A Whole Lot to be Thankful For

Well, our Thanksgiving break has come and gone. We started off by going to our ward's Turkey Bowl on Thursday morning. Jen even got to jump in and play some football. The kids had a blast playing with this large wooden pole on the sidelines with Aubrey and Lauren Ward and Karina Hulet:
After the Turkey Bowl we thought we would head to downtown Houston and help serve food at the Houston Superfeast. I thought since we didn't have family around, it would be nice to be able to help others out... well, we got there and (though it might not be true) it seemed like there were more volunteers than people to serve! Many of the volunteers were just standing around and others were waiting in lines of 10 or so to be able to volunteer when the current volunteers left! I'm glad there were so many people willing to help, but we didn't want to stand around and do nothing, so we drove home and put the kids down for a nap... we tried anyway.
In the evening we went over to the Hulets for a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner. Shanna cooked one of the most moist turkeys we've ever had... and it was her first time! We had a great feast complete with Eric's super mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. The Hulets provided delicious homemade roles, Jell-O, stuffing, and Jason, their twelve-year-old, made super-rich chocolate cheesecake! The meal was complete with sparkling cider, sparkling grape juice and sparkling strawberry drinks. Hulets, you guys are amazing! Thanks for being our home away from home this Thanksgiving. We also played a few games with the family after dinner. Jason beat us all at "Are you smarter than a fifth grader" but we all think our questions were harder! :) It was so fun hanging out with them. Our kids love their kids and we all had a great time!
On Friday morning, my friend Amber and I got up at 3:50 A.M. to hit the sales. It isn't something I'd want to do alone, but I had a great time going with Amber. We hit Kohls, Wal-mart and of course Michaels and JoAnn's. I went a little overboard buying frames, but I love a good sale and will need them to decorate our house. In the afternoon we celebrated Amber's birthday with a little get together at the park. Can you believe we got all the kids together for a picture? Thanks Shanna for sending me the picture!
On Friday afternoon Eric went with the scouts on an overnight camping trip. I sent him with the camera with express instructions to bring home a picture for the blog... This is what he came up with:

Yep, nothing! And he calls himself my husband!
In any case, it rained on him and he hadn't put the rain fly up, he is somewhat shocked by 12-year-old boy behavior, and in spite of it all, had a great time :) I even talked him into camping out in our backyard with Elia last night. She slept like a log and he slept terribly. Yay, camping!

Really though, we are so blessed. Nothing like Thanksgiving to make you really remember. Of course we try to be thankful all year long, but we're reminded once again what wonderful, blessed lives we live.