Thanksgiving

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving day! It was so fun to be with family, since we were so far away from everyone. The Andelins had a nice, big home with space for all of us. They were very accommodating and we just really enjoyed their company. We had great conversations with them, and they taught us a fun, new game called Dominon that we played once all the kids were asleep. The best part was that our kids match up SO well in age!!

 

 

Tyler and Joseph are 6 months apart, Brynlee and Mary are about a week apart, Madison and Samuel are about 4 months apart, and their twin boys and Kelsey are about 3 months apart. They all had so much fun together.

 

Here's Quincy with the spread. He did an awesome job on the turkey! All the food was so, so good! I was bummed we couldn't stick around longer for leftovers :)

One of my favorite parts was before eating, we filled up goblets with sparkling cider and everyone went around the table saying one thing they were thankful for. Then we did a toast for it. With all these little kids, it went a little something like this:
"What are you thankful for?"
"I'm thankful for Dora."
Then we all said, "To Dora!" Clink, clink go the glasses, and we all take a sip.
Next child. "What are you thankful for?"
"I'm thankful for bathtubs."
"To bathtubs!" Clink, clink. Sip.
Next child. "What are you thankful for?"
"I'm thankful for candy."
"To candy!" Clink, clink. Sip.
You get the idea. I thought it was pretty cute :).

The pies: Chocolate, banana cream (my personal favorite) and pumpkin!

These two are so much alike and got along very well!

It's been a really good year. It's neat to reflect back on our lives and see the Lord's hand in everything. To feel like we have been guided each step of the way to get us to where we are now. We are so very blessed, and I love that Thanksgiving takes the time to celebrate that. We did a "thankful jar" as a family this year. Every day we would each say one thing we were thankful for and write it on a slip of paper. For family home evening this past Monday, we had a lesson on gratitude, and talked about the first Thanksgiving. We pulled out all the slips of paper and read each one to remember what we had said for the month of November. I hope to continue that tradition in the future.