Thankful for my Family

I am thankful for the precious stage Maggie is in right now. She is having a blast playing with her big brothers. But, there’s still hope for her! One minute she is copying every move the boys make and the next she is wearing her princess dress. She twirls, spins until she falls, and laughs. She and I play a little Mommy’s girl game. I say, “You are momma’s girl” and she laughs and says no, “Dada’s girl.” I laugh every time, but it’s NOT true! She has also started singing Happy Birthday, only she sings, “Happy to you, Happy to you.” She is also in the mine phase. She points to everything and says, “Mine?” I tell her yes and she says, “Oh.”

I am thankful to work with such generous students. WCHS has an annual food drive, and I am a BIG fan…. or competitor! I encourage my students by having several high goals for them to reach with rewards in the end. This year I decided I wanted to bring in cans to show my students I want to do my part too. Jessica and I made flyers to put in our neighbor’s doors. On Thursday, she and I passed out 100 flyers, 50 to her neighbors and 50 to mine. I recruited two helpers from my house. She and I rolled up the flyers and the boys ran them to the doors. On Saturday morning, we went around looking for cans set out on front porches. I only had four neighbors participate, but with my mom and my cabinet, I donated 52. My students’ total was….. 2,865!!!!!!!!!!!! Today we had our Thanksgiving Assembly. Jessica and I received 1st and 2nd prize! She had around 2,500!


After collecting from two houses Austin asked, "Mommy, do the people know we're stealing this food?" Needless to say, I hadn't done a very good job explaining what we were doing!

I am thankful for the feeling I get every night as I look at the lights on the Christmas tree. I love it this year more than ever. We started decorating the house for Christmas last weekend. Since we go out of town for Thanksgiving and don’t come back until Sunday, we love setting it all up before we leave. Then, we get to come home to Christmas. The kids are over joyed with Christmas all ready. They have looked through a couple toy fliers and have circled many things. Just about every toy commercial that comes on one of the boys says, “Oh. Cool! I want that for Christmas!” We have a tree in their bathroom and one in each bedroom. Maggie and I set up the little tree in the bathroom without the others knowing. When Matthew walked past it for the first time he completely lit up as he yelled, “Hey Austin, come and look at this!”

I am thankful for my kid’s cousins. It is wonderful having cousins so close in age. Caleb takes such good care of Maggie and Anna has taught her all about how to be a princess. Caleb has taught the boys how to shoot Nerf guns and how to seek and destroy Uncle Jason or Grandad. They came over on Monday night and helped decorate the basement Christmas tree. We made fruit loop and straw garland. On Sunday, the boys made a paper chain garland all by themselves for the tree too.

We watched Elf as we made our garlands. Austin kept his Nerf goggles on as he worked... well, as he watched Elf and occasionally strung a fruit loop or straw piece.

I am most thankful for quality family time. Austin was struck with an idea he couldn’t let go of this past weekend. I think the spirit of Christmas got to him as we decorated. All of the sudden he yelled and jumped up and down as he said, “Can we drink hot cocoa, snuggle under covers, and watch a movie?” He didn’t stop thinking and talking about this all day. Jason checked the TV and saw that the original “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” was coming on at 8:00. So, on Saturday night, we drank hot cocoa with marshmallows, snuggled together with a blanket, and watched the Grinch. We have now seen it three times! It’s a good thing it’s only 30 minutes! Maggie at the dinner table tonight said, “Da, da, da Grinch.” Jason and I laughed so hard…. she continued to do it and we continued to laugh. My favorite thing to do is spend time at home with my family.

Happy Thanksgiving! May God bless your family and mine.