Thanks for Thanksgiving

I always feel that if I don't have any photos to post there is no need to post at all, but I am starting to notice that since this is a family journal of sorts, I should probably just be posting. So, here is a post that does not have photos. A lot has happened since Halloween, some bad, some good and some even better. The first thing that happened was Ron Carpenter, EK's Dad, got a blood clot in his leg that was 18cm long and was admitted to the hospital and they had to do surgery to get the blood clot out. He was so lucky to have caught it when he did because from what I understand, that could have been deadly if not caught in time. The bad part about that whole thing happening besides the obvious health concerns for Ron, was that EK was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon during the 4 days of drama. I had no way of getting in touch with him to let him know what was going on, but luckily it turned out great and by the time EK got home his Dad was home from the hospital and in good health.

EK and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary on November 23rd. The funny thing about our anniversary is that we were married the day before Thanksgiving (8 years ago), and on that year the 23rd happened to fall the day before Thanksgiving. This was a mistake because we should have picked a holiday that doesn't change dates every year. It really makes our anniversary hard to remember. This year EK thought our anniversary was on the 24th so on Monday after he didn't say anything to me until about 2pm I finally told him I had scheduled a babysitter and was taking him to dinner at 5:30. He had a surprised look on his face and asked "why", followed immediately with, "for our anniversary... which is.....TODAY???"
I had to do a little convincing to get him to believe me, but after I showed him our Marriage Certificate, he knew for sure. I really don't blame him for getting the day wrong because it took me 6 years of looking at my calendar every year to make sure I even had the day correct.

Thanksgiving was next and it was great. Ethan and Kaiya both had Thanksgiving events at school. Ethan had a Turkey Trot and he did great. They did a drawing at the end of the race and he won a prize. He was very excited. Ethan doesn't realize yet how lucky he is to have a Dad that has the benefit of working from home, because both EK and I were able to attend his Turkey Trot. Kaiya's preschool did a little Thanksgiving feast at preschool and it was fun. Each child was asked to bring 18 bite size pieces to share with the class, so Kaiya picked black olives. She loves them. All the kids dressed up like pilgrims with little brown vests made out of paper grocery bags and little hats with paper feathers in them. I really wish my camera would have been in my purse for both these events. Then on the actual Thanksgiving Day, we all went to my Mom & Dad's for a delicious feast and we got to play the new Super Mario video game that my Mom had bought for their Wii. We all had a great time. The following day we met EK's family at a park and spent time with Ron and Ginny, Jamey and Tara and their kids, and Uncle Jerry, Aunt Janet and their kids and grandkids. It was a great Thanksgiving weekend.  It was a busy November, but it was a great time to reflect on our blessings and to be grateful for all that we have, especially the blessing of being able to live so close to family and see them on a regular basis.