Thanksgiving 2020

Thanksgiving was simply perfect this year. We had initially planned on camping on the coast Thanksgiving weekend. Because of that, we decided to have our Thanksgiving dinner on Tuesday, because, why not? So I woke up Tuesday morning, I streamed my specially curated autumn playlist and set the table for our dinner:

Then I got to work in the kitchen. Slowly, kids joined me and soon the kitchen was bustling with busy hands preparing a delicious meal. 

I never enlisted the help from my kids before, but quickly I realized this was a new tradition. I prepped myself the night before, recognizing if I included the kids, it would be a very different level of productivity and damage control, meaning I'd have to let go a little bit and be flexible. What I did not anticipate was how much fun we would have, and how much we would laugh together. Every dish we made, a child was involved in the preparation. This changed my entire outlook on the day, and I found what I used to enjoy as my "me-time" in the kitchen was easily surpassed by the value of the "us-time."

William and Matthew helped make the pumpkin cheesecake, the sweet potato casserole, and helped with the mashed potatoes.

Cate made the apple pie and the dinner rolls.

Johnny made the Jello, helped prep the turkey, make the green bean casserole, peel the mashed potatoes and make the stuffing.

We played Thanksgiving Bingo, Don't Eat Pete the Turkey, and watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving for the 20th time.

We we finally sat down to eat together, there was such a beautiful feeling in the house. My heart swelled with gratitude for the season of life I am in. We went around the table and shared what we were grateful for. I think something I love in particular about my growing family is the laughter. The kids are all developing such unique senses of humor, and it isn't uncommon for us all to crack up around the table.

Here is our gratitude board this year, some of the writing by Johnny is hard to see, but him and Cate got really into this year!

Right as we were taking out the turkey, we realized we needed to make a trip to Rexburg for John's charity. This shifted our plans significantly. As soon as dinner was through and we had our "Thanksgiving Moment." It as a mad rush as we excitedly prepped for our trip. Cate was on kitchen duty, Johnny helped me gather all the Thanksgiving decor so we could pack it up. I'm sure William and Matthew were being helpful somewhere, haha. John was prepping other things for the trip. Long story short, we cleaned up Thanksgiving, packed up fall, loaded a car for our trip, and decorated the house for Christmas in one swift night. John, who was our main driver the next day, went to bed early, as did Matthew. The kids were excited to get their Christmas teddy bears out of storage, and were quite invested in turning our home into a mini North Pole. We were mighty proud of ourselves. We finished at midnight and Cate, Johnny, William and I finally brought out the pies. We sat around the table complimenting each other on our baking skills. Then I read a few lingering Thanksgiving books to the kids as they literally fell asleep. It was a magical day. I am so grateful we were able to have this little celebration as a family before we took off to be with friends and family. I will cherish it always.

We started at the Hellmann's house, where we celebrated Thanksgiving. We also watched "The Forgotten Carols" (A tradition from John's family.) We also made nativities for families who lost their homes in the Almeda fire. 

Next, we swung by John's parents' house. This is always a pleasure.

Everyone opened their Christmas presents.

We stopped by and saw Brit and Adam (and Shay, Kevin, and Spencer) for a bit. John took Adam's bike for a spin.

We stayed the night at my mom's house. I love her home at any holiday, there are so many details and when I walk in, it feels like being embraced by everything I cherish in my memories growing up.

We played some Christmas games.

We headed back home early the next day. It was a great drive and we worked hard to make a dent in our finish-the-Book-of-Mormon-by-the-end-of-the-year-goal. It was so nice to come home to CHRISTMAS. We wasted no time and Tuesday morning found us opening advent calendars, reading Christmas books, making candy cane hot cocoa, and playing Christmas music.

And this was a random picture William drew of me making cookies for William and Luke.

Thanksgiving

Posted from Instagram:
Grateful. For all of it.
Today we went four wheeling in Tillamook and I snuck off into a little grove of trees. The further into the forest I walked, the heavier the silence blanketed my heart. Soon it was just me, my thoughts, and beautiful Oregon. In that moment I saw everything as it really was, and I was overcome with gratitude for a Heavenly Father who has never abandoned me, and has blessed me so immensely. I thought about my husband and my kids. I thought about the ups and downs, the hopes and doubts, the joys and pains, the lessons learned and the ones I'm still learning. I embraced the many warm, happy moments in my mind where I felt encompassed by love from heaven. I considered the hard experiences that have propelled me to a deeper place or understanding and love for others. I couldn't count my blessings because they felt innumerable, so I just kind of gave them a mental hug and launched a thank you prayer to my Heavenly Father. I felt the spirit whisper to my heart, "This is life. And it is good." And it is.
I'm choosing to be grateful, for *all* of it.
#thanksgiving2018
And not to ruin the spirit of this post, but we also had a wall ball tournament in which I beat e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e,💃👊 beating young children at a game I bombed in elementary definitely made the highlight reel (coming close behind the mashed potatoes and gravy and William eating everything on his plate....even if all he dished up was sweet potatoe casserole.)

Thanksgiving 2015

Thanksgiving this year turned out to be a great one!

The days leading up to the holiday, John and I were both sick with a stomach flu and (reminisent of a food poisoning experience a couple thanksgivings before...) we were not up for a turkey dinner. The kids were pretty disappointed and I swear God listens to Caity's prayers like no one else I know, because what do you know? We started feeling better and decided around ten in the morning we were going to go for it! But...let me back track.

