Australia Day in the USA

in Weekend Experiences3 months ago

Australia Day (January 26th) is an Australian national holiday which commemorates the 1788 arrival of the First Fleet from Britain to what would later be named Sydney Harbour.

Much like US Independence Day, Australia Day is celebrated with fireworks, sporting events, citizenship swearing in ceremonies, barbecues and general summertime shenanigans.


This morning I stumbled upon a Hive post by @galenkp from his “Weekend Experiences” community. In the post he asks:

If you were pretending to be an Australian for a day and celebrating Australia Day in your own country how would you do it and who would you invite and why?

Well… I am sort of Australian. I’m legally a permanent resident through marriage, though I haven’t lived there since late 2006. My husband (Aussie born and bred) was seeming particularly homesick this Australia Day. So I decided to surprise him with a little Aussie celebration here in the USA.

I had Friday off of work, so set about Australia-fying the house!

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I love a holiday tablescape! Any holiday.

First, I did a little Australian set up in our dining room - Blue tablecloth, eucalyptus runner, placements with native Australian birds (kookaburras and galahs). The “centerpiece” consisted of a ceramic koala and cockatoo with a green and gold flower arrangement (the official colors of Australia).

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Aussie flag, koala cookie jar, ceramic cockatoo and “Aussie gold” flowers.

Next it was time to think about food. There are three or four spots in the greater Seattle area to buy Aussie style meat pies and sausage rolls. Sadly, none of them are near our house. However, I was feeling ambitious (and desperate) so decided to make my own from scratch.

I have never made either a meat pie or a sausage roll before, but I found two promising recipes online.

  1. Meat Pie Recipe
  2. Sausage Roll Recipe

After setting up the table, I popped out to the store to buy ingredients. I also hoped to find some Tim Tams, “Australia’s favorite biscuit” (cookie) to have for dessert. The store did not have Tim Tams, but I did get all of my pie and sausage ingredients.

I didn’t take any photos of the process, but here are snaps of the finished meal!

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We had salad, potato wedges, a meat pie and sausage roll each for the main course. The pie needed to be saucier, but it tasted OK. The sausage roll flavor was great. Dessert was just my last desperate effort to have something Australian. It’s called fairy bread. Fairy bread is a staple at kid parties and is just buttered bread with sprinkles. Not very tasty, but without Tim Tams I just wanted a little something extra to round out the meal.

I topped off the Aussie vibes by pumping my Australia Spotify playlist. A little Men at Work, some Powder Finger, Hunters and Collectors. I timed things so Waltzing Matilda was playing as my husband came through the door after work. He seemed surprised and pleased. So much so he shared it on the gram!

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Photo credit Mr @dfinney. 😄

Being 8000 miles and a hemisphere away from Australia, I was happy to bring some Aussie summer celebration to our wintry American life. Hoping we can get down under again soon.

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Photos from my last time in Australia.

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And here I had no idea in was a holiday! I missed out of some good looking food there!
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Ha ha, well you can’t be faulted for not knowing the holidays in some faraway country. The food is tasty!

awhhh! That's so sweet of you, no wonder Mr Difinney is over the moon. I hope he shed a few happy tears over your effort!

Tin Tams is yummy, we used to get them every time we travelled to Sydney.

Hubs seemed pretty pleased, so that is a win for sure.

It was your post about your Australian work mates that led me to find the week’s Australia Day related engagement post. So thank you to you!

Happy Australia day! I haven't had TimTams for ages. They used to be my favorite.

You used to not be able to get them here. Then for ages they were in the regular grocery store. Now they have disappeared again and can only e found at this special imported food place. It’s a bummer.

Happy Australia Day!

That was super sweet of you! The food looks delicious! 😁

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Thank you, thank you and thank you! 😄

No problem! 😁

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You are just such a wonderful person sis 🥰 making this surprise for your man knowing he was homesick.
I never been to Australia but it is on my wish list 😉
You made beautiful decorations and I just melt whenever I see a 🐨 they looks so cuddly and cute.

And that food looks soo delicious and you know that Meat pie just makes me drool 😋🤤 have to try that out. Lovely pictures and beautiful gesture. Cool they had a holiday.

Even if I never been there I kind of experienced a Aussie party.
We used to have party with friends each year and with different countries as theme.
And one was Australia day so all music, food, decorations were all about Australia 😁 lol

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But your Aussie day is much cooler and I wish I was a boobiefly 🦋 on the Wall Witness it all... Lol

Thank you for sharing and much love and Hugs to you 🤗❤️💋😍🥰😘🤗

Ahh, you are too nice. Koalas are super cuddly and cute. I got to hold one once, and it peed on me! 😂🤣

Your Australian themed part looks great! How fun to have a party with a different country theme each time!

What would I need for a Sweden party?

What no shrimp on the Barbie????? 🤣🤣🤣 Nice job Dfinn, you did a great job.👍

🍤

I haven’t ever seen any of my Australian peeps throw a shrimp on the barbie. 😄

Happy happy Australia day to you and the hubby!🤗
Sounds like you had a wonderful day !😊 8000 miles is a long way away from home, hope you two get a chance to travel back to Australia soon, and take lots of pictures!😊

I hope we can go back soon too. This is the longest I have been away. Phil went back early 2023 I think. Hoping he can sneak home sometime this year too.

That would be so very nice, I’m sure his family would be glad to see both of you!🥰

Happy Aussie day! 🇦🇺

Thank you! 🐨

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That is very cool and I am sure your hubby appreciated all of your efforts. The dinner looks tasty! Thank you for sharing and have a lovely week ahead!🤗💜

I think he did. 🙂 Otherwise I’d have to kick him to the curb! 🤪🤣😂

Lol! 🤣🤣🤣 !LOLZ

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Great work @dfinney you did awesome! Hope you are able to return to Australia soon.

Thanks @coinjoe. Nice to see you back around the place. 🙂

Nice to be back around :-)

That's awesome, nice looking pies too. What a fun thing to do.
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This is the first time I had ever puff pastry’d. Now I want to wrap everything in puff pastry! 🤪😂

Oh hell yeah puff pastry is the bomb.com

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