There's nothing better than being together with your family for Thanksgiving...and this year, we were all together.
It was such a perfect day, and it started out exactly right; cool and cloudy with light showers. Turkey football players all over the valley (especially missionaries) had so much fun playing in the mud. For us, it felt like a taste of home-true fall weather. We were favored with bursts of sunshine and warmth between that wonderful rain through the rest of the day. Taylor got up really early to exercise with the missionaries (they've been doing that around 5:00), but afterwords felt too sick to go play football. He stayed sick the rest of the day and was our only Thanksgiving
causality. I think there's a picture of him laying on the couch in a blanket watching all of us eat and play games. He didn't feel well enough to participate, but he didn't want to stay in his room and miss out on the fun.
We had Elder
Marquardt and Elder
Endemano join us for Thanksgiving dinner at 1:00 (Have to leave plenty of time in the day for left overs!). It was our first Thanksgiving without any extended family, and the first Thanksgiving dinner we made completely by ourselves. (In 19 years, our first! Can you believe that? It helped us realize how truly blessed we are to have always been surrounded with family and loved ones.) Despite our small crowd (9), we pulled out all the stops and making all our traditional family favorites; dressing (not stuffing), sweet potatoes, stuffed mushrooms, true southern greens, rolls (Amanda is getting to be a pro), and then we tried a few twists with the turkey and mashed potatoes. I made the turkey in the pressure cooker (90 minutes, and it was great-even the white meat was tender and juicy) and garlic mashed potatoes. The gravy was great-but the potatoes were so good on their own, I hardly touched it. We made all kinds of pies and cakes, and then bought some others just for good measure. We had so much food! After we ate, we'd hardly made a dent in anything. (The elders were pretty happy about that...they're our kind of people. They love left overs.)
We took some time the rest of the day to relax with the family. It was so different than last year with all the kids visiting in California, we really appreciated having everyone home. We had such a great time, it made up for missing our friends and
family all over the country. Elder
Marquardt introduced us a new card game called Cowboys and Indians. Of course we played
Nertz and spoons...and a few others, but we also had fun with some groups games we haven't played in a long time. We played the brown paper bag game and found out just how flexible Elder
Marquardt is (go yoga!), and...so that we have a gospel principle involved, we saw the opposition in all things in his companion-Elder
Endemano. Ha!
Unfortunately, Elder
Endemano wasn't the only
person straining to reach their face to their toes without falling down flat (Ouch-it hurt). Jessica and Elder
Marquardt ended up with a draw-both able to pick up the bag even when it had been whittled down to a wisp of paper. We also intrigued the kids with body mechanic phenomenons and had some strength contests. It was a lot of fun.
After the elders left (and came back for left overs and left again), we ended the evening with a
twilight bike ride. The sky darkened, the moon was hidden, but the sky remained rain free-perfect for us to appreciate the first taste of Christmas lights around the neighborhood. (Thanks dad, for getting our lights up!)
It really was a perfect day: being with the people we love most and enjoying it, talking together about our blessings and why we are grateful, and in all this understanding and
acknowledge God's hand in our lives for which we are forever grateful.
"Now my Brethren, we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in, yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." Alma 36:27
And leftovers...that's half the fun of Thanksgiving!
The elders stopped by for a quick visit before their nightly planning sessions, so we emptied the refrigerator and let them fill up one last time.
We had a great week-end celebrating her birthday. The Brasher Grandparents came into town. We still have to get some pictures from Grandma's camera...but here are a few that we do have. Not yet pictured was our Saturday trip to BJ's for pizzookies, being welcomed and spoiled at church on Sunday, and all the attempts at birthday spankings. OK, she managed to duck the gun on the spankings-don't ask me how.
Jeff gave her his special treasure box, and put some candy corns in it. It was a very sweet moment. Later he decided they should share the treasure box and he would keep it until she needed it. And then... much later I think the candy corns some how ended up eaten. Somehow.
Yes, there's a candle in her rootbeer float. She opted for no cake this year (bless her heart!), so we put the candle in the float. One problem, as we started to pour in the rootbeer, the candle started to teeter. We had to sing "Happy Birthday" a little quicker than usually so she could blow out the candle before it toppled over. I don't even know if she had time for a wish.
And to finish the evening..some friendly...not too competitive games including chess, scrabble, & nertz (pictured below). Happy Birthday Amanda!
...right in our own backyard. (At least, the kids did-mark and I had to be up too early to get ready for meetings. No sleeping on rock floors for us, darn.) I was surprised by how excited they were. They had so much fun. They helped Mark set up the tent, gathered all their supplies, scoured the backyard for kindling and fire starting supplies then had a campfire; everything they needed right there at their fingertips. The flashlights and stories were going all night long. I think they'd set up permanent bedrooms out there if we let them...and since they were so diligent about cleaning everything up in the morning, I'm sure it will happen again, soon.
