2009 Word of the Year: Unfriend

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This weekend I had the pleasure of accompanying my sister in-law to Facebook's Aussie team Christmas party. It was good fun and also good to spend some time around some other Americans. We talked about some of the benefits of living here in Sydney as well as some of the challenges of living abroad. One common complaint is that we hardly ever get phone calls from folks back stateside. It's like pulling teeth to get someone to dial a few extra digits to make a call. Either that or doing the math to figure out the time change tends to short-circuit any ability to think straight with the most common excuse being "I keep thinking I'm going to call and it'll be 3:00 in the morning". My response is of course "Well since you've never ACTUALLY called, then a 3am call would be a big step forward in our relationship".

Thanksgiving in Australia: Building a New Tradition

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This is the 2nd Thanksgiving holiday spent abroad for us since we relocated to Australia. For my money Thanksgiving is the best holiday of the year. It's not about buying presents or a religious holiday but rather it's about spending time with loved ones and giving thanks for the blessings we've received over the last year. Like many Americans I have very fond memories of Thanksgivings past. The challenge now is how do I pass on the traditions of this holiday that I love so much to my kids in this new country where it's not celebrated and and finding collard greens, pigs feet and chitlins (or chitterlings for the unacquainted) is next to impossible?