Thankful in November!

I've been thinking a lot about Gratitude lately. 

Happiness hinges on it. 

Whatever is making me worried and sad these days, 

my thankfulness for all of the things 

that don't do that far overwhelm those that do.

I feel my Savior's love and I count my many blessings!

We were surprised early in November with a visit from our youngest daughter, Mindy. 

I mean, the doorbell rang and there she was! 

Her husband and another couple met up with her in St. George two days later on their way to Las Vegas, 

but for a couple of days, we caught up with her and she reorganized my gift wrap storage 

and our under-the-bathroom sinks and my makeup drawer. 

She partners in an organizing business and loves to do it! Really?!

She treated us to lunch at Painted Pony

Beatles music recharged our batteries! 

Oh, so many happy familiar songs that we sang along with at The Fab Four concert at Tuacahn 

with Jim and Kathy Jensen.

Tribute to America

Veteran's Day we started bright and early.

First stop was a free Grand Slam breakfast at Denny's for Vets. 
Many people came up and shook Roger's hand all day long and thanked him for his service. 
Another Vet drew this cartoon for Roger.

Roger golfed with three friends, Jay Taylor, Steve Whitmer and Mike Anderson, at Coyote Springs, 
which is about an hour and a half from St. George toward Vegas.

We hosted Aggie Night on the 15th. 
We invited Steve (a USU Aggie) and Viki Whitmer to join us.

We played Five Crowns after dinner and teased, reminisced and laughed a lot!

Cute granddaughter, Sadie, brought three of her roommates to stay with us over that same weekend 
and they met up with five BYU boys who stayed in Hurricane at one of their homes. 
They hiked to Angel's Landing in Zion just before there was a rockslide with one rock as big as a refrigerator. 
Yikes! So glad they were safe! 
On Sunday, they all attended our branch and sang in INSTA-CHOIR. 
Of course I fed them after church with a huge pot of my tomato soup 
and 22 grilled cheese sandwiches!

Roger took this pic off of our deck

We put together some little treat bundles for our Pathway kids for Thanksgiving. 

We are seeing some progress in some of the shy ones participating. We love these kids!

We left for Mesa to stay with Stacy, Tom and family on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving 

and we stopped at the Apple store and had lunch at El Segundo in Las Vegas.

We shared fish tacos.

We love to stay with this wonderful family! Roger calls it The Four Seasons. 
They treat us with so much love.

Stacy was busy decorating when we arrived. She said it is the first time she has ever put up Christmas 
before Thanksgiving, but it falls so late this year and she didn't host Thanksgiving this year. 
It was at Jimbo's (Tom's brother) and Sham's.

Stacy planned all kinds of fun things for us to do together. We went to a couple of great movies, 
"Frozen ll" and "Harriet,"  Harriet Tubman's important story.
 We held our traditional Turkey Bowl, though it wasn't official because our whole family wasn't there. 
Roger was the adult winner, wearing his bowling shoes and using his ball from the 70's!
Anna won the senior division kids and Luke, the junior division.

We didn't eat until about 4:30, so we had lots of time to prepare our food assignments - 
mashed potatoes, candied yams and apple and pumpkin pies.

The Potato-peeling Brigade

Grandma Lois always grinds up her apples, which Stacy did, but she put on a Dutch apple crust 
instead of a regular one. It was delicious!

She baked three pumpkin pies using Grandma's recipe.

Ready to go to Jimbo's

Sham and Jimbo are awesome! They made us feel so welcome!
Tom and Jimbo's parents, Sherry and Grit, Sham's mom and dad and two sisters with their families were also there, as well as a niece's family. 
They live in an area of Gilbert where they can raise animals and they have built a lovely home.

Bros

Sham rescued these wild Guinea hens from drowning. She loves animals!

Sham's dad, Dave, recently retired after a long career flying for American Airlines.
He's a great guy!

A delicious bounty of traditional Thanksgiving food

Sham and her mom and sisters set the tables so beautifully!

Londyn with Grandpa Grit

Grandma Pam, Grandma Sherry and Grandma Christine, Sham's mom

Pie time!

Stacy brought a giant Hershey bar to share!

After Thanksgiving, Max and Luke each made a gingerbread house.
Here is Max's.

They also put up the rest of their Christmas decorations. I just took a shot looking up to the second floor.

Saturday night the Young's, the Gilbert's and we were invited to Ryan and Emily's for pizza 
and to watch the BYU game.
(Sigh!)

Sunday morning we met for, "Come Follow Me" discussion with the family.
It is one of our favorite things to do when we visit our kids' families.
After church we had a delicious pork tenderloin dinner.

Sunday night, Ry, Em and family came over for a visit before we had to return to St. George next morning.

We have so very much to give thanks for!