We woke up early in the morning to watch the Thanksgiving Day parade and have biscuits and gravy.  We hung out and played around the house for a bit while we tried to stream some football then...well, I guess that brings us to deciding to have thanksgiving after all at ten am. Wasn't much to stop the post and back up- but you know, it's good you know that we watched the parade and played together right?

I told everyone they were required to add at least five things to our our gratitude poster, haha, I know that probably takes away from the purpose...but eh, I still enjoy going back and reading what they put (even if it's because their mom makes them!) haha. 

Johnny was able to add in his own words this year, which I loved. William also threw in a couple scibbles. Caity's are always sweet and bless her heart, she is probably the most faithful contributor. 

As soon as she found out we were going to make a turkey, Caity got in her Thanksgiving dress and matched Jessie.

Johnny played Monster Match with his super heroes

Dad chased Johnny with our raw turkey

Caity dressed up Matthew while she played Queen Rainbow.

William helped me make gravy.

And at the end of the day, we had a mighty good spread:

It was a really, really, REALLY fun thanksgiving dinner.

That evening, John requested a very special Christmas present. 

As a family he wanted us to camp out in front of Cabelas so we could win a prize when the doors opened at 5:00 AM. I had my reservations, but gosh, I love that John of mine!! So, we bundled up, got our propane heater and joined the other crazies for a night of camping in a parking lot in seriously, not joking: ZERO DEGREE TEMPERATURES. It was cold. REAL cold.

The kids were troopers, but ended up spending most of the night in the car. I was positively miserable. But we drank hot chocolate, watched The Christmas Story projected on the building, won a couple t-shirts, and really had a fun time. 

(John didn't win the gun- haha)

(But we DID win two $10 gift cards!)

I'm telling you- there is no way, no how I could have done that with or for anyone else, besides John. He makes the worst experiences the best experiences. Right when I reach my end, he gives me that smile and what do you know, I realize I can go longer than I thought.

We also sold our suburban, which was sad, but also exciting because that meant rent for a few more months, haha. Oh life. We ended up buying a van, names Max the next Monday.

Also, on the way home, we stopped by Kohl's and I was able to get a couple more stockings for our set for 60% off, thank you very much. 

Friday, John went hunting with our friend, Eric, and put up Christmas decor and did homework. It was a great weekend together. 

Thanksgiving 2014

This year was probably one of my favorite Thanksgivings yet.
We started the morning off later than usual, the kids didn't get up until 7:00: first thing I was thankful for! haha. We sauntered into the living room to watch the Thanksgiving Parade.  For some reason I thought Caity would be my sidekick, but Johnny was surprisingly the parade enthusiast.  He anxiously waited for each float and would exclaim "Wow! Mom! It's Thomas (or a turkey, or whatever.) Hi Thomas! How you flyin!?"  It made it a lot of fun.  Every time some Disney break-out star would sing some over computerized pop song, John would look over at me like, "Wow, I must really love you."  Haha, Caity liked that part anyhow.
I had ambitions of making some cute turkey pancake breakfast I saw on Pinterest, but settled on cereal. I did set the table nice for the kids though.  It was really a 11:30 pm the night before endeavor.  Good thing though, because first thing Johnny did when he woke up was run to the table and shout, "It's Thanksgiving!"  I made everyone a little turkey place holders, on each feather was something I was grateful for about them- Caity appreciated it, William just ate his, and Johnny didn't even notice his- haha.

Once the kids were all showered and clean and less homeless looking, I wanted to get a picture of them together.  This was an effort, but we did it. Kind of.

I really liked this one of William. That smile gets me every time.

I have about 100 pictures like this in my phone...that baby! So wiggly.

We were having Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt Janae's house. So I was in charge of salads.  I made a caramel apple salad, a toss salad and a jello salad.  I'd have to say the caramel apple salad was the most successful, with the jello coming in at a close second.  No one....NO ONE touched the green toss salad, haha. I thought that was funny.

Johnny was my little helper in the kitchen.

Caity was outside helping Dad put up Christmas lights (by helping I mean running around the front yard singing...)

Johnny and I had a lot of fun cooking together. It was one of my highlights of the day. He kept sneaking bites of apples and he would smile at me and say, "I didn't do it! I didn't do it! OK, I did it." 

It was a long wait until Janae's house...but the rascals kept themselves busy.  No, this didn't end in William toppling out and hitting his head, OK, maybe it did.  

We took down our Thankful Poster, we kind of fell behind updating it...but it is still fun to see the things people put.  I think my favorite of Caity's was Contruction Workers and "I am grateful for Holidays." 

It was fun to spend Thanksgiving with family since the last couple of years we stayed in Moscow.  Janae used all the same recipes as my mom, so that was fun to have recipes I haven't had in a while. Mostly, it just felt nice being with family. The kids wrestled my cousin, Nick for about two hours straight, haha- I'm sure he slept well!  John and Katie kept pranking eachother and stealing eachother's phones.  At one point John switched numbers in Katie's phone and pretended to be her other cousin, Alyssa- it was pretty funny and it had us all laughing- when we figured it out, we were all pretty fooled at first!

By the time we got home, everyone was beyond exhausted and we crashed.

Friday morning started with....CHRISTMAS decorating! :) 

My type of morning.