happy thanksgiving in the snow

We are headed to California over Christmas break so we headed to Utah for Thanksgiving.

The first thing I want to say is that I get a cold sore every.single.time. we go to Utah for Thanksgiving.  I'd like to thank Tod for giving me this herpe virus (is it a virus?) and also thank God for allowing it each year....it keeps me humble.  You never want to look TOO good.

Family 5K Thanksgiving morning.  Did Lennon get lost and ask a man for help and then get in his car and GET A RIDE?  Yes.  But did I run my fastest 5K?  Yes.  So for me...it worked out.

In this picture above I'm hugging my grandpa Larry.  What I also did was try to crop out my cold sore.  So there's a lot going on.

The day before Thanksgiving, my mom and I baked pies.  Jordan made amazing sweet potatoes, Shantay brought a gorgeous salad and the rolls were perfect.  

Tod asked how he could help so I told him he'd be in charge of the turkey.  He said he could manage it between football games.

What you're looking at is a turkey that has been cooked three hours too long.  We haven't even eaten or carved it yet; it fell apart at first touch.  Please look at my mom's face (above).  Tod is lucky she likes him because when she said for everyone to leave the kitchen I think she really meant it.

I don't even like turkey so I was fine.  I think a few other people were slightly disappointed.

After dinner we turned on music and Ruby started dancing.  Then my mom started and then Tommy and Shantay.  Pretty soon, we were all dancing.

At one point I looked up and my mom was laughing with Bill and Bill's daughter Jordan was dancing with her daughter Brynlie.  My kids were dancing with Tod while Shantay filmed it.  Tommy was bouncing Cooper and making him giggle.  Bill's kids lost their mom to cancer when they were 12 and 14.  And we lost my dad at the young age of 56.  I looked around the room and thought of all the hard stuff life throws at us but how light always peeks through.  All that loss is what brought these people into the same room on Thanksgiving.  The house was full of light and happiness and hope.  I want to remember that moment forever.

Movies with Millie's kids and 2/3 of Ann Dee's kids then mine.  Remember when we were young and learning how to drive stick shifts in church parking lots?  When did all this happen???

I want to say that I was the one who braided Ruby's hair.  This was a huge feat.

BYU Museum of Art had a Norman Rockwell exhibit that was amazing.  It looked like Larry was in half of them.

CougarEat for dinner afterwards.  Mom and Dad told the kids stories of all the time they spent eating there together in college and the kids couldn't have cared less.

I'd like to thank Costco for having real winter coats for sale this year even though it's 60 degrees in Vegas.

Snowy walk to the car.  I took this picture because sometimes I wonder how I lived so many years without these five.  

Thankful doesn't cover it.