Give Thanks

Thanksgiving 2012..what a great weekend it was! I love Thanksgiving--lots of food, people and hearts swelling with thanks to an amazing God we serve. We are so blessed and so undeserving of His grace. And I love that Thanksgiving begins the Christmas season, focusing our thanks on the ultimate gift God has given us in His Son. We are so grateful for His mercy and love.

At the beginning of November, we sat down as a family and started our 'Thankful Tree', adding leaves every few days. The kids LOVED doing this and Matt and I were so thankful for their unfiltered thoughts (who would have thought to be thankful for cows, but my kids were! And I realized I am too!)

For our Thanksgiving meal, we had 4 members of the Bethel University hockey team join us as well as our next door neighbors from South Korea. My parents usually eat with us but weren't able to make it until later in the day.

And since our neighbors were coming over with their 6-year old daughter, my kids got to experience the 'kids table' for the first time in their lives!! (That's what happens when there are no cousins)

We had a great meal and I have to say, I have a newfound appreciation for anyone who prepares a Thanksgiving meal on their own. Being the only woman in the house for the day, I prepared all the food on my own. It was the first time I had ever prepared a turkey without my mom's presence in the house (which gives me comfort, more than anything else!) as well as timing all the casseroles and dishes and getting all the food done on time. This is not to toot my own horn, but rather to say that I fully recognize what it takes to pull a meal like this together! And although each of these guys did offer to help clean up, I was left on my own since there were more pressing matters to take care of....

The kids were playing upstairs while we finished our meal and I found these pictures on my point-n-shoot camera.

Sadie teaching--what's new?!

KeeJoo, our neighbor, and his daughter Cheeun, taking a plate of food back to KeeJoo's wife, who stayed home with their infant son who wasn't feeling well. They have been great neighbors and Sadie and Cheeun have spent a lot of time together. Cheeun started coming to AWANA on Wednesday nights with Sadie and it has been fun to see their friendship develop.

And this was the more pressing task that awaited our guests....setting up the liner in the hockey rink.

It was incredibly windy and it definitely took this many people. But Matt wanted to get it done because the temperature that day dropped from 60 degrees in the morning to the 30s in the evening. With the weather getting colder, it was prime time to flood the rink and give it a few days to freeze. So this is how we spent our Thanksgiving afternoon!

My parents and my sister Mary Jo arrived at our house by around 8pm. My mom, sister and I decided to make one run to Target at 9pm on Thanksgiving evening. And we weren't alone in our thinking that Thanksgiving evening would be better than the early morning on Black Friday.

But we got in quickly, got what we wanted, and headed home. When we got into the store, there were still lots of the electronic deals available, like the steals on TVs, but none of us wanted one. Kinda felt like we should have bought one just because we could have, but we passed! It was a memorable evening, though! And since our shopping was done, that left all day friday to get our tree!