Thanksgiving 2015 - Thankful ~ Grateful ~ Blessed

Thanksgiving is THE.BEST.DAY.OF.THE.YEAR. Hands Down. Always has been, always will be.

I absolutely love Thanksgiving. And that is thanks to the amazing and blessed childhood I had. I'm not sure how old I was when we started going to Fairfield for Thanksgiving, at my Uncle J'Earl and Aunt Donna's, but it is the only way I remember Thanksgiving ever being. If we could manage, we would drive down the night before. We always loved that best. That way, we had more play time. The girls played Barbies for HOURS. But really, we just set up the storyline and created our houses and dressed our barbies for hours. Then we would get distracted and do something different. Sometimes the boys would coerce us out of our hangout space to join them for Kick the Can and fun nighttime games out in the cul de sac. And of course there was always Monopoly and Chicken Foot and the Sign Game and trampoline fun and everything awesome in childhood.
Thanksgiving morning always started with a soccer game where we joined my cousins' friends and their friends and anyone. I was never good, but I loved this tradition! It was often cold, and wet. But it got us out of the house and away from our parents for at least an hour or more.
Back at the house was warming up, changing, and the beginning of the many tasks needed to get an incredible dinner on the table for the masses of family that we are. I always loved to see what we were going to do as place settings and table decorations. We would cram all of us in there and lengthen the table as much as possible so we could all be together. The food was always incredible (but what Thanksgiving Feast isn't?) The company was the BEST! My memories are filled with smiles and laughter and love.
In my family we all remember the one year where Uncle J really wanted to cook the turkey in his new smoker. The funny part was that he kept asking Aunt Donna how she wanted her turkey and she kept saying, "Just a little salt and oil" but then Uncle J would do it a different way instead. And then when it actually came down to dinner time, the turkeys weren't ready yet. So we ate without them. They finally came out when we were all done, and completely stuffed with everything else. We enjoyed them for leftover sandwiches the next day tho. Apparently, you don't have to have turkey to have a scrumptious feast!

As we got older, the crowd got smaller. The hardest part about getting older, I think, is that our memories become just that.

The reason I love Thanksgiving is because it is a day all about food, and especially FAMILY. To say I love mine almost feels like an understatement. I adore them! I am so richly blessed to call them mine. None of us is perfect, and I'd be the first to share with you all their quirks and idiosyncrasies and faults (including my own), but I wouldn't trade them for anything (even tho I did BEG my parents to let me be an only child back in my younger years. Never mind that I'm the youngest. hahaha!)

The thing I dislike the MOST about living in Nebraska, is that we aren't close to family. We've been blessed to have family visit us for 2 of our 4 Thanksgivings here, but it still isn't the same.

But I have still enjoyed my quiet (can I call anything quiet if Brek is involved?) day of gratitude and thankfulness with my 2 boys. The silliness in the simplicity of our celebration makes my heart happy.

This year we stayed in our pjs all day long. It snowed through a good portion of the morning, so Brek enjoyed some romping out in the snow and I got some piano practiced, books read, and pointless games played on my phone, plus a phone call with my sister. I got to eat cereal for breakfast (because we actually bought me some of my milk for the holiday weekend - never happens) and had some nice cuddle time with a comfy blanket and my son. He entertained himself pretty well for the morning, did some playing and watching of starfall and pbskids. We had a late lunch and then we all took naps. Well, Brek did "quiet" time. The boys watched a basketball game and as dinner time approached, I hopped in the shower and the boys set the table and made dinner and vacuumed. Dinner was deli meat and cheese panini sandwiches with pesto and a side of rotisserie (aka "crack") chicken, with some sparkling cider mixed with berry juice left over from our travels last week. Not a well balanced meal. But filling and delicious! Afterwards we played a round of "Hide the Turkeys" and sang a couple primary songs; then Joe asked to watch the movie "Fantastic Mr. Fox." Weird is all I have to say, but still enjoyable. Then Joe made us hot fudge milkshakes and Brek was off to bed after he finished his.

Definitely nothing traditional about our day. But wonderful in it's own special way.

