Family...Food...Can't get better than that!

I always look forward to Thanksgiving, but this year it snuck up on me. We moved to a different house in town. A house that my in-laws built. We've decided rather than try to sell our house while living in it that we would move out and rent from my in-laws, sell our house and then look for a bigger house or buy land and build. Right now it would have to be a pretty awesome house to get me to move again! I have a love/hate relationship with moving. I like being able to "home in" different places, yet I long to find a home that we can grow old in.

We decided to have Thanksgiving at our place this year. It wasn't a big crowd, but big enough to fill the table with laughter. I decided to cook the turkey the Martha Stewart way. You slather the turkey with butter, then drape over it 4 layers of cheesecloth that has been dipped in melted butter and chicken broth (although she calls for butter and white wine). Well, by the end of the cooking time the cheesecloth looks so brown. Jesse's brother Sam cracked me up when he sat at the table (starving) and with a bit of sarcasm said, "Yeah, I'm really looking forward to your Griswald turkey joyce!" (anyone who's seen The Lampoon's Christmas Vacation movie knows what happens to the turkey). I just laughed because he didn't know that it was the cheesecloth that looked so torched and underneath the turkey was a beautiful golden brown skin. It was the juiciest turkey! If I don't say so myself. So amongst all of the boxes that were semi unpacked we enjoyed a nice dinner. Jesse and Sam played football for almost 4 hours with a group of friends and missionaries and were soooo exhausted and sore.

The next day we packed up and headed to Hobbs to see my sisters and mom. June had me take some snap shots of her family. We always get goofy when we're around each other and we were still on our "New Moon" high and were striking some silly poses for the camera. We would take a snap shot, look at it, and laugh so hard that the tears were coming and I could barely breath! I couldn't keep a straight face with Bella trying to climb up my leg because she had enough of our photo shoot. :) We were also going for the look you see on the covers of most 80 s albums where everyone's looking in different directions. Funny stuff. I always have so much fun with June and the rest of my family. June, I hope you don't mind all of the pictures I posted of you, but you're just so beautiful inside and out that I couldn't help myself! You're always so upbeat and positive and that kind of thinking is contagious. I'm just sad that I didn't get shots of the rest of my family.

I'm thankful for my dearest husband and my little children, for my family (both blood and in-laws), I love you guys so much and miss the ones who are away! Most of all I'm thankful for being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I would not be able to truly appreciate my family without knowing what brings us true happiness and that's the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Anyone who takes the time to study it will know as well. I hope I can live my life worthy of these blessings and more. Looking forward to Christmas!