Thanksgiving Smiles

A long rambling list of things that made me smile this past week. There should be a prize if you make it to the end, because there are no pictures. Read only if you don't have to be anywhere in a hurry.

308. FHE - Operation Christmas Child and and School Board Meeting edition. Last Sunday we found out that the deadline for a shoebox was Monday. So, Monday after school we hurried to put together a box. What made me smile was watching my children scour the house. The kids had terrific ideas for things to go inside, like lengths of ribbon for hair bows. They used what we had and filled the box quickly. They felt so good, and kept saying, "I bet our little girl is going to LOVE this box." It's like I could see their hearts growing.
Afterward Sue and Lou came to a school board meeting with me. It was fun to see the girls trying to puzzle out what everyone was talking about.

309. Outlining. (This is the boring entry. You can skip ahead if you want.)

So - I signed up for Nanowrimo this year. With the book fair and other real life going on, I don't think I'll be winning. To get a little extra done in November anyway, I went to my new favorite meet-friends-and-write coffee shop. They weren't there this week. Something about a big holiday.
So - I sat alone and outlined. It went so quickly, it was like it outlined itself. The outline's not finished, but there is some direction. I was so happy to see a story arch beginning to take shape in this thing I've been working on for a year and a half! But then I realized. I'm only up to item four on what is so far a 12 part outline. I really need to up my productivity.

310. Stealth Puns.
Me, talking about something or other with Oldest. "Sometimes change is hard."
Oldest, "That's why coins are made out of metal."

311. Fun Dinner. A 22 pound turkey that is already gone but for soup. Awesome sweet potatoes with the BEST brown sugar topping ever. (And apparently more good stuff in the potatoes.) Green beans, mashed potatoes and rolls. And PIES. Lots of pies. Pumpkin cheesecake, Lemon, the first-ever attempt at an apple pie by one guest (great job!), pecan, and cherry. Yum. Sue did a great job carving a "Happy B-Day Mom" top into our cherry. There's nothing like Thanksgiving Birthday Pie. It didn't quite look like it was on fire. According to the candles I'm 26. I can rent a car, and my insurance rates are lower.

312. The world coming out to celebrate my birthday. It was so nice of everyone to celebrate wherever they were with a nice big dinner. The parade was a nice touch, too. Loved the phone calls!

313. Can you do this? The card game Pit in different voices. Opera. Or Whisper. My sister-in-law and I were laughing so hard we couldn't even play. Just try to whisper, "One!"

314. Cool Birthday presents. A manni-pedi gift certificate from Mr. C. Can't wait to use that! (Though I'm debating saving the pedi until sandal season.) And a VERY COOL T-shirt from the parents. Encouragement to write. It made me smile. My first official writing T-shirt!!

315. Black Friday Madness. Black Friday can be so fun. It's like a huge party. Mostly everyone is nice and points out where the good deals are or tells you about the other great sale, or the back of the store where you can check out faster. Only saw a couple of grumps. We have a new theory that all the grumpy shoppers stay home so they can avoid the crowds. Those that are left are so much fun! The only sad part is finding out later about the cool deal you missed!
Even Mr. C and his brother got out on Black Friday for their first early morning shopping expedition EVER. Of course, they went to Cabela's. So does that count as shopping, or hunting?

316. Catching the Ohio State Michigan Game - At the beginning! I started asking my family, "Do you KNOW what's on TV?" "Do you know WHAT'S on TV?" Of course they didn't. But once I had enlightened them and done my "Can you believe how cool this is?" dance they understood. And my kids came and watched most of the first quarter with me before they wandered off. Meanwhile Mr. C. nodded like it was great and went off to mow leaves and clean the garage. But I got to see things like a full field return touchdown 12 seconds after Michigan scored. It was beautiful. (Ohio did so well that I'll admit I wandered off myself some time in the 4th quarter. It was 37 to 7!)
The only down side of the day was that none of the little score updates at the bottom of my screen were telling me what was happening at the BYU - U of U game!

I know. I'm the only one who watches football in my house. Weird.

317. Compromise and Christmas Trees. A special thank you to Mr. C. for being the bigger person on our Christmas tree cutting expedition. We'll get his kind next year and vote on which worked best. But now, he was so sweet that I wish his tree was this year.

318. Another Missionary Farewell. Sniff. Brother Deshler's sweet remarks about these young men growing in stature with God and man. How they have grown so far and how they will. Beautiful.

319. Blessings and prayer. We know so many people with health problems, employment issues, etc. And today on the way to a meeting we saw a huge apartment fire. (Two families from our ward live there. We stopped and made sure their buildings weren't the ones affected just in case. We felt so bad for those out of their homes.)We are learning to pray for a long list of people. It has made my desire to serve increase. After all, those same problems could so easily be mine. It has made me hold my blessings up to the light with a little more tenderness. There is always something to be thankful for. And my life, with all the subterranean problems that try to mine away at it, is still full of beautiful blessings and smiles.

Are you tired yet? I am. That was long. Hopefully I'm a bit more caught up now. Just need to add in a few concerts.