Ah, I love you, Thanksgiving! This holiday makes me happy. Before we get into the gimme gimmes and givey giveys of Christmas, we get a chance to just be grateful.
This year, for our focus on gratitude, we had a sticky note wall. Some I printed out said "Count your blessings, name them one by one" from one of our favorite hymns "Count Your Blessings". Then every day, we each took a sticky note and wrote what we were feeling thankful for that day. The wall filled up quick, and some days, it was hard to just pick one thing. Some interesting things that made the list - Jesus (almost everyone put that one or a variation of it), deep fried food, Lagoon, my snuggly bed, shoes, bubbles, sausage & bacon, medicine, air travel, park visits, police men, leaves from trees, toilets, hearts, muscles, old and new friends, Uncle Marko, scrunchies, world history, digestive system, stars, siblings (they each put specific siblings down and we put the kids down), my wife (I made the cut!), Mr. Amazing (Dave), the temple, skate boarding, WSU, extended family, games, pioneers, nose, open spaces, Utah Jazz, cocoons and butterflies, thoughts, Joseph Smith, freedom & liberty, hammers, not having to cook dinner. These and so many more made it to our blessings wall. We are so blessed! "Count your blessings name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done." - Johnson Oatman & Edwin Excell
We are so happy we got to have Thanksgiving with extended family again! We slept over the night before the big turkey day at the Ryerses. We had some cereal for breakfast, watched the Macey's Thanksgiving Day parade, played with Mega Blocks, and then we went over to the Stoddards. We were all there except for Adam and Meghan and kids, of course, but we had good friend Steven Marshall come over. We seriously had the best food ever - from homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce, to a buttered sage turkey that tasted so gourmet, and the gravy that had vegetable stock and the turkey drippings. We always have everyone bring a pie and we did a caramel apple pie. We had great conversations around the table. Every once in a while, we would pass this basket around that had jokes that were holiday appropriate. "What do you call a running turkey?" "Fast food." And "Why did the turkey cross the road?" "He wanted people to think he was a chicken." were a few of our favorites. The kids especially enjoyed the sparkling cider and the girls pretended to have a little too much. ;) We played a little Pie Face game. We went to the park next and walked off some of the turkey dinner. The kids had fun at the ampatheatre, daring each other to do different things, and being silly.
Then we were back to the Ryerses. We made rolls earlier in the day to look like pumpkins. Julie did most of Thanksgiving this year but we helped quite a bit. Poor Grandma Sue was sick and in her bed the whole time. We kept saying she should go in to the doctor's, and Julie took her Sunday and it was pnemonia, which was Dave's suspicion. We got to have Grandma Carol and Grandpa Chuck come, so that was fun! Emma was a baby last time we got to have Thanksgiving with them. We just visited lots, watched some football, and played Pie Face.
The next day, Mom and Emma did some Black Friday shopping with Mayela and Amber. We went out to Station Crossing in Farmington and got some good deals but avoided the super crazy places. We played board games and watched a Christmas movie and ate Crumbl cookies and played and laughed with our families. Then we headed home, grateful, full and happy.
Here are some thoughts I've been thinking of this month:
"Live in thanksgiving daily." -Alma 34: 38.
"It's not happy people who are grateful; it's grateful people who are happy." - Unknown
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