Thanksgiving 2013

Well, another successful Thanksgiving week has come and gone.  Some of the happiness was threatened at times, but awesomeness prevailed and we were indeed thankful.  We had a good plan going into the holiday. Paul and I would fly to Charlotte on Sat. and visit Jacob and Alexa and her family for a bit and then come home where Daniel and Erica and boys would drive from Savannah, and Nathan and Ariane would drive

from Houston, and we would celebrate tremendously.  Well, Thurs. Rebecca got slammed with something dreadful in the form of a rash, fever and sore throat--not strep, not flu, but something bad.  We nixed the Charlotte trip, but hoped for the typical 3-day virus-life so we could carry on with our plan.  Well, the illness held tight and Daniel and Erica had to abort the Atlanta Thanksgiving mission and go with a Savannah Thanksgiving mission.

 I'll just have to deliver these surprises.

Readjust the picture.  Thankfully Nathan and Ariane were determined to come ahead in spite of the danger.  I believe their both being in health care gave them courage to take their chances against sickness.  Then we had a happy turn of events, Andrew, upon realizing the absence of human life-forms in the Provo-Orem area over the holiday, decided he would try and travel standby on Thanksgiving week.  It was a bold move, but he was victorious, and it was a joyful reunion when our friends, the Sultans, delivered him (and his Chik-fil-a) to our door.  It felt great to have Andrew home again.  His bed got slept in.  The food got eaten and once again there were enough (if you can ever have enough) movie quotes at the table.

Wed. started with Ariane and Nathan up early for a brisk jog in the late November morning air.  I was very proud of them.  So, so proud, in a "keep up the good work", "don't expect me to join you" way.   The only down side was that Nathan took his darn GPS and upon completion, confidently announced that my route that I claimed to be 3 miles is in actuality only 2.3 miles.  Very disappointing, in fact I really want to un-know that information.  I'll bet they took a short cut.

Next up on the schedule--Andrew de-no shave Novembering.  That was a welcome activity.  Andrew, I love you with or without nasty facial hair.

Andrew's birthday cookies

Beautiful

Then we made snowflakes.  Miss Rebecca had been in bed for 6 days straight and we wanted to show her a little love.  Poor baby girl, on Thurs. night she wistfully commented as she looked out her window, "My 6th sunset."

We made apple pie and then the well people headed to Urban Jungle for a combined church YM/Happy Birthday Andrew activity.

Our Thursday was like your Thursday, cooking and eating all the food we could think of.  We had a lot to be thankful for.  Rebecca came out of her room and played the piano and laughed and ate with us.  We had loved ones in the kitchen and at the table, and Nathan taught Gabe how to do the Rubix cube. 

There were definitely some highlights, like when Ariane made a perfect cheese ball.  I exclaimed, "That looks  like--" "Spherical?" "No, Nathan, like Hickory Farms."

Andrew got the job of carving the turkey.  This being his first carving experience, he asked Nathan for guidance.  Nathan was equally inexperienced but offered this wisdom, "Just cut it into the shapes you usually see at Thanksgiving."

Andrew actually did a great job.  He's ready for life.

Then we wrote what we were thankful for with Sharpies on the table cloth and thanked our Heavenly Father for our bountiful blessings and ate.

The Thanksgiving Ping-pong tournament was next.  There was mandatory participation for illness-free people.  We put up a good fight, but Andrew proved to be the fairest ping-pong player of them all.

Then it was time for the traditional showing of "Miracle on 34th street."  There was popcorn and hot-chocolate of course.  We had a surprise visit from good friends that gave us even more to be thankful for so I guess we had the perfect day.

On Friday, if life wasn't awesome enough, these fantastic people got all the Christmas decorations out, the tree up, the irrelevant boxes put back and the ornaments ready to hang.  It was a little sad when I presented Nathan with his box of childhood ornaments and he chose 2 to take with him through life and basically said, "Thanks for the memories" to the others.  That just goes to show that it really is the memories that count. Andrew had an opposite experience, however, when one of his favorite ornaments was not in the box labelled, "Andrew."  He wanted to know, "Is there a lost and found for ornaments?  I'm missing Mickey with the bass drum." Sorry, Andrew, I'll keep my eye out.  The tree looked great and we could tell it was Christmas because Manheim Steamroller was blasting in the season.

In the afternoon there was some excellent family bonding in the form of lids and basketball, tennis and frisbee.  Rebecca and I skipped the bonding and went for rejuvenation by napping.

Then we all got the memo and put on our navy sweatshirts and celebrated with a 5 person selfie, (that takes some skill right there) Next, we headed out for a very Christmasy visit to the Gaddy light display.  We finished the great day with great wassail and a great movie.

Saturday came and Andrew made his flight and checked the "travelled standby on Thanksgiving week without getting bumped off the flight" box.  Nathan and Ariane adventured into the city (Atlanta) and visited the Temple, Piedmont park, the Capitol, Centennial Park and the Martin Luther King museum.  When they returned home, we watched one more movie and then the party was over until next time.  Thank you, sweet family, for making it great.