Is there anything that I'm not thankful for?

Abstract:
Today was awesome; biscuit adventures; delay of turkey; too many quotes to remember; so much for which to be thankful!

Where to begin? This was quite possibly the best Thanksgiving ever! This morning was pretty relaxed. Janice stopped by to get the glue sticks that she left here after making my fascinator. Nothing much else happened until Bec came over at 2 so that we could make the buttermilk biscuits. She didn't actually make anything herself, she bought pre-made pies, so she wanted to help me.

The first batch was "interesting." They didn't taste horrible, but they were way too floury. We weren't sure what happened, but we think that we added extra flour somehow. Still not sure how we managed to do that. Also, we had to make the cake flour out of cornflour and regular flour, but we made it separately and then measured from that, so it shouldn't have been the problem. We could tell that something was wrong when we added the buttermilk and it was still really dry. Oh well.

On another adventure related note, I couldn't find a pastry blender at the store, so we just used two knives to work in the butter, like the recipe said that we could do. That was quite the adventure. We felt really silly, but it was fun.

We tried to make them again, and the second batch was MUCH better. When we added the buttermilk, it wasn't all dry and floury and it actually felt like dough should feel! So we cooked those and when they cooled, they were much better. Then we made a double batch.

Then Bec went back to Toad to pack. I started making a list of the things I'm thankful for, watched some 7th Heaven and took a nap. Then at 6:30, I went to Toad to meet up with Bec, Ko, and Boon to walk over to Burgmann. It's such a long walk over there! Hui Ling, Karemah, and Bec's sister, Sarah, also came a little bit later.

When we got to Burgmann, the turkey still wasn't done. We brought everything into the common room thingy and set up while Janice, Iris, and Heesook worked on the turkey and some other stuff. Once we set up the table, we pretty much just sat and talked while we waited for Janice et al. to be done cooking. And once they got there, we realised that we forgot to put down the tablecloth, so we had to reset the table. *facepalm*

Then we ate. Lots of good conversations happened, but I'm sure that I'll forget some of them and they aren't in order. Hopefully they'll still make sense.

• When we were getting the stuff from Janice's flat, "Call Me Maybe" was playing...
• I dressed as a Native American. Well, I made a headdress out of construction paper and I wore my hair in two braids. I also wore my American flag earrings that I bought for World Youth Day back in 2008. In way, I am a native American, just not in the sense of the ethnic group of the first people in the Americas. My native land is America, though!
• Janice and I were wearing the exact same colour shirt and Hui Ling's was pretty close. I swear we didn't plan it!
• We think Janice had a secret plan to make sure that the turkey was done after it was supposed to be so that we would be waiting for her and she could be the star of the show.
• Karemah and I both went to grab our cameras at the same time and then we took a picture before standing up to take a picture at the same time again. She told me to get out of her head.
• Janice and Hui Ling murdered the turkey. Well, not really since it was already dead and cooked. (Which they also talked about as we were getting our food, much to the dismay of Bec, Sarah, and me) But what I meant was that they destroyed that bird. Most people pick at it, but keep the bird mainly intact. Not those two. I can't remember who said it, but someone said that we just made this an Asian Thanksgiving. Then I interjected with, "I think we just changed hemispheres to Asia." (From America/the Western Hemisphere, since Thanksgiving is American, of course!)
• We decided that we NEED to make a parody video of the Thong Song but with the Aussie meaning of the word, aka flip flops. I think that we got on that topic because we were talking about tongs and that became thongs. We all agreed that thongs refers to the underwear. Crazy Aussies!
• When Janice was done massacring the turkey carcass, she gave me a big section of it. I'm not really sure why, but she told me to "embrace it." She's weird. I started eating the turkey remnants off of it while singing the Thong Song. It cracked Karemah up!
• We took a bunch of group pictures with Janice's camera since she had a tripod. I'll steal them and link to them when she uploads them. We took a picture where we held up our placemats (the ones that I made with my hand turkey, the person's name, and "Thanksgiving 2012") like we were getting mugshots. We're so silly!
• "All I have for breakfast is a can of baked beans." Bec is leaving for her parents' house tomorrow morning, so all she had left was a can of baked beans. She took home some fruit, so she can have that for brekkie, though.
• Karemah said that if she told us her secret ingredient for her mashed potatoes then she would have to kill us. Hui Ling didn't understand the joke and the expression on her face was priceless. With all seriousness, she asked Karemah why she had that condition.
• Every time  the rest of the people would talk in Chinese, Karemah and I would try to start a conversation between us about something American-ish. At a few points, we were talking about moonshiners.
• I made sure that Janice was not sitting next to me because I'm still offended that she didn't ask me to make her enchiladas when she got the craving for them.
• Janice brought up that she didn't remember when I chased her with a banana, the incident that I was trying to convince her of a few weeks ago. I let Karemah and Bec in on the secret, so they were pretending like it actually happened too. I wrote in my blog, which she apparently reads everyday, before that I was just trying to trick her, but apparently she either forgot or she didn't actually read it. Too funny, Janice!
• Explaining "sniiiiffff" to Sarah
• That I can't get all the way through this post to edit without thinking up more stuff to write. So many good quotes and things to remember!

I'm sure that there were more funny things, but I can't remember them all. So much happened today. I love spending time with my friends outside of class! 

Here's a link to pictures. I'll steal Janice's when she uploads them and I'll post a link or something. http://www.flickr.com/photos/9602956@N05/sets/72157632052974959/

I've also compiled a list of a bunch of other stuff for which I'm thankful. I have a lot of reasons to be thankful, and I'm sure that I've forgotten some things! 

In no particular order:

• 
  
  ·         Living in Australia and the beautiful weather (and lack of snow!)
  ·         My family; all of them! (including extended, which means A LOT of people!)
  ·         Rohan, without whom I don't know where I would be, both literally and figuratively
  ·         My friends, all over the world!
  ·         Having food, a place to live, clothes, and all of the basic necessities
  ·         Being able to celebrate Thanksgiving in Australia and with my friends
  ·         My successful brain surgery that has allowed me not only to live, but to thrive
  ·         Realising my mortality from the surgery that caused me to value every day more.
  ·         Every experience and person that I’ve met that have shaped who I am today. Yes, I suppose that includes Graham…
  ·         Being done with Graham’s classes
  ·         Sense of maturity and independence that I have gained while living far from family
  ·         Realising my calling in life, even if it was after accumulating much debt and stress from previous studies. I don't think that I would have realised it with them. I'm pretty stubborn that way, which I know isn't a good think. Also, I’m still not saying what my future goal is yet.
  ·         CIF/Crossroads and Bible study with Rohan to help me grow in my faith
  ·         My time at Upward Bound and the experiences that tutoring has given me to experience the joy in helping others; hopefully I'll get the job at Big Improvements and get to help more kids.
  ·         Hope College, not just for my experiences there, but because it led me to study abroad and therefore meet Rohan and move to Australia
  ·         Intelligence that has allowed me to strive to achieve my goals
  ·         My struggles with depression and anxiety that caused me to value good days
  ·         The possible opportunity to volunteer for the Brain Tumour Alliance Australia
  ·         Learning to cook real food, instead of just eating instant ramen and plain chicken
  ·         Being able to write my memoir (I probably have a combined 15-16 pages single space already!)
  ·         Being able to celebrate Christmas with Rohan’s family this year