Well I made it through only missing one day for a picture. I pushed my camera to it’s maximum a lot of times as I forgot to grab it until it was already dark. Perhaps someone will want to buy me a new camera for the holidays or my birthday next week ya know 🙂 Either way I am very thankful for our little family, willing to jump in and take our silly pictures together, mostly cooperating and working as a team. Couldn’t imagine it any other way. I’m excited to see what will be in store for us next year as Josie starts full time school in kindergarden, Celia continues to become her own person and Jordi and I work to maintain our sanity.

Right now while the girls are young they will do all sorts of hokey things, like this thankfulness chart which we have been keeping as a family. Every night at dinner we try to sit down and think of things we’re thankful for. Josie usually overflows with ideas, trying to get a day or two ahead. Celia somehow always wanted to be thankful for the number 4, but then got the idea and switched to being thankful for the people in her lives for almost every opportunity. I have been trying to do something like this with the girls each year, we had a thankful tree last year.  I’m thankful that they’re up for new ideas and full of gratitude and appreciation, at least when asked to think of something. We finished it up tonight and Josie wants to keep going. I know the years that they’ll tolerate me doing this will not last forever!

How could I go this long and not be thankful for Jordi? Well I didn’t go this long with our family thankfulness you can be sure. Jordi started off this month having to be me and him for our family, because I couldn’t walk with the sprained ankle and carry anything so he took over the meals, shopping and the laundry too in addition to his regular work. A real super-man. And after I took this picture that night, our upstairs neighbor Kristen knocked on our door as we were about to go to bed and needed a ride to the hospital as her husband was out of town and Jordi took her and stayed with her until 5:30am when she was admitted, and then of course got up and went to work a few hours later. He goes the extra mile for all of us!

And last but not least of the cats, Ezzy and Kaya. Kaya has been living with my parents since around March of this year since she wasn’t getting along so well with Fred and George. She’s a very happy cat there, they’re not vegetarians and she gets to run the whole house. Ezzy doesn’t particularly seem to miss her, but they did go to the vet together and clearly still knew who the other one was as they were cordial. Ezzy has really turned a corner lately with her new heart medicine and fewer painful teeth, she’s up for more cuddles and more playtime which is great to see in a 14 year old cat!

My loving little boy cat, he’s generally up in my lap every day after lunch always looking for a snuggle. He wants to cuddle Celia when she’s going to bed, even though it wakes her up more and he’s inbetween me and Jordi in the morning wanting more and more pets when we start to move. And he claws on the rug, like right now as I type. I can’t believe he’s 11 years old!

Sunday after Thanksgiving we got to do it all over again, although with me cooking this time instead of just enjoying the fruits of everyone elses labor. My parents made the pie and supplied some leftover Turkey. It’s great to have my parents so close by so they can see the kids and be involved in our day to day lives, pitching in when needed and celebrating the small moments.

[Please don’t judge the photo, had to use flash, everyone was hungry]

I am thankful for my kids and just life in general about teaching grace and forgiveness for mistakes. We all make them and I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist and harp on them, which isn’t really doing anyone any good. So for instance, I missed taking a picture this day as we were just getting home and trying to get settled again after a week away. So here’s a picture from Thanksgiving of me and Jordi, cause I made a mistake and forgot to grab the camera sooner.

“take your finger out of your nose and say cheese!”

And it wasn’t said by me, it was Josie to Celia playing with her camera. She’s direct at least.

Josie and Celia also had a great time with Jordi’s sister Vanessa. She played and baked cookies with Josie. She unfortunately had to work a lot this trip but we had a great time with her for the time we got. She’ll be graduating with her masters shortly too!

I’m thankful for Thanksgiving as it gives us all a time to remember to express our gratitude, and I extend it for my little family to go all month long with a whole chart of things we’re thankful for each day of November. It also gives us a reason to gather with family, Jordi’s side in this case for a huge party of 34.