Thankful

Recently I had someone tell me that I seemed to be one of those people to whom life comes easily, and that I didn't appear to have any trials. Of course, as any person would, I beg to differ, because we all struggle with many things in our lives whether or not they are visible to anyone else.

But this Thanksgiving, I chose to be grateful. Today in Church we talked about the blessing of being content. It doesn't matter who you are or what your special circumstances are. You can be thankful for the things you have and the blessings that are so abundantly showered down...and they are...on ALL of us.

I know this is supposed to be my Thanksgiving post, but in this lesson (now in December) we talked about Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and looked at the many people Dickens wove into the story, and what we stood to learn from each one of them. We talked about Scrooge's nephew Fred who ALWAYS extended his annual invitation to Christmas dinner, expecting rejection, yet nevertheless unwaivering in his attempt at a family connection with his uncle. Then there was Fezziwig and his wife who were joyful, cheerful, delightful, and very generous. Of course, there are the Kratchits. Bob made next to nothing, but had such a great treasure. His family loved one another. They cared for and loved their disabled little brother, and on Christmas morning (before the visits of the three spirits) Bob Kratchit made a toast to Scrooge, the "founder of the feast" which wasn't much of a feast at all.

It was a parallel discussion that followed the Proclamation to the World on the family. Dickens managed to portray such different circumstances in these different characters, yet all seemed to have Truth. They knew the value of family and recognized it as their greatest treasure.

So, this Thanksgiving season helped me reflect on the many blessings I have in the form of the angels that surround me in my family. I have AMAZING parents who are two of my greatest friends. I have AWESOME siblings (and siblings-in-law) that I LOVE to spend time with and learn from. I have the greatest aunts and uncles, and completely cool cousins you could ever imagine. I have wonderful nieces and nephews, and even some great-neices and nephews! I am married to the most indescribably great man I ever could dream of. I have six healthy, happy, and busy children. Yes, I do have much to be thankful for.

So this season, I'll put aside my perhaps disguised trials, and focus on the very obvious blessings I have.

Our Thanksgiving celebration started off the night before. We have sadly realized we can't fit much pie in after all of the turkey and stuffing (of our bodies), so we have pie night before Thanksgiving. Everyone brought pies :)Natalie and Ashton and Elayna

Tiffany and Amy (on supposed bed-rest)

Lauren wants more pie!

Tiffany and Tim took on the gargantuan task of hosting our entire Loveridge family at their home. Not only was it beautifully and tastefully decorated, the spirit was there. Their home just "feels" nice...and that's with 35 people, most of them children, running around.

On Thanksgiving Day, Tim started us off with a spiritual thought on gratitude and Thanksgiving before we started eating. It was a beautiful expression of the gratitude we all feel.
Tiffany's beautiful table decorations

Some of the kids
I think Daniel is trying to say he's "finished"
Look at all of those children!Carrie baked a beautiful cornucopia out of bread. So cool!
My first homemade cherry pie. Dad was thankful!

I love that we have this national day set aside for us to remember our many blessings. It's a nice preview to the Christmas season. Of course, my greatest blessing is my Savior, and his sacrifice so that I have the opportunity to repent and live with my family forever. Yeah, I am blessed.