Counting our Blessings

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year. I love Thanksgiving dinner and I love being with family. I also have a lot of anticipation knowing that Thanksgiving leads into the Christmas season.

This year we wanted to teach Annika a little bit about why we celebrate Thanksgiving. We read stories about the Pilgrims and how they were helped by Native Americans so they would have enough food and shelter for the winter. We also talked about things we were thankful for. The Monday before Thanksgiving we had a Family Night about being thankful for our blessings. At the end we all took turns saying what we were thankful for. I wrote down everyone's comments and then hung the paper on the fridge. It has been wonderful for me to have the frequent reminder, every time I pass by the fridge, of how our family has been blessed.

The following is a list of some of our many blessings.

Nate said:

• "the women in his life"
• the Gospel
• my job
• the Atonement

I said:

• my family
• the temple
• picnics with my family
• scriptures and prayer

Annika said:

• Jory
• "the beautiful home we live in"
• my hair
• my piano and its beautiful sounds
• "the Gospel of the beautiful temple"

Jillian said (with help)

• my blankey
• fruit and milk
• my big sister (Annika helped with this one!)
• my bed

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at my parent's house. It had been three years since we had eaten with my family, so I enjoyed every moment and every bite! Annika had a glorious time sitting at the kid table with her cousins Matt, Stevie, and little Summer. She didn't eat much, but her mouth was certainly busy enough. (I'm sure you know why!!) Jillian opted for eating her own Thanksgiving dinner of yogurt and a roll. (How she could pick that over homemade mashed potatoes and gravy?) My contribution to the meal was rolls, banana cream pie, and a chocolate cream pie. The rolls were a little questionable, since they didn't raise completely, but I thought the pies were delicious - if I do say so myself!

The kid table


Now that looks like a delicious dinner!


Jillian enjoyed her first Thanksgiving dinner


A small, but happy gathering (do ever feel like no one is paying attention to you?)

"At the end of the day", I am very thankful for Thanksgiving!

Look at my new posts!

I finally published two new posts that I had written a month ago or so. Make sure you check back a couple posts to find them. One is called "Our Jillian Grace is One" and the other is "Happy Halloween 2010".