Thanksgiving Tradition

 We celebrate Thanksgiving with our own family traditions. Our favorite is a seafood feast instead of Turkey.  Yum!

Happy Day of Giving!

I worked 12 hours yesterday! I am too old for this, however my most favorite part of the day was getting to deliver Thanksgiving boxes to families in need! So much fun! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

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! 

In A Cabin In The Woods

We went camping in May to Stub Steward State Park and really loved it. It is right along the Banks-Vernonia Trail and they have some wonderful cabins to stay in. A few months ago we decided to spend Thanksgiving with our own little family in a cabin. So I reserved one and on Wednesday afternoon we headed out! Since I was able to get the pet friendly cabin, Gidget got to accompany us!

We stopped by Main Street Pizza in Banks and picked up some dinner, YUM! We had a nice break in the rain so we could unload our supplies and then the rain started again. Our cabin was tucked farthest back from the parking area...and the bathrooms! I loved the location. It was so clear that first night we could see so many beautiful stars! Although the cabins were all reserved, it was very quiet and many of the cabins stood empty! Perhaps we were brave to face the rainy cold weather. Once inside the cabin we turned up the heat and settled in, it was really cozy.

It rained heavily through the night and all of Thanksgiving. So we decided to postpone our cornish game hen/corn on the cob and baked potato dinner until Friday and had crock pot stew instead. We stayed indoors and played scrabble and Cranium. We napped and the kids played some video games. Normally we would not have let them bring along their DS and games, but since we knew we would be indoors a lot, we made an exception! Friday was beautiful, alternating between blue skies and deep fog. Adrienne and I took Jake out and about and had a Senior Picture photo shoot. It was fun! The kids did a lot of playing outside and Richard built a roaring fire over which we made doughboys with a yummy pumpkin filling. I am so thankful for my family!













My big furry bear!!!