Thanksgiving

"This is a wonderful time to be living here on earth. Our opportunities are limitless. While there are some things wrong in the world today, there are many things right, such as teachers who teach, ministers who minister, marriages that make it, parents who sacrifice, and friends who help.

"We can lift ourselves, and others as well, when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues" (Thomas S. Monson)

Our original plan had been to go to Calgary or have one of the sets of parents come and visit for thanksgiving, but I am ever so grateful that we ended up changing our plans.  I had the opportunity to take what I had learned as a child and make my very own thanksgiving dinner with the full meal deal. We had turkey, stuffing, homemade cranberries, candied yams, mashed potatoes and gravy along with a salad.  I was proud of my work as my home filled with the smell of home and the days of when I was younger when we visited my grandma.  The aroma brought back lots of memories of the time I had helped my grandma and mom in the kitchen and also just of the times we had together.  I loved my grandma dearly and even though her life was hard she always showed us an increased outpouring of love and I loved her for it.

As I started to reflect on my life and my blessings I became ever grateful for a mom who set the example for me to always think of others without family.  Recently we started a friendship with a family who has a little girl 2 weeks younger than Jessa.  The husband is in the army and the dear wife stays at home to care for the little one.  They were without family nearby so we thought they would be the perfect candidates to come for thanksgiving to be in on my experimental thanksgiving dinner.  Just joking!  Truly we did it because we know what it is like to be far from family and alone.  Our first two years of marriage away from family was a very lonely and depressing time.

The Smith family arrived at 5:00 and everything was done except for the gravy; the turkey was golden and the rest of the food was warmed and waiting to be eaten.   But poor J couldn't figure out how to carve the turkey... note to self for future boys teach them how to carve roasts, chickens, turkeys, etc.  So we ended up getting it figured out but I also made my gravy crazy with veloutine because I didn't realize the gravy thickened when boiling so I kept adding to it so by the time that the gravy cooled and we put it in the fridge it was like Jello!  Haha but it was so fun.  The Smiths were so wonederful and Jessa really loved hanging out and interacting with Guinevere.

After supper we had the wonderful opportunity to be blessed to see the Northern Lights across the sky and it was so beautiful.  I am so grateful for the wonderful friendships we developed last night :)