Our Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a fabulous long weekend here in London! Pat went home on Friday, which we were all very happy about. She seems to be doing well at home and we will see her again next week when she comes to London for her checkup.

We thoroughly enjoyed General Conference this weekend! We had our big Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday in-between sessions. I think this is the first year we had just our immediate family for Thanksgiving, and I obviously didn't take that into account while cooking this weekend. We've been eating turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, corn, cranberries, jell-o, sweet potatoes, and pumpkin pie for the past 3 days... And I made a HUGE pot of turkey soup yesterday, and we still have what looks like at least 10 lbs of turkey in the fridge! I think after turkey sandwiches tomorrow, I will have to freeze the rest for later as we will have hit our turkey limit for a while.

Monday morning we went apple picking - a tradition we started when Samantha was a baby and have done every year since. Someone pointed out that it's actually cheaper to buy apples at the farm in bulk than to pick your own, but we all agree that the fun is in the picking! Of course the apple pies, apple crisp, and applesauce we will be eating for the next few weeks are pretty good too.

After apple picking, Scott played a little football with the guys, and then we played some family baseball outside before bed. It was a fun, relaxing day and the perfect end to a long weekend. The weather has been unusually hot here (it was up to 32 degrees on Sunday afternoon) and although it feels weird to be in shorts and t-shirts on Thanksgiving weekend, it's kind of a nice change.

Here are some other things that have happened in our family in the last little while...

Nathan ate every single food on the table at Thanksgiving dinner and Scott said it must have been the happiest day of his life so far.

Brett is doing really well at his piano lessons that he started a month ago, and is actually learning some French words at school - way to go, Brett!

Samantha has lost 8 teeth now and is starting to read more chapter books on her own. She is also enjoying her Gymnastics lessons and likes to practice writing in cursive.

Jesse's teacher surprises us when she tells us how good he is at school. Not that he isn't good at home, but he does manage to get into mischief almost daily. For example, on Friday we spent $226.28 for a plumber to come over and remove our toilet in order to fish out 3 toy cars and 2 pairs of scissors Jesse had tried to flush down it. Later that night he snuck out of bed and came downstairs with a fistful of coins. He told Scott and I that he was giving us all of the money out of his wallet to help pay for the plumber. Of course, we forgave him and thought he had learned his lesson... until the next day when I found the toilet full of radishes! Lucky for Jesse, radishes float, so we were able to avoid another plumbing bill that time.

Scott left his job at the end of September, and has returned to working at home again. Although it's been great having him around during the day, it's difficult at times because he really doesn't have a place to work (since I converted his old office into a playroom for the kids last year!). He's been rotating from the kitchen table, to the TV room ottoman, to the living room and back. We're working on finding a better solution for the future.

Scott is having eye surgery tomorrow morning. He will have to wear an eye patch afterwards and we have been talking to the kids about it so they know why Dad won't be able play or do things for a couple of days. At dinner Brett said he was worried that with his eye patch, people might think his Dad is a pirate!

This weekend I was thankful for many things... but mostly for a supportive, wonderful husband, and our 4 amazing children. We are truly blessed.

Happy Thanksgiving!