Last Thanksgiving

I really like the Thanksgiving holiday. I enjoy the crafts, the traditions, the way my kids respond when we talk about thankfulness. I think I'm especially looking forward to this Thanksgiving, being with family, letting my kids run around (relying on family to tell me if they are about to jump off the roof) and yummy food. Why is this Thanksgiving more exciting than normal? I think partly because of last Thanksgiving. Don't worry, nothing tragic happened but it was definitely different. In fact, it was a good lesson in contentment and thankfulness.

We were going to my Aunt Brenda's last year for lunch. It's a 2-hour drive so we were going to have a quick breakfast, jump in the van and be off. Everybody was grabbing whatever they wanted (mostly doughnuts) while I fed Gabe and tried to tame my hair. We made it to the van right on time and headed east. Joshua and Noah grabbed some handheld games and Samuel, who is a big fan of the "Which Way USA" magazines, took one to work on in the backseat of the van.

Notice the combination here: 7-year old, belly full of doughnuts, bent over a magazine, backseat of a van. Needless to say, we did not make it to Aunt Brenda's. We had traveled 1 hour when "Oh Gross!" rose above the normal chatter and alerted us to a major problem. Samuel no longer had a belly full of doughnuts but rather a lap full. We pulled over and worked for probably 30 minutes trying to clean out the van and clean up Samuel. The poor kid had to ride home in his underwear, a jacket from Josh, and a blanket from Gabe.

Once we arrived home, we stayed home, but we still had to prepare "Thanksgiving Dinner." Samuel and the rest of us were actually quite hungry by now. We feasted and enjoyed the game. The menu? hotdogs, doritos, and ho-ho's.

By the way honey, don't forget to pick-up some ho-ho's - just in case.