Thanksgiving Reflections

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving holiday!  At this time of year, we all find ourselves going over all the things in our lives we appreciate and love - I am no different.  Now that we are no longer living in St. Louis, it's more important than usual.  I'll try and keep this short and not too sappy.

1. I appreciated the time, energy, cost, and patience from my girls and son-in-laws to drive 12 hours (one way) with little ones in tow (when we all know that after the first mile, all they heard was, "...are we there yet?")
2.  I LOVED that the four little ones were all healthy during their visit and they ALL slept all night and allowed their parents and us to sleep.
 3. I was thankful that all the kids were happy, well behaved, and seemed to enjoy themselves.  They LOVED sledding and playing on the Lake Superior shore.  I'm sure Keva will post all the wonderful photos she took.

As in the movie Christmas Story - she looked like a tick about to pop!

4. I appreciated all the help that everyone gave me! Since we don't have a dishwasher, just keeping up with the dishes took effort - everyone took their turn, even without being asked.

Mark doing dishes after the big dinner

5. I appreciated the lesson of letting-go, when the apple pie burned in the oven because somebody turned off the timer (no one remembers doing it) when we walked out to the barn for about 15 minutes.  I also learned that even if the top of the pie is burned - you can take off the burned top and the rest of the pie is still delicious!
6. I am SO thankful that the girls and their families are now back in St. Louis tonight safely!

As Mark and I were cleaning up the rooms after the girls left, I had moved some toys and set one on the shelf in front of the window out of my way (without really thinking about it) ...later Mark told me to come see what he saw when he entered the room later today...

Peter Rabbit - watching and waiting for the kids to come back and play!

We had a wonderful holiday and I, no - we (Mark and I), know how lucky we are!!!  We are looking forward to visiting St. Louis over Christmas.  We'll see you all then!