Hope it's a lovely holiday for you all. I do have so much to be grateful for and I hope we can all remember to show that appreciation everyday and not just on Thanksgiving. I would have to say that one thing I am so grateful for that I don't really talk about much are the troops serving our country. I can't even express in words how grateful I am to the men and women who sacrifice the comforts of home, their families, and safety to defend and protect our country and it's freedoms. What courage. I don't ever want to take that for granted.
So today I challenge you to take advantage of the holiday. Call up that person you've been wanting to apologize to. Forgive someone their mistakes that have hurt you. Tell that someone that you love them. Don't let that moment pass. Don't regret what you didn't say or do.
And seriously....pray for the giant balloon animals. That stuff's no joke.
I hope ya'll had a great Thanksgiving! I know we did! Since I'm not in the mood to type out some big long story about our Thanksgiving break I decided to show you in pictures! Which is better anyway! We'll start with the week before Thanksgiving. On Friday we cleaned the whole house because my life long best friend Allison was supposed to come by with her baby Jaxon who I've yet to meet. She ended up getting really sick though and couldn't make it. That afternoon instead us girls decided to go get some lunch at In N Out that just opened here in Provo....and this is what it looked like...
and I even found this video about it...
ridiculous if you ask me. So needless to say we didn't go there. It's just a freaking burger people!
Anyway...that night Jess came over and her me and Calah went to go see...
We stood in lines, had to put up with obnoxious girls in front of us (seriously they were crazy) and then we finally got into the movie. There were:
people howling like werewolves
people yelling Team Jacob and Team Edward every 5 seconds (my sister wanted to yell Team Voldemort back at them)
a guy who was there by himself and begging people to come sit with him
and just general pandemonium
The movie was really good however. I liked it so much better than the first and there was some nice eye candy as well. Saturday was just a normal day. BYU was playing Air Force that day and since we live 3 minutes from the stadium it's always crazy when there is a game...cars parked all up and down our street and such. Kenzie had her second night of the play at her school and as we were driving to drop her off the game had just ended. It took us 30 minutes to get from our house to Provo High School. Ridiculous. We picked up my grandma and headed off to the play.
I'm not really a fan of Shakespeare anyway but this version of Henry V was...hard to understand. I think the acoustics were bad in the theater (and they're high school kids) so it was like listening to someone who was talking with food in their mouth the entire play. My grandma was cracking me up. She kept saying things like "do you think anyone would notice if we left and went bowling across the street?" and "I don't understand a word that is going on right now". Me neither. Mackenzie did SO awesome though. Seriously she was apparently the only kid who could enunciate and she really did fantastically. And she played a boy...hence the facial hair. Sunday Calah and I braved the Singles Ward....it was interesting.
Then we started preparations for Thanksgiving dinner and it was wonderful! I made my first pie! (Pumpkin) and made my famous mashed potatoes. It was all delicious.
the point during dinner in which someone said something hilarious and Mackenzie almost spit out her food...this happened a lot.
all I know is she has a pie box on her head...the rest is all speculation Friday night we put up the Christmas tree. All of our Christmas stuff is still back in Indiana but my Grandma was nice enough to give us an extra tree of theirs and some Christmas decorations for the house. We got some great ornaments at Costco and I think the results were pretty fantastic.
Other than that we just watched a lot of "Criminal Minds" and this new show "White Collar" on USA that is really really good.
Now we've got a fridge full of turkey and pie for the next week. Gotta love Thanksgiving!
We combined all the things you need for a successful Thanksgiving this year and there was only 1 incident of crying (but when there are siblings involved you can pretty much expect that...).
Usually we being the outcasts from our family in Utah (sure love ya guys!) we spend Thanksgiving....alone. Which is ok but ya see these people everyday. So what sets it apart from any other meal we eat together (besides the feeling of warmth and love Thanksgiving gives you...and home made pie.). But this year we scored the Thanksgiving lottery and were invited to join the Norton family for Thanksgiving.
So the day started off with me getting up an hour and a half before my alarm (which did not make me happy but I gritted my teeth and thought of all the things I'm thankful for...like the fact I'm not a turkey today.)
I watched some of the Thanksgiving parade...snore...(parades are not my thing) and did some laundry. We got ready and had a model worthy photo shoot before leaving the house. I
I know...professionally good looking right?
Then it was off to the Nortons.
We made all the final preparations...I made my magically delicious mashed potatoes (they really are fabulous). After some forlorn and starving looks from certain members of the family (I mean she does resemble an Ethiopian child doesn't she?)
We ate....and ate...and ate.
I am fully convinced that turkey really does make you tired because I just about passed out right there on the table after eating. We took a little break to watch YouTube videos making fun of the likes of Hilary Clinton and Barrack Obama (democrats in general)
...did a little cleaning...watched a little football (sorry Lions but c'mon we all saw it coming) and then broke out the PIE! We had a plethora of combos to choose from:
Chocolate Cream, Pumpkin (canned and real pumpkin), Apple/Cranberry, and my dad's world (kind of) famous Banana Cream Pie...
So de-lish!
My fave would have to be the Apple/Cranberry that Traci made. I don't even like apple pie but it was pretty much the bomb...and she home made her crust (I was un aware we were having dinner with Martha Stuart!)
A highlight would be when Coley decided to sample a piece of EVERY pie. That would be 5 different slices for those of you keeping track at home. I bet her that she couldn't eat it all...she took my bet and that tiny thing actually accomplished the mission. I am curious as to how that worked out for her later on this evening though...
After a day filled with food, laughter, friendship...and pie, we bundled up and drove home. We changed into our comfies and snuggled on the couch to watch Kung Fu Panda. I was asleep within the first 10 minutes but everyone else enjoyed it!
So all in all this year's Thanksgiving was a total success! Hope yours was great too! I am so thankful for so much- family, friends, my faith in the gospel, freedom. The list could go on and on.
Even through the tough times there is so much to be grateful for...and if you're having trouble coming up with one...like I said- Just be thankful you aren't a turkey today. You got off easy compared to the poor soul on your plate!
Happy Thanksgiving!
