Much To Be Thankful For

Five days after Adrienne came home we celebrated Thanksgiving!  This was our last Thanksgiving all together as a family for a couple years.  Adrienne just got here and in a few short months Jacob will be leaving on his mission.  General conference this year brought some exciting news for Jacob.  The age for male missionaries has dropped from 19 to 18 making Jacob eligible to go at any time.  He would be leaving right away if we were better prepared. Honestly, I was never really sure Jacob would serve a mission.  But Jacob has proven to me in the last couple years that there is NOTHING he cannot do when he puts his mind to it and with the Lord's help.  Because of the autism, we never set up a missionary fund for him, so we are doing some make up saving now, which has been a bit tricky with so many of us going to college.  But we have been extremely blessed and know we are doing the right thing.  Jacob is working full time at Basic American Foods processing potatos and should have his half of the missionary costs covered in a few more months. He plans to get his papers in after the first of the year.  Because this was his last year with us for a couple years, it was a happy day for us all!  I am so grateful to have my family all together with me!

We had quite a Thanksgiving feast this year!  It was our first year doing everything and it turned out fabulous!  Adrienne was so much help!  She helped me make a pumpkin pie, an apple pie and a cherry pie!  And she helped with rolls and turkey roll ups!  It was as fun preparing it all as it was eating it all!  Richard is a wiz with turkey's and this year it was perfectly seasoned and so moist and juicy!  I had planned for us to eat off this meal all weekend, but we ran out on Saturday afternoon!

For fun we watched Arthur Christmas and it was really cute.  I must say it was really nice this year just staying in and enjoying the family!