Sunday, November 29, 2015
Thanksgiving Week
I was off my groove at the beginning of this week, so it was an interesting one. I’ve been trying out relaxed mornings, letting the kids wake up when they are ready (with a limit, of course), and haven’t pushed morning practicing. It makes for a less-stressed out mom, but I’m not sure I love how mornings have been going. These staggered school start schedules are not fun, but that’s the name of the game forever more, so I need to work better with it. Ah, the ups and downs of family scheduling and routines.
Monday, November 23
Mark asked Jon to play Battleship with him, and being the nice dad that he is, Jon complied.
Tuesday, November 24
Wednesday, November 25
Thursday, November 26 - Thanksgiving
Friday, November 27
Saturday, November 28
Sunday, November 29
Our neighbors had Jon’s team install their all-season smart lights on Monday. The Santa hats were a cool bonus!
I must be in Utah! This is in our optometrist’s office! Also, at Amy’s orthodontist visit, I listened as the orthodontist shared his feelings with his two assistants, me (and Amy in whose mouth his hands were working) about the atonement, relating to his good friend, a dentist, who just passed away at a young age. It’s pretty neat when you can be brought close to tears by the Spirit in an office like that.
We reveled in our holiday without school! I woke up to the sounds of my boys practicing their instruments, doing all they’re supposed to to earn their time on screens. It’s a glorious sound! I had planned to jump rope, but after the boys got on the screens I couldn’t use the speaker system, so went for a run instead. That was nicer than I thought it would be (it wasn’t as cold as I thought, and I got to try out my FlipBelt for the first time -- loved it.)
Jon took Amy to our ward turkey bowl at 10. They had a great time, though Jon broke his pinky finger playing football. Ouch!
I had the boys take breaks from their game playing to help with the house. I found out Monday that we needed to host Thanksgiving. We had to seat 34 people, which I wasn’t sure how we’d manage. The kids helped me do a lot of rearranging furniture for it. Besides cleaning a bunch, we cleared out the basement playroom for only soccer and Nerf guns, hid away most of our school items in the downstairs library and set up the ping pong table in that room, moved the kids’ wooden table upstairs, rolled up and stashed away the living room rug, scooted couches to the side, and set up our two small Lifetime tables in the living room. Other items were shifted as well, and I hid away all I could from the kitchen to make room for the Thanksgiving spread. It took almost the entire day on Wednesday, but some good things came of it.
We watched Mary’s girls for a few hours in the afternoon, which was fun for my kids.
When the group started arriving, it was fun to show them the family tree in the hallway. Having Gommy there was extra golden!
After rearranging the house and cleaning again, we finally redeemed our ward service auction item: a day with the Brintons’ limousine. What a party this was! Jon insisted on opening the door for us as the chauffeur.
After dinner, Barney and Mary came over and dropped off their kids with ours, and the four of us went to the BYU basketball game. It was a fun one. I think it was the first that I’ve seen the Cougars start behind in points. It was exciting to watch them come back and win. Maybe even more exciting was watching Kyle Collinsworth get one rebound short of another Triple Double, which would have been the all-time collegiate record.
I was sick Sunday morning, so Jon got the 4 oldest kids to church. I kept home Mark and Tyler who woke up with colds.
Mark chose this week’s scripture. It has been interesting to ponder how we can, in our own ways, “lay down our life” for others. Sacrifice has been a focus: How can I sacrifice for those I love? What can I give up for their sake?
Jon was nice enough to take the boys to school so Mark and I could take Amy to the orthodontist.
I got to help in Tyler’s Kindergarten class for their Thanksgiving feast. Boy, was it a feast! Moms signed up online to bring various items. After the kids were seated, the moms walked around offering the different foods to the kids. They practiced saying, “No thank you” if the didn’t want it, or “Yes please” if they did. I was surprised that several children chose to try the homemade cranberry sauce. The teacher was surprised that I had many takers for olives. In addition to the regular Thanksgiving foods, the children were offered venison and antelope! I tried a piece of the venison, and it tasted like a gourmet steak to me! Mmmmm mmmmmm!
Tyler chose to be a pilgrim for the feast (every child made both an Indian and Pilgrim hat).
A nice mom set a place at a separate table for Mark and another younger sibling who came. That made it nice for both of us!
At first, when I found out that Jon would be gone and I’d have to bring Mark, I was nervous that it wouldn’t go so well. But I was amazed at how excited Tyler was to have Mark there. When they took a short recess (I was a recess monitor), he took Mark on the playground and showed him the coolest toy there - a working digger!
After the feast, the children gathered on the rug for more stories. Tyler took Mark by the hand to his square, and they took turns scratching each other’s backs. I just about died, it was so cute!
