Give Thanks

Featured Image by: Rose Osborne

“I will give thanks to You, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonderful deeds.” ~ Psalm 9:1

I know I’m a bit late on this post relative to Thanksgiving Day, but I say we can give thanks every day, and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to share my gratitude on a number of blessings I am thankful from this past year!

BUT, before we get to that, I thought it’d be fun to share the fact that, no, Australia does NOT celebrate Thanksgiving – as some may think (or, if you’re like me, just never actually had the realization). However, from our first experience of Thanksgiving in Australia, they definitely seem to love the concept (minus the pumpkin pie – Australians tend to be very grossed out by the idea of pumpkin pie!)

As sad as I was when all anyone was talking about after Halloween was Christmas (Like, hold up! Thanksgiving comes before Christmas, people!), and I knew I wouldn’t be around my family in the U.S., I was very excited at the idea of bringing Thanksgiving to Australia – specifically our basketball family. (The other bright side of this situation is that there was no one telling me I couldn’t play Christmas music until after Thanksgiving! Well, besides David that is. Ha!)

For our first Thanksgiving outside of America, we hosted a Thanksgiving Potluck. One of my favorite parts about the whole thing was how many of our Australian friends embraced making American Thanksgiving food for the first time, and seemed to really enjoy it. I must say, it was a beautiful feast between the Southern Tigers men’s and women’s team AND the many families where everyone pitched in – for some, even multiple dishes!

We had two delicious turkeys (one with a fun rendition of stuffing that was made in muffin tins to create individual stuffing servings!), mashed potatoes, gravy, potato bake, corn, brussel sprouts, mac n’ cheese galore, and even a big ‘ol dish of chili. For dessert? Two sweet potato pies, one pumpkin pie, one apple pie, brownies (topped with little American flags designed by one of the kids – SO cute!), cupcakes, cheesecake, and, of course, a pavlova (I mean, you just can’t not have a pavlova at a gathering in Australia!)

It was a lot of people, so, no, we didn’t go around having everyone say what they were thankful for, but I couldn’t help but think, as we were surrounded by all our amazing friends that day, just how incredibly blessed David and I are!

We have been with the Southern Tigers of the South Australia Premiere League since October (I’ll save that story for another time) and we moved into our new rental home on November 15. We had this Thanksgiving Potluck Dinner on the 23^rd – just 8 days after moving in! This might sound impossible, but the reason it was possible was because of the amazing community within the Southern Tigers Basketball Association; donation after donation came through the very week we moved in, including the big outside Aussie table (which I have said from the beginning would be a dream to have if we had our own house!). We were simply overwhelmed by how many people were willing to donate, help out, deliver, and even do all the searching on Gumtree (Australia’s version of Craig’s List) for furniture we were in need of (and want of!).

It wasn’t in America and it wasn’t on the last Thursday of November, and it certainly wasn’t cold outside, but it was a day filled with, surrounded by, and celebrating good food and great friends – definitely a Thanksgiving to remember!

It turned out being a real bonus for me when my team had a dinner after practice the following week on the actual day of Thanksgiving, and decided to go around saying what we were most thankful for, one by one – a memory I will very much cherish for life.

I truly believe God puts us in each other’s lives for a reason… don’t forget to pause, have a look around, and give thanks! 🙂

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Cheers,

Joyful Jot