Sunday, November 30, 2014

Thankful Leaves

Our first Thanksgiving visitors arrived Monday!  Lena and Mike were here for a few hours, then left after dinner for an anniversary getaway. It was their first time since having kids that they have been away together! That night we had FHE with 12 kids (Lena and Mike have seven kids).  Clark was "spotlight" that night and he played the baritone for us. 
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For part of the FHE lesson we each wrote on three leaves things for we were grateful. 
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The kids seemed to enjoy it.  We've done this the past couple of years.  My friend Melissa puts up leaves on a cute tree. Once or twice we hot glued leaves onto tree branches.  This year I bought some blue tacky stuff and we stuck them on a blank wall we have in our dining room.
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Nov 24 2014

We had no-bake oatmeal cookies for treat.
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It was fun reading what the kids were thankful for.  Lee and I practically wrote the same thing without knowing--we wrote each other, our kids, and the temple (Lee did write more).  Some things the kids were grateful for were pigs, paper, Minecraft, cousins, my life, Jesus Christ, food, siblings, my family, my body, etc.  I often reflect about my blessings, but I love times when there is more focus on it. 

The first day of having Lena and Mike's kids here Alyssa and I baked pies.  I had the shells all done and in pans, which I had done a couple weeks back.  And a while ago I had rolled out some pie dough crusts and stuck them in the freezer, not in pie pans.  I used that for the topping on the berry pies. We make quick work of the pies and did 15 of them.  One of the pies was a chocolate pudding pie.  Not a very exciting pie but it was one of the first ones gone on Thanksgiving day.
Nov 25 2014

Lena and Mike were able to go on their get-away for two days.  It sounded like they had a great time. Their kids seemed to have a good time while they were here.  Lillie, their youngest, wasn't too happy with me but loved her sister Kirsten.  Kirsten was awesome and took care of Lillie for hours on Tuesday when Alyssa and I finished the pies and I finished up getting ready for more company to show up.  Glad you could have a get-away Lena and Mike!