There are always so many things in life that we can find to be grateful for – we can make a list of it all, however, when we put God into our gratitude, it changes everything. I love this quote I saw on Instagram: “Gratitude is more than a list. It’s more than ‘I’m thankful for my family, my friends, my home.’ It’s looking back over your shoulder, seeing the fingerprints of Heaven on your life, and going out of your way to tell Him that you noticed.”

I love that thought, and it is something that I try to practice doing everyday. To look back and see the tender mercies of the Lord in my life. His fingerprints on my story, and how those little and big blessings make all the difference. And the next part is the most important – acknowledging that I have seen His hand in my life and thanking Him for his love and blessings.

Some of those things I have noticed are small, like getting extra special time with Arthur, because it is Thanksgiving break, and so he is home from school. We spent a lot of time together watching our Christmas murder mystery series, “The Mistletoe Murders,” which he just loves. I also convinced him to go out with me on my daily walk, even though it was in the 40’s and we were freezing. Good times.

I love how other people are more prone to sharing their gratitude this time of year as well. Derek came home from his shift at the San Antonio Temple on Wednesday with the cutest card that was on his car: “So Thankful for your service in the Temple today!!” with a cute candy turkey on it. So kind!

Something I knew coming into it, was that Thanksgiving was going to be a bit different this year. That all the hard work that usually happens over two days would have to be strategically planned and carried out over many days. I actually had started some of the prep back when my sister, Holly, was visiting, making pie crust and a pumpkin cake roll which I froze. Then I broke up the other tasks into things the kids could help me with, so we were a team putting it all together.

On Wednesday, or as we call it in our home, “Baking Day,” we had half of the work already completed. Arthur and Lily were my biggest helps that day, since Derek was serving at the temple, although Arthur kept getting distracted by watching “Hamilton,” which he had begged to watch while we worked. And when Derek got home, they all washed the dishes together like an assembly line. It was great, because I had long crashed by then.

One really frustrating thing that I discovered on Wednesday morning, was that the outlet in my island wasn’t working. It is probably the most used outlet in the whole kitchen,and I needed it to work for a lot of things for making the dinner. Kevin got home and went to work replacing it, and it turns out that Arthur had accidentally spilled juice that morning that had gotten into the outlet. Well, after much frustration and the power still not working, I randomly remembered that there was an outlet inside of one of our cupboards, and that maybe it was the GFI for the island outlet. And it was!! What a miracle, and although it is too bad none of us remembered its existence earlier, at least it was fixed. Hallelujah!

On Wednesday night, we grabbed a quick dinner out, and then we took the kids to go and see the movie “Wicked: For Good,” which is the second act of the play, and so the rest of the story. They did a fabulous job with it, and we all loved it!

On Thanksgiving morning, before all the rest of the cooking took place, Kevin and I went for an early morning walk in the chilly air. We watched the sunrise, which is one of my favorite things.

Not much later on, Kevin came back to the park with the boys to join up for a game of flag football. They had a blast, even if Kevin injured himself. (Getting old is the worst – ha ha!)

While the boys were gone, Lily helped me get a few more of the dinner items in the oven or prepped, and as we worked, we watched our “Friends” marathon of Thanksgiving episodes. Good times. It was so good to have her there, and later Kevin and the boys, because I was definitely still feeling the effects of my treatment the week before, and had many times where I just couldn’t stand up. I am also grateful for all the prep we did in advance.

Kevin’s parents flew into San Antonio right around 2pm, and everything was almost totally ready. I did have to crash again, just as everything was coming to a climax with dinner, but Lily stirred the gravy, Derek finished off the corn, and Kevin carved the turkey, making it possible for me to sit down.

It was so wonderful to have Dennis and Valerie with us! And the dinner turned out perfect – even if there were some messes and small bumps along the road (unfortunately and often caused by me – like when I accidentally turned on the Bosch when Lily was testing the temperature of the milk, and liquid went everywhere, including the freshly mopped floor, my clothes, and my cookbook 😬). Everyone was happy though, and we had a great time doing our gratitude ABC’s. Kevin may have listed things like radiation, oncolgists, and “Ketruda” – one of the medicines they are using to treat my cancer 😉.

After dinner, we had a wonderful time talking with Kevin’s parents and catching up. And of course, then it was time for second dinner – also known as dessert. We had pumpkin pie, pumpkin roll (especially for Dennis), chocolate peanut butter cream pie (which turned out to be Valerie’s favorite), a lemon tart, and apple pie. So yummy!!

Derek may have been so excited about the chocolate peanut butter pie, that his slice was gigantic – ha ha! It is his favorite, and he and LIly missed Thanksgiving with us last year.

On Friday morning, we had a wonderful family day scheduled, starting off with a visit to the San Antonio Temple for a baptism session for the whole family, including Kevin’s parents. It was wonderful.

After coming home to change and eat some leftovers for lunch, we headed off to The Pearl so that we could visit The Giving Machine. The Pearl is always a cool place to go, but at Christmas, it is especially fun and festive.

We love the Giving Machines, and have made it a tradition the past four Christmases to visit, since we have one in San Antonio for a few weeks during the season. This time, not only did we get to see the “giving goat Gabe,” but it was Kevin’s parents first time getting to experience it all. They were so excited to choose something, and ended up buying a goat for someone in the world. Kevin and I donated 140 meals to the SA Food Bank, Arthur picked playground equipment, Derek chose lunches for Veterans, and Lily chose clean water for a community somewhere in the world. I love how they have both local and global charities that you can support.

After visiting The Pearl, we headed further downtown to get to The Majestic Theater, where we were going to watch the Broadway tour of “Beauty and the Beast.” We arrived early, and so we stopped across the street at La Panaderia for pastries to eat for a snack.

I am so glad we did, because for the first time ever, it took 45 minutes or more to get into the theater. There must have been a technical issue, because it has never been that way before. In fact, we barely made it to our seats before the show began, and then there were still being seated fifteen minutes after it started. It was crazy chaos! We kept apologizing to Dennis and Valerie, and letting them know that it was not normal. Luckily, they were as enchanted with the theater as we thought they would be, and the show was spectacular. (It almost made up for the traffic jam that made it so we couldn’t get out of the parking garage for an hour 😬😂 – good times.)

Dennis and Valerie were able to stay with us through Monday, and so there was lots of time for fun. There was lots of talking, some exploring, yummy food and enjoying all the leftovers, watching football and movies, and Kevin and his dad getting golf time in the backyard (and a not so fun adventure of getting new tires on Kevin’s car). Arthur especially loved building a Lego set with Grandpa.

While they were visiting, Lily even had her boyfriend, Chris, come over to meet her grandparents. He even got to get in on the fun of building the candy train. There may have been some arguing amongst the siblings when I had to take a break to rest, but I was able to come back and help, so that it all came together without too much hard feelings and blame. And we didn’t scare Chris away – ha ha!

And it turned out great in the end – unique and fun, just like always. And since we had no Swedish Fish, Arthur put a drowning bear in the pond. Good times.

It was a wonderful week as a family, and truly was made even better by having Kevin’s parents there. Wow, I sure was grateful for all the help of my sweet “Minions,” as I was definitely not at my best, or even close to it, and without their help, it would not have come together at all. What a blessing to have us all together as a family.