Practice Thanksgiving

Yesterday we held our annual "Practice Thanksgiving".  It was a simple affair with my folks and my sister Megan and her family.  I tried a couple of new recipes I found on Pinterest and I wish to thank the bloggers who posted the recipes- I suspect those bloggers don't get thanked quite so much now that Pinterest gets all the credit!

Specifically, I want to thank Emily and Jamie at "Everyday Art" for the Sour Cream Lemon Pie recipe! I combined their recipe with the "Unshrinkable Tart Shell" from Smitten Kitchen and created some pretty little tartlettes that I totally failed to photograph (too much time away from blogging to remember that kind of thing now!)  I will only be doing a few of the desserts this year (gotta let others have some fun too and all of my sisters are good cooks).

We got a good 12" of snow over the weekend and it felt so good to just hunker down with my family.  Anna performed in the Primary Program at church while Logan and Bethany savored the fact that they are now too old to have to do it anymore.  My parents are troopers because they sat through attended 3 Primary Programs (an annual event in our church where the kids sing the songs they've learned and put on a Christ-centered program for the congregation). 3!!!!

I was so busy putting the meal on that I failed to take a lot of photos. I did get the ONE out-of-focus shot above of my Mom feeding my Dad his dinner because the twins would NOT let Grandpa put them down! Megan's set of baby twins reminds me of what it was like when I had my own set of baby twins. I think my life is loud and crazy now but whenever the little ladies are here I'm suddenly reminded of how much easier, physically at least, life is now!

The photo is precious to me even though it's fuzzy because it doesn't require any trick of the camera to see the loving relationship the babies have built with my folks already. Like all little children, the babies adore my Dad who is the kindest, gentlest man ever.  He's the kind of Daddy every girl should have and so few ever get to experience.  It's because of his beautiful example of HOW to be a great person, father and Husband that all 5 of his daughters found the perfect match for them and we're all still married.  We knew what to look for in a man and marriage because we lived it in our home growing up.    That is just one of the many, many things I am grateful for this year!