Thanksgiving, Fort Worth and Cleaning

Although we shared our Thanksgiving meal with Jill and Rich early on the Sunday, the real celebration of Thanksgiving Day was 22 November.  I believe that this day is traditionally a day of thanks to God for preserving the first Christian colonists who came to America and survived that first winter.  It is usually a meal from foods native to the New World,  they may have shared this meal with the local Indians who had helped them through the winter.

Jill and Daena cooked an 11 lb turkey stuffed with lemons, celery and onion in a turkey bag.  Then they made some stove top stuffing and mashed potato.  They also cooked mashed yam (a kind of sweet potato) and baked this with white marshmallows on top. Whole corn was a separate dish.  There was gravy too.  Rich carved the turkey as he has done every year; he learnt this special method from his dad.  He separated out the white from the red meat.  We sat down for the meal at 7pm with two bottles of wine.  

It was great meeting up with Daena's parents again; we'd met them in early 2011 when Jill had been one of the Pro-life speakers that Andrew had brought out to New Zealand.  Now we met them as family and shared Andrew, Daena and Levi.  We are learning about their way of life and language.  The differences may be minor but they certainly can cause some confusion.  Sometimes Jill calls for an interpreter so she can follow the conversation.  We have the benefit of watching and listening to years of US TV programming.

The following week was Andrew's birthday and Daena was keen to take Andrew on a tour of a boutique brewery in Fort Worth.  This they did after driving for miles - as they do in the US - to check out a vehicle that we were looking at purchasing.  We got horribly lost and only just made it to the brewery in time for the tour.  The multiple tastings were 10 oz each, so the family decided to cut their tour short; one was plenty!  



Our next port of call was at the Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth.  These deep architectural concrete pools and fountains surrounded by large trees are designed to provide a variety of cool experiences for the overheated citizens when the temperatures reach the 40s in the summer.  In an older part of Fort Worth we visited the Stockyards, where most people were wearing Western outfits, Cowboy boots and Stetsons.  The state of Texas has a lone star symbol and it is on display everywhere; even carved multiple times into the freeway girders.

Daena had heard of a popular Mexican restaurant so we had a very scrumptious meal there including soft, fresh, corn tortillas and Margaritas.  The folks at the neighbouring table were so fascinated that we were from New Zealand that they insisted on ordering us another round of drinks.

Andrew is friendly with the Christian landlord of the next-door flats and made an arrangement with him for Peter and I to help Steve clean and do some maintenance on it in return for staying there until he can rent it out.  So though we are living here rather sparsely, we have our own little/not so little, space here for the time being.  I put a few dollar shop Christmas decorations up and today we had an early visit from Santa in the way of Mr Cardinal bird who landed just behind the chimney! (Photo not the best or reddest).

After much fuss with money transfer and insurance issues and registration arrangements we finally got our vehicle on the road.  It's a grey seven seater Toyota Sienna 2004, for those who like to know those details.  So at last we can get around without inconveniencing Andrew, who has been most gracious and has taken us all over the place.  The roads may be wide but there are three lanes each way and each lane is narrow.  So many of the vehicles are wide, SUVs and large ute-trucks not to mention trucks. We, therefore feel quite vulnerable and the allowable road speeds are rather frightening too and much faster than at home.  Before we got the car we did a lot of walking and had to really watch it when trying to cross any roads - for a start we kept looking left when we needed to be looking right!

Levi helping change the wheel nut on the Sienna

It's amazing for us to have Andrew driving us so competently in and around this huge metropolis; in and out of the spagetti junctions, on and off freeways and all at such speed in busy traffic.  Great though to see all the different sights and all the drive-ins; even drive-in banks.

As for the weather there has been an unusual Indian summer here with hot days in the 70Fs, that's over 20C.  Interestingly Alex tells me that they, in Perth, are experiencing an unusually cool spring.  So all this is for the better for all of us and we are enjoying the warmth while we are about to miss the New Zealand summer.  So I have been able to go out during the day with no cardigan.   Also we have had no rain and we have been here nearly 4 weeks.

Surprisingly huge flocks of large black birds emerge in the early evenings, these may be Great-tailed Grackles; they fill the sky and then descend into one or two trees.

There is so much that is new and interesting and we are enjoying the challenges of it all every day.

With Moore Family in Dallas

With Family in Dallas  

Having finally arrived here in Dallas Texas we now have met our daughter-in-law, Daena, and their dear little 7 month old son, Levi.

He's a dear wee boy with a very ready smile.  I had been concerned that it might have taken a while for him to like us but having been on facebook for over a year this was no trouble for him.  He is roly-poly and enjoys playing by himself on his play mat when all the grown-ups will give him the space.

His other grandparents, Rich and Jill Stanek, Grandma and Grandpa, were down from Chicago for 4 days to celebrate Thanksgiving here since Jill had to tape a TV show in Denton, a town nearby.  So Levi was totally swamped with attention and loved it all.  

Andrew and Daena's home is a well appointed two bedroom brick house that is part of a duplex.  They live in a leafy and pleasant neighbourhood surrounded mainly by lots of condominium complexes.  Their street is near a main road, 40 minutes from the airport and about15-30 minutes from down town Dallas.  Their lounge/living room is larger than ours and both bedrooms are what we would call large doubles.  It has a bathroom and an ensuite as well as a small internal room for a laundry.  The kitchen is well designed and is a little bigger than ours.  Andrew's desk is usually in the bay window facing the street with a great outlook.  There is a large fireplace with  a strong mantlepiece above it.  They keep the house at 22 degrees so it is T-shirt territory even in late fall.

Church on Sunday morning was quite an experience.  The almost new building was a complex much larger than the Christchurch Town Hall!  It is built in Wood and stone and to a high standard.

Seven thousand people attend there in a series of services throughout the day.  They have various out-reach programmes and seem very committed to their community.  The teaching was presented in a modern way by the youth pastor using concrete blocks to build a cross on stage to act as a teaching tool.  The singing was louder than I could have wished for but all in all it was  fine.  After the service we had our family pictures taken.

During their stay Jill and Daena made the Thanksgiving dinner that we enjoyed early, on Sunday evening.  It was delicious, all set out on the big table (actually Andrew's desk), and nicely finished with Pumpkin Pie and whipped cream and our own inimitable Hot Apple Punch.

I have contacted a Dickens group which is also in nearby Denton and we may be able to go up there for their December meeting.  We are looking at other possibilities for side trips while we are here so if anyone has suggestions that would be great.  At present all we have booked is Christmas in Chicago. 

We have a house-sit just now and although we are back and forth it does give the family some space.  

So as you can see we are really having a great time and are most thankful.