This is the first year that I have participated in a theme of thankfulness on social media, and I am so glad that I did. Although there are many things I am thankful for that I have not mentioned, I decided I wanted to find and mention something specific from throughout my day, so that I could focus on the positives and the blessings, even if things weren't really going well. Sometimes life has a lot of challenges, and it is hard to move our focus away from the negative things. My life has not been easier, but I can honestly say that I have felt happier. There have only been a few days where I have really had to dig and find something that I was thankful for. I do have so much to be grateful for. I do have so many people and things and events in my life that God blesses me with. And as I work to improve my relationship with the Lord, I repeatedly recognize the love that He gives me, even tho I am undeserving of it. He is the reason for all that is good and great and wonderful and lovely in my life. And He is the one that pulls me through the crappy parts as well. He is the happiness that fills my heart.

A while back I saw a sign that read "Thankful ~ Grateful ~ Blessed." It has filled my mind on many occasions and I guess I could say it has become my personal motto. I am Thankful. I am Grateful. And yes, I am Blessed. Happy Thanksgiving to you and all of your many blessings!

November

November was a pretty great month for our family. Brek officially participated in his first Primary Program at church. (Primary is for all kids ages 3-12). (And, last year when Brek was still in nursery (ages 1.5-3) he got to join the bigger kids and sing a couple songs, but this year he was up on the stand the whole time, sang the songs, and had a speaking part.)

He took his tie off and wore it on his head, tossed it around a bit, and fought when dad tried to take it away. He picked his nose and ate it. He said his lines quietly, but clearly. And he held notes out WAY longer than anyone else, requiring Daddy to give him his own, special cut-off. It was cute and endearing and funny and precious.

One day, Brek and I were wrestling. I declared that I won. And Brek responded, "I'm four!"

Other "highlights" included our microwave blowing up and the furnace going out one night. When the microwave died, Brek suggested we just ask Santa for a new one. Thankfully we were able to purchase a used one from some friends. When the heat went out, honestly, we didn't notice at first. But once we did figure it out, it felt like quite the ordeal to get things working again. Here's a picture of our thermostat, and it had actually started to warm up at that point. I think the lowest the house got was 50 degrees. I ended up being late to work waiting for the guy to come and fix it. Thankfully we have a space heater, so we set that up in our bedroom and tried to contain Brek there (which didn't work.) So grateful for heat!

Another fun story from the month: One morning, just as I hopped in the shower, my body wasn't even all the wet yet (thankfully) Brek came into the bathroom and said that someone was here at the house, and that he opened the door for them. *Great* So I hurriedly dried off and put my pjs back on, and came out to 2 sheriff officers standing in my front room. *Trying not to panic* They were responding to a report from our back alley neighbors that someone in a purple car came into our yard and sneakily carried something away. So, thinking that they had broken into our garage or something, the neighbor called the cops. Turned out, it was just the tree-trimmers from the day before who had left their chainsaw in the backyard (un-covered and in a PERFECT place for my 4-year-old to play with), and then came to retrieve it for that day's job, or so I assumed.

Apparently when Brek answered the door, he also told the sheriff that neither his mom or dad was home. 

(And a side story to that, which is the reason for the tree-trimmers anyway, was that the big tree in our backyard started to fall and was leaning on the power lines going through our back yard. The tree-trimmers had to come out 3 different times to get the job done right. And still, they broke the back fence and hit the neighbor's house as well.)

We spent one weekend up in Chadron visiting some family friends and receiving a much-needed piano lesson. On our drive up, Brek was telling us about a fight he was in at daycare that day. As we started asking him about the details, he told us that he was playing "Elsa" and was "zapping" but his friend Grady wanted him to stop and pushed him. 

It was wonderful to get away even just for a night. And I really learned a lot and all the advice from Jim has really helped. Brek had a blast playing with Jim's youngest Westley, or as Brek says it, "Wrestley," who is 7. Brek said it was the greatest sleepover ever! They started getting ready for bed around 7pm, but were up well past midnight. After we came home, Brek told me that he wanted to join Wrestley's family. He did say that Joe & I could join Wrestley's family too.

