Happy Thanksgiving, my North American readers. I hope you’re having a wonderful day full of family, friends and good food. I’m eagerly awaiting your updates on Instagram.
Sadly, while Halloween is gaining momentum here in Australia, Thanksgiving hasn’t been as eagerly adopted by the shops here. Which stands to reason, I suppose, given that the historic significance of Thanksgiving is rooted in traditions established by the founding fathers of Canada and the United States, a good century and a few decades before Australia was even colonized. But this hasn’t stopped me including a few Thanksgiving type foods into my diet in honour of the day. There were cranberries by way of Aldi’s latest dark chocolate creation. And there was some roasted pumpkin with last night’s pulled beef / roast (roast is a deceptive term when used in connection with meat cooked in a slow cooker, recipe was only so so, I’m sticking with Lamb Obsession in the future).
Yes. Roasted pumpkin is definitely going to be on the menu for Christmas lunch. It’s going to be quite an eclectic spread given that I’m also planning to serve a lasagna and sausage rolls. I need a unifying dish…. Tiramisu perhaps?
www.blackfriday.com
Interestingly, Black Friday sales seem to be almost as much of a thing here as they are in North America. Almost. This photo is only a preview of the goodies on sale at Sephora USA, many products being released exclusively for the Black Friday sales event. We just get 20% off everything here in Australia (provided it’s in stock). Luckily, everything I needed was available online and things I really shouldn’t be buying were fortunately not available.
Did you pick up a Black Friday bargain?
I’m holding off on a Christmas cookie baking session with Preschooler SSG until I can get my hands on a really good recipe but in the meantime, we have been Christmas crafting. This was the scene on Wednesday night as I struggled to remember how to make the seemingly easy woven paper Christmas tree I saw on my Facebook feed earlier in the day.
I remembered the squaring off
and that cuts needed to be made from a free edge of the triangle but then things got a bit hazy.
Fortunately I had my phone and YouTube handy. I’ve even added the video here for your reference.
Preschooler SSG enthusiastically made his own tree as we followed the tutorial.
And here is one of our first attempts.
I think they would work better with thinner paper and with the strips cut to a thinner width.
We had more luck with the site’s paper snow flake decoration.
Have you (or your preschooler) ever wanted to just tear off every sticky note from its block? Ever then wondered what to do with this notes? Wonder no more because, my friends, you could make a snow flake like this.
It’s just a shame that we don’t have white sticky note blocks in Australia. The closest I had was the standard issue lemon yellow kind
The snow flake is actually made up of 32 sticky notes folded into one of two shapes. The individual pieces are then stuck onto a backing sheet. It’s actually pretty clever and a lot of fun to make. The folding was a bit beyond Preschooler SSG but he enjoyed seeing the snow flake take shape and was able to stick down the shapes. Precision folding is key to getting all the pieces to fit perfectly together. Do as I say and not as I did.
Today is White Ribbon Day which is Australia’s campaign to raise awareness of and put an end to domestic violence in our country. It made me proud to see everyone at work united in wearing the ribbons and talking about what they mean.
I’d like to end today’s post with Emma Husar’s emotional and haunting speech in Parliament earlier this week in which she shared her own experiences and that of her mother’s at the hands of her violent father.
The more we talk about it, the less of it we will look away from. The more aware we are, the more chance we have of reaching out to help someone we know take that first step to safety. Because domestic violence is a problem for all of us to face, solve and change together.
