Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Brennan had the whole week off from school and just had to work the first three days of the week.  It was great to have him around a little more but not he's back at it with only two weeks of classes left until finals! Eeeek! It will be a stressful few weeks, no doubt, but it will be good to have this semester behind us.

The Monday before Thanksgiving we did a gratitude FHE and we all made hand turkeys and put what we were grateful for on them.  Brennan and I do this every year and it was entertaining to try to include Tatum in the tradition this year.

Here she is with her turkey. Judging by the way she reacted I think that holding her hand on the paper to trace it was the most painful thing she has ever experienced.  Crazy kid.

 Our family of gratitude turkeys.

On Thanksgiving eve we headed to my parents' house to spend a few days.  Thanksgiving day was very typical.  The guys went and play football in the morning.  The rest of us went for a walk or a run and then watched the end of the football game before heading home for yummy breakfast muffins, the parade, games, and then the big meal.  We ate way too much, as usual. And then we started to plan our strategy for shopping.  Brennan and Caden went out to a couple of stores together that night.  And then mom, Crystal, Kelbie and I headed out at 3 a.m. We are crazy.  We froze our tails off, found a few good deals, enjoyed some breakfast and had a good time together.

Tatum discovered the joys of the rocking chair with Aunt Crystal on Thanksgiving.

And the next day she played in the tunnel with Grandma.

 It's a horrible picture because Tatum's hand got in the way but I still love mom in it. Too funny.

Tatum has really been opposed to Thanksgiving from the beginning. Someone has got to teach this girl some gratitude.  She is always taking down my "Give Thanks" decoration like she just doesn't want the reminder.

It all starts with the mischievous grin.

 And then the destruction begins.

I am grateful for this time of year and the nudge it gives me to count my blessings and remember all that I have to be grateful for.  Saturday morning (which quickly turned into a morning of chaos as we tried to get to the temple) our car died.  And it's going to stay dead.  And it was completely avoidable which makes it all the more frustrating.  And it was my car, the better one, the one with presumably more life in it. And it's expensive to get a new car. And and and and and. I could go on and on.  It was a frustrating weekend with a frustrating outcome and it has made it more of a challenge for me to stay grateful.  But it has been a great exercise for me to remember what really matters.  We have so much! How lucky are we that we have TWO cars so Brennan can still get to school and work.  We are so lucky that it died five minutes from my parents' house so they could come and get us before we froze to death.  We have a warm home, a healthy daughter, the means to get another car, generous parents to loan us theirs in the meantime, enough food to eat, knowledge of the Savior and his atonement, the opportunity to get an education, a good job. I could go on and on.  So what's one car dying prematurely compared to all that? Not much, I know, but I'm human and it will still be hard. :) So for those of you around me, have patience. As Brennan will gladly point out to you, I'm not very good at being an optimist, but I will sure try!

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving as well!