Two days before Thanksgiving, as we were anticipating my parents' arrival that evening, and shortly after I got to work, I got a phone call from daycare that Brek had thrown up (which he has never done before). So I got to go get him and bring him home. And after arriving home, he of course had no interest in resting and wanted to eat, and thereafter never acted sick at all. And then I got sick, and ended up with an ear infection. Otherwise, Thanksgiving was wonderful!

It was great to have my parents visit for a couple days. It of course snowed, but we survived several trips into town despite the weather. We carried on our Thanksgiving tradition of making fancy turkey panini sandwiches. This year I also made homemade stuffing (which I slightly ruined by misreading the amount of spices to add) and we made pies. Joe made homemade pumpkin pie which was DELICIOUS as well as my family's tradition of chocolate peanut butter pie. It was low-key, not a ton of kitchen/cooking time, and just good time with family. We played games each night too. It was a really wonderful Thanksgiving!

Joe making his homemade pie crust

 

My mom taking her Thanksgiving Day nap

Joe & Brek playing "Pass the Pigs"

Posing for pictures with Grandma and Papa

Brek's favorite part was the pie. Scratch that. Brek's favorite part was the whipped cream on top of his pie.

Brek made this really cute turkey at daycare.

Here he is having a converstaion with the turkey:

Here are our 2 yummy pies:

The day after Thanksgiving, Grandma and Papa took us into town to see "Big Hero 6." We all LOVED it! And Brek has been on a pretty big "Baymax" kick ever since. We were sad for Grandma and Papa to have to leave the next day, but we were grateful knowing that we would see them just a few weeks later at Christmastime.

After my parents left, we decided to decorate for Christmas. Last January, Joe's mom gave us her old Christmas tree. So this was our first year ever having our own Christmas tree. Brek enjoyed helping to put it together and then adding the lights and ornaments.

Gotta love Brek's "creepy eyes" before he hung up his Brek bear that I made last year. (My family had these ornaments growing up.)

A little less creepy

The last element of our November was that Joe participated in "No Shave November." He decided that he wanted to know what it was like to have a beard. People kept asking me how I felt about it, which was kinda strange. I guess I really didn't care. It wasn't the most fun to kiss, (as my dad can tell you!) but I wasn't against him trying it out. I actually thought he looked pretty good, and it was kinda fun to play with it. But Joe didn't like it. He didn't like how long it took for it to actually look good since his hair is so light and hard to see. But mostly he didn't like how much it itched. I started making fun of him during band because he would be conducting with one hand and scratching his face with the other. He was very excited for the month to end so he could shave it off.

During one of our family conversations, Brek said, "Mommy, our family needs to have another little kid so that I have someone to play with."

"Well, you should know that even if we had another kid, she would be a baby, and she'd be too small for you to play with."

(pause)

"Well, maybe we could just *borrow* a kid from another family..."

My Favorite Restaurant

I really like living in Nebraska. But there's something that I miss terribly. And that, ... is Zupa's. 

My husband loves me enough that every time we go back to visit, I get to go back too. 

General August Happenings

So this post is for the non-eventful moments of August in which we took some pictures.
First off, we went to the fair. To be honest, I was expecting something akin to the county fair where I grew up. This was WAY off. Much more boring. :) We saw some sheep getting judged. Brek got a balloon animal. And one of Joe's students wanted to show Joe his cow, and Brek got to pet him and give him a scratch.

Then we went and got a treat and then went swimming.

Action jump shot

He gets out of the pool and watches for when kids jump off the diving board. He tries to time his jump just right so that they he and whatever kid is landing in the water at the same time. 

Lots of splashes

Our little fish

Love this picture!

We planted our first garden. We planted tomatoes, bell peppers, zucchini, and watermelon. In total I think we got about 15 little tomatoes, and 2 zucchini, one of which was only an inch, maybe 2, in length. This was the first tomato we ever picked:

Our little cowboy

Brek enjoying another tomato from our garden

Now stay tuned for the more exciting events that concluded our summer.