Thanksgiving

So I totally dropped the ball on posting something I was thankful for every day this month.  I really thought I was going to do it, but lets face it, this last week or so has been a little crazy (primary program, teaching preschool, piano recital, extra group lesson, thanksgiving prep etc.) and, although I did think about things I was grateful for, sitting down at the computer and writing them down dropped off the top of my priority list.  There are a few things I really did want to write down however, so here they are:

One of the days I was really really grateful for my hilarious children.  We actually own one baby doll at this house and this baby has actually become quite an integral part in some of the games they play which is fun to see. Lately my boys have started pretending to "nurse" the baby.  They take turns pulling their shirts up and sticking the baby doll to their chests. Well on this particular day last week, they were carrying on an epic battle game complete with nerf guns, war noises, chasing etc.  William was riding on a little scooter toy we have, chasing Isaac around with a gun...all while having the baby doll clutched to his chest "nursing." It was pretty dang funny to watch. 

On another day I was thankful for William's helpfulness.  Lots of times when I talk about "helpful" kids I am being slightly sarcastic, but this particular day I was busy making a bunch of cookies for my piano recital and William stood by me and washed all the dishes as I went, and did a really great job of it!  And he even volunteered to do it.  I was so so so grateful because I probably would have had a completely trashed kitchen to clean at the end of it if he hadn't, and because it was fun to being doing something like that together. 

Another evening Isaac was having a really hard time settling down and going to sleep.  He had taken a pretty long nap that afternoon, so he was awake long after William was asleep and kept coming out of his room over and over again.  Finally I could see that he was just having trouble unwinding so I decided that instead of getting frustrated with him (which I would normally do) I would just sit down with him in the rocking chair and sing to him and try to help him settle down.  We ended up hanging out for quite a while talking about all sorts of things, like the location of Madagascar, and the fact that the girl named Dora who was coming to for Thanksgiving was not actually Dora the Explorer (although he never quite understood that until she got here today and he said "She doesn't look like Dora?!"). We sang songs and snuggled and then after a while I could tell he was getting really sleepy and all of a sudden he said, " I am going to go back to bed now." And he did.  And I was so grateful I had chosen patience instead of frustration.  I hardly ever get moments like that with Isaac so I was glad I had taken advantage of that one.

So...even if I wasn't posting them, I am glad I started doing this month of Thanksgiving thing because I planned on trying to find something specific to that day that I had been thankful for and it really made me focus on what I was doing each day and what I had specifically to be thankful for.  It's easy to come up with the generic things (family, food, shelter, the gospel etc.) and not that being grateful for those things is bad, but I am glad that this gave me a chance to dig a little deeper and notice the little things each day that truly made me happy. 

And now I just want to share a pictures of pies. Pie is my family's big Thanksgiving tradition. We made 15 pies this year (a record I think) plus my grandma brought a pie and a chocolate cake.  So all in all we had one pie/cake per adult who ate dinner at our house.  Um...holy cow.

I wish I had remembered to take pictures of anything else about our Thanksgiving meal this year, but I didn't.  It was delicious though, and fun to have so many people there.  In addition to those of us who live here, we had Tim and Irene, Mary, Grandma Creighton, Tim's friends Jared and Katriell, Irene's brother Micah and his wife Rachel, Irene's coworker Dora, and the Sant family including Chris's brother Brad.  It was really fun to have such a full house, and it made me realize how much I really do have to be thankful for. 

And now I am grateful for Mary, who is about to give me a back massage even though she doesn't know it yet :).