Thankful

Last year's Thanksgiving post came so easily to me and now this year, I struggle to find the words. I am so overwhelmingly thankful for the many blessings that this year has brought that I can't quite put it into words.

This year I am grateful for God's provision that will allow me to stay home with my daughter. I'm thankful for the calling He has on my life to bless others with my talents and abilities. I'm thankful for my incredible family. I'm thankful for my handsome husband who never ceases to amaze me with his patience with myself and our daughter. I'm thankful for the sweetest baby girl in the world whose smile can melt my heart in a split second. I'm thankful for friends that encourage me through emails, texts, Facebook messages, etc, and have supported me during this crazy time of learning to be a working mom, wife and woman in general.

I honestly haven't felt an ounce of stress regarding this Thanksgiving, even though it's at my house. When I stop and think about all I have to be thankful for, I can't help but have joy in my heart. Stress or worry over something as trivial as a dinner would be a slap in the face to the gracious God I serve.

I pray that whether you are with family or friends this Thanksgiving that you will stop and truly count all the blessings in your life. No matter what, we have a heavenly Father that loves and adores us. How could we not adore Him? *sniff sniff* I always get a little teary eyed when I think of how incredibly blessed I am.

XOXO

Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Menu

This is what's on the menu for Thanksgiving at our house this year!

Turkey
Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Cheesy Potatoes*

Indian Corn*

Yams/Sweet Potatoes

Green Bean Casserole*
Cranberry Relish

Fruit Salad

Rolls

Apple Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Bread Pudding*

The dishes marked with an asterik* are the ones that I will be preparing!

It should be a fun day. Brett's mom, dad, brother, niece, great aunt, great uncle and grandma will be joining us, ten in all including Emersyn.

I got some cloth napkins yesterday at Kohl's. I stole borrowed some gourds from my friend Caitlin that I am using for place card holders. I cut out cute little tags that will have names stamped on them to go on the gourds and be tied on with raffia. I picked up two 8x10's from Costco that are adorable fall inspired pictures of Emersyn to put up to add a festive feel. Tonight we are going to finish cleaning up the downstairs in preparation for cleaning the carpets tomorrow night. We also need to get the leaf out from under the guest bed to put in the table to accommodate our 8 adults and two children.

I have a bit of a sore throat but I'm telling my body that getting sick isn't an option this week!

I'm really excited for Thursday and wish my parents were going to be there too but they are going to be living it up at a nice restaurant in Minneapolis! Yay for them. :)

I am thankful for friends

Yesterday we celebrated an early Thanksgiving feast with the Young Adult and Young Marrieds group at our church. It was such a great event and one we look forward to every year. Our hosts' are the most incredible couple you could ever meet. They are actually my crafty friend's parents (Rachelle). The Lord has blessed them with a beautiful home that has the capacity to hold large groups and they are always willing to open it up to this ministry. I was so inspired by Deborah, the hostess, yesterday. Here we are, making dinner for 50+ people and everyone is asking her questions left and right. Never once did she get flustered or snap or become irritated. I know I might after all the questions we were asking. She is a great example of a gracious host.

Anyways, we enjoyed a beautiful feast and then I had set up a "photo booth" where we wrote things that we are thankful for. It was a hit. Some people wrote silly things, some wrote more meaningful things. Here are a couple of my favorites.....

Chelsea & Dave

Patrick

Chad

Vanessa and sweet Audrey

Carissa, Joe and baby Kaypha

Tyler & Wendy

Rachelle, James and baby Sophia

This sign was all her idea, I promise. ;)

Stella's mommy and daddy, Caleb and Jonette

Amy & Jessica

All of these are on my Facebook too. There are a lot more but you get the idea. God is so good and we have SO much to be thankful for. A great reminder, particularly for this upcoming week.