Tyler proudly introduced Mark to his teachers and friends. When we left, several children said goodbye to Mark, specifically. This was such a cute experience. I’m so glad I went and that I brought Mark along!
I couldn’t also be at Andrew’s Thanksgiving party, but sent him with 2 dozen cookies, which Amy graciously made.
Tuesday, I finished half of phase two of my family history wall: I added at least one image per ancestor that represents something interesting about them. This was so fun to do, and has sparked interest in the kids in their ancestors!
For example, the honey represents a time, when on the pioneer trail to Utah, when food was being rationed, Edward sneaked some honey. The mother of another family noticed, and chastised Edward’s mother, telling her that she should hide the honey unless she wanted her son to sneak it. Edward’s mother replied that she would like Edward to be able to see the honey, but to choose to obey and not take it... but that he would not have taken any unless he was very hungry.
The picture of the oil lamp and Brigham Young: Ellen had a beautiful voice, and President Young would always request for her to sing when he came to town. On one occasion, she was wearing a new white dress while singing for him. He leaned over to see better, knocked over the lamp and apologetically asked her if it had spoiled her dress. She noted that he called her “Little Miss”, even though she was soon to be married, so didn’t feel like a “little miss.”
Several images have made someone whose picture otherwise doesn’t look too interesting to my kids, very exciting. Take Rhoda Elizabeth, who doesn’t look too interesting ...until you notice the wolf eyes! While sleeping outdoors in California shortly after arriving there, before the family was able to build a home, she woke up to a pair of animal’s eyes. She quickly pulled the covers over her head. Then her sister, sleeping next to her said, “Liz, you stop pinching me!” She replied, “It wasn’t me, but it’s something!” and they began to scream. It frightened the animal away, but it returned three times in the night. Two mornings later, the men shot a large wolf, and the girls knew they had had a narrow escape. NOW how cool is she?!
This has been so fun to compile. Amy has helped me gather information and stories on the ancestors. We have been relying almost exclusively on Family Search, so it’s a huge blessing when people add stories there! I began by calling my parents to get their quick responses to the one-thing per person idea. That helped a ton and saved me loads of time. After researching Family Search dry, I called my Grandma Fish to ask about her grandparents. That was really fun because she remembers them and was able to help me. Besides, I love to hear my grandma’s voice... and I love that she calls me Jenni.
The second half of this phase, will of course be gathering the same information for Jon’s side of the family and then finding pictures for each person. Amy had fun researching the South side, and only found stories on two people, so we’ll be hitting up M’Jean for some help.
“....And the hearts of the children shall turn to their fathers” D&C 2:2 / Malachi 4:6
Jon took me to the BYU basketball game, which was fun. I love being with Jon, and we have great seats! Weston picked us up, and always manages to get a super close parking spot. I really enjoy going to the games.
After that, I made two batches of rolls, which kept me up (because of all the waiting to rise) until 1:30 in the morning. While waiting, I finished cutting out the name cards, which I had laminated. I found leaf name cards from 11 years ago when I hosted the Lunds and Heaps at our place. I had cards for everyone but Mary and Gommy, so made those. I made new leaves (using my Silhouette to cut them) for all of the kids. I laminated the whole batch to make them last.
Amy continued her detective work on Family Search, working on the one-thing project for the Lund side of our family tree.
I jumped rope, practiced with Andrew and Tyler, and made sure Adam and the girls practiced. I made another batch of rolls, vacuumed again, had the kids mop, and Amy helped me set the tables.
Since we did so much work Wednesday, Thursday morning was fairly relaxing. The kids hung out in the library, reading books and chatting.
This red flannel shirt is one of Adam’s favorites. I couldn’t resist getting matching shirts for his brothers. I just love it!
The meal was absolutely delicious!
It was a little miraculous to me that we were able to seat 34 people in our living-dining area!
Barney brought 6 chairs, and other than that, we had enough tables and seating. Phew!
Jon, Tess and M’Jean are missing from the big table.
I have hosted Thanksgiving at my house 8 times in the last 15 years. (In 2010 and 2011, we ate at Cracker Barrel, and then came back to our house for games and socializing.) That’s a lot of hosting! Of those 8 times, 4 times were with the Lund side only, 2 times with Heap side only, and 1 time we hosted both. This time was by far the largest though (14 adults and 20 kids)! The runner up for me was 2013 when I hosted the Heaps at my house, including Sharon and Jake (10 adults, 13 kids).
I’m grateful to my kids for all their hard work with me the day before this, and for everyone bringing the yummies. I made a ton of rolls, but Barney and Devin did the turkey.
