult, mostly because my usual source for Libby’s canned pumpkin had sold out! So I had to make this from scratch. (Yes, you can totally make pumpkin pie from scratch. Just cut up pumpkin – I used Kent – boil or nuke til it’s soft, then run it through the food processor. Substitute for the canned stuff in the recipe.) They were both a big hit!