Gratitude and Charity and Thanksgiving

I know Thanksgiving is over, but since I didn't get around to posting earlier, this is a late Thanksgiving post! For all of the days in November leading up to Thanksgiving, I decided to post on Facebook one thing that I was grateful for.  At first it was just a fun game that a lot of my FB friends were playing so I decided to play along. After a few days I found myself lying in bed everynight thinking about what I was going to be thankfuk for the next day. Every night was an overwhelming list of things, and I had the hardest time deciding which to post. I was never able to post all of them, because there are SO many wonderful things in my life, especially things I take for granted. That was probably one of the most uplifting "games" I have ever played! So, on that note, I'd just like to express my gratitude for all the people who have infulenced my life (for better or worse) and helped me become a better person.  I am especially grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Without my savior in my life, I don't know where I'd be, but I'm pretty certain I'd never be as happy as I am now!
In my rush to get my visiting teaching done before Thanksgiving, I searched for a quick little thought to give since there was no designated message for the month.  I found this little card that had 2 quotes that I thought were a PERFECT way to start the Christmas Season...

President Monson teaches: "Charity is having patience with someone who has let us down. It is resisting the impulse to become offended easily. It is accepting weakness and shortcomings. It is accepting peopel as they truly are. It is looking beyond physical appearances to attributes that will not dim through time. It is resisting the impulse to categorize others."

"When we havecharity, we are willing to serve and help others when it is inconvenient and with no thought of recognition or reciprocation. We don't wait to be assigned to help, because it becomes our very nature. As we choose to be kind, caring, generous, patient, accepting, forgiving, inclusinve, and selfless, we discover we are abounding in charity." -Silvia H Allred

I've always looked at charity as just doing something for someone in need, but it's good to recognize that charity is more than just that, it's basically an unconditional love for everyone around us. I can handle the kind acts of service, but the unconditional love is one I need to work on, so that is my goal for this month and the coming year.

Anyway, enough of the "journal" and on to pictures.....


First Snow day (11/5):

I learned that you can print (with your computer printer!) on Fabric! That opens up SO many possibilities! I was ECSTATIC, so I made a cute little Thanksgiving sign to add to my lonely wreath!

The boys found a secret hide out.....

We put up the tree the Saturday before Thanksgiving so that we could do our Black Friday shopping and not have to hurry home from visiting parents to put up the tree (because I insist on having it up by the weekend after Thanksgiving :)

Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. The boys and I spent Wednesday hanging out with my mom and sister. Griff had his 18 mo check up that day also. He is growing, but slowly.... he's in the 8th percentile for weight, 15th for height and 45th for head circumference!   (At that age, Deegan's head was about 90th percentile, so I'm happy with 45! :-)

Thursday we spent the day with Adam's parents, brother and G & G Powell. We took the boys to see "Arthur Christmas" with Adam's parents in the morning. It was a cute movie and it was fun to see Deegan get excited. Griffin was excited too, but mostly just excited at all the open places he could run through the theater... Oh well, I got my workout for the day!  After the movie we went home and had dinner. At 6 that evening, Keli and I went to Walmart to wait in line until 10 pm for an Xbox with Kinect.  We quickly made friends with the 2 groups in front and the one behind us, and had a lot of fun talking, planning, playing cards and relaxing.  Brett and my dad cam and joined us after a little while as well, and it was really just a fun night! We of course got our Xbox's and went out to fight the lines... They were totasl chaos, but something about the chaos is just fun for me!  Adam and I normally just get up around 5 and go to whatever stores look appealing at the time, rather than planning and waiting in lines, but since the stores were all opening early on Thursday instead, we changed it up a little this year. 

Overall it was just a fun weekend with family, and I can't wait to do it all again for Christmas!