So many cousins, so many friends!
The kids ran around a lot, and played in the basement. The boys all played Halo together as well. We only let our boys do this on special occasions, and it was extra fun to do this with cousins!
Pies were brought out, and the socializing continued.
Silly!
We got to ask Gommy some questions about her parents and grandparents, and it was all so interesting! Gommy is a treasure!
My favorite part of the day was playing Around the World ping pong with Devin, Molly, Barney, Natalie and Amy. I was so proud of my girls for holding their own! They were able to return a lot of difficult shots, and just did well! It felt awesome to get our hearts pumping after the big meal.
Besides the socializing, there was some silly time with interpretive dance in the living room while Tess played the piano. We had some great laughs!
Toward the end of the evening, we put on the Xbox Kinect party games, which the little kids loved and spent so much time doing together. I love that so many can play at once! I knew Tyler would sleep like a rock since he went all out, and never stopped jumping around.
This was a wonderful Thanksgiving! Thanks everyone for making it so great!
We had so much fun riding in the limo together!
To top off the limo ride, Gary gave us enough gift cards to Café Rio to feed our entire family very well! Adam hasn’t ever liked eating there, but we encouraged him to try something new, so he got a steak enchilada... and loved it! The kids all got drinks, and we all got very full!
There was a lot of frolicking in the back of the limousine! We turned up the music, too!
Back at home, the kids did a lot of Dance Central, which is so fun to watch! The Xbox has been hidden away for probably a year now, so it has been a big treat for the kids to get it back. Adam earned it back by keeping his room clean, doing all of his homework and chores, and doing an extra chore every day for a solid week. He worked really hard, and was so eager to do his extra chores. That was super nice.
That night, we picked up the Hafens and Megan in the limo, and drove to Seven Peaks for The North Pole attraction. Gary also hooked us up with free admission to this with extra punch cards.
I think the favorite was the sledding race.
It was very cold outside, and there was a long wait for the ride down the lazy river. It was cool once we got in our boat. I rode with Adam and Tyler. We could steer and power our own boat, and there were really cute things to look at on the journey.
After that, we warmed up by a fire. We all decided to skip the train ride. Most of the group took one more sledding ride down the track, and then Jon picked us up in the limo again.
We stopped by Little Caesar’s on our way home and bought a bunch of pizzas. At home, Jon made hot chocolate for everyone while we filled our tummies. While we chatted, the boys ran into the room like this. Pretty cute.
The boys had been so eager to put up their Christmas tree and ornaments. Andrew assembled the tree and put on the lights all by himself. That night, they all got to decorate the tree with their ornaments. I love how much they love their ornaments.
Each year, I give each child a new ornament. I called them all into the boys’ room, and let them each open their ornament one by one. They loved them, and it was fun to see their reactions.
Eric and our boys got quite the ride in the man lift! That is our house waaaaaaay below them!
Family Home Evening was awesome! Both Adam and Andrew had prepared family history stories, which were really fun. They took the kids on a “field trip” to the family tree in the hallway to make sure they all knew how they were connected to the person. In-between their stories, Amy shared a General Conference talk. We reviewed our memorized scriptures, and learned the new one for the week. I feel like there are too many things we need to be doing with our kids, that we need to touch on more than one each FHE. The family history moments have been super awesome.
While Jon, Andrew South and Eric watched a movie at the cabin, I stayed home to finish working on my family tree wall (see below).
We woke up to snow on Saturday. Amy shoveled the Benches’ driveway and steps, and the boys shoveled two others.
After lunch and cleaning the house, the kids played Dance Central and other games together while I decorated for Christmas and did some other things. The kids also helped me with a lot of the decorating.
In the late afternoon, Amy came with me to give the van an oil change, shop for some craft items, and to pick up a few groceries.
In the afternoon, we finished the second half of The Sound of Music, which was awesome. I pointed out the “monkey kiss” which my siblings and I always cracked up at! In this scene, Georg’s silhouette totally looks like a monkey or maybe a character from Star Wars. So funny.
In the evening, we watched The Miracle Maker, which was alright, but not as awesome as the other movies he has done.
Jon and Mark took a nice nap during that one!
I was out the entire day, just lying on the couch or in my bed. After the movies, Jon and I talked for a long time on the couch while the kids were making lots of commotion in the basement, playing something very exciting. I love hearing them play well together.
Mark switched sides after a while, so it turned into Jon vs. Amy, which was a riveting game, and quite an entertainment magnet.
I’m happy that this week, which started out extra tough for me, ended up a nice one (minus the sickness). I’m super grateful for my husband and children and for all that’s good in my life! There is so much to be grateful for!
