I Love the Holidays!

We had an AWESOME Thanksgiving weekend! It all started with Stephanie coming on Tuesday. She had to skip Chemistry to be able to make a flight home, but I don't think she was too upset about it!

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner thanks to everyone pitching in! On Wednesday, I had to work so Stephanie made the grocery list and her and Del did the shopping and gathering of supplies. That evening Lisa made her pick, red jello, and Mark helped me make my pick, cranberry jello salad. We were excited to be using my new Bosch I just gotten due to my old one giving out after 26 years of hard labor. It is way cooler sporting a quieter motor and way more settings! Well, in a snap we had everything all mixed in and blending it up. However, after several minutes....what seemed like two hours to me....the top few cranberries just wouldn't fall down the dark tunnel! It was blending and blending and they were going round and round and just wouldn't give in and embrace their fate. Well, it was late and I was so tired and I just wanted the dumb thing done and was getting very impatient. Even though this should have been the simplest of tasks, in that moment I was glad to have Mark at my side to help me get this job done! However, unbeknownst to him, it is best that the smarter one stay FAR away from the tired one because as the smarter one (Mark) turned off the blender and took off the lid to stir it, I was thinking, "oh, if we turn it to pulse then it would go the other way and, you know, make them little stinkers go......well.....let's just say in the end that Mark said one of his dreams had finally come true! He had always wanted the experience of having a blender "blow up" and spew stuff EVERYWHERE (on accident of course)! Yes, it did take me an hour to clean red, sticky, chunky cranberry wetness off the floor, cabinets, refrigerator, clothes and out of hair......but......in the end, I was the maddest that I had forgot to take a picture of it for this blog! :)

Mark's "pick" was to FRY the turkey this year. He had tried it on his mission and loved it and so we borrowed a fryer from a friend and him and Del rigged it up and did it. It did turn out really moist and very yummy. They were pretty proud of the whole thing!

We also had ham since that is everyone's favorite over turkey and Mark found a very yummy glaze recipe that was amazing! Lisa helped me make rolls, 80 in all, while Del peeled and cooked the potatoes. We were such a team! It was awesome! We not only enjoyed great food, we enjoyed each other and being together and working together and remembering all the wonderful things we are blessed with.We have a tradition of doing puzzles on holidays and we usually do at least a couple of 1000 piece ones on Thanksgiving but, for some reason, we only go this one done:
it's PROBABLY because Stephanie was sleeping on the job ;)........
Since Stephanie had to leave on the Saturday morning flight, we ended up cramming a lot into a few days. She had started to set up the tree Wednesday night and, with a little help from me Thanksgiving night, put the rest of the lights on it so that she could as least get her ornaments on it before she left.

On Friday, Mark worked the "BLACK FRIDAY" shift at Best Buy from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. and came home very tired, of course....

Del went on a Friday - Saturday trip and so since the boys were working, us girls went to see Twilight and loved it. While Lisa went with friends, Steph and I did some shopping, assembled Christmas countdowns, took fun pictures using the timer and ran to get into place and laughing so hard that most of them didn't turn out but managed to get a few that did........

and decorated some of the tree while Steph and Mark reminisced about making all their elementary ornaments and decorations......

It was great and we even made it to bed before midnight! HooYah! I love my family and I am so grateful for them! I love Thanksgiving because it gives us a chance to stop and really realize how very blessed we are and how much our Heavenly Father loves us and knows what we need to lead happy, peaceful, joyous lives even if we are having trials and hardships! It is all about having a positive attitude and focusing on our blessings and what is important! Recognizing the "tender mercies" and most of all remembering to LAUGH! Laugh at yourself, laugh at mistakes, laugh at silly kids and silly moments! I asked Mark once, "How do you laugh so hard at EVERYTHING?" He said, "It takes practice! You laugh out loud....very loudly....at things that are just a little funny to you and soon you automatically laugh out loud at everything. You should try it, it is fun!" I thought, "You are right, Life is too short....Life is too GREAT, and laughing could only make it better!