Thankful in all things

I had convinced myself I was looking forward to a quiet Thanksgiving here with just our family. I envisioned the children cheerfully helping me cook a scaled-back turkey dinner, Alan making it home from work and being able to eat with us as we all relaxed around the library table together. At about 5:30, my vision evaporated in the midst of hunger, a husband who had just arrived home and was being whisked out the door by Eliza to go buy more ingredients for her dessert with a disappointed and resigned air after I told him we didn’t really need stuffing or gravy this year. An hour later, as the last pieces of turkey were being put on a serving plate and we were praying over our feast (which now included both gravy and stuffing), Alan was paged again. The kids and I sat down in the library, where they (and the food) saved my day while my husband answered the page.

We played the thankful game, going around the table saying one thing we were thankful for as well as the previous things everyone else was thankful for. Oh, and each thing we were thankful for came with its own action. Here is what we were thankful for.

Ellen Frederickson
clean water
our family
toilets
the gospel
seminary
trees
our house
good food
Target
High School Musical
EFY
the church
good health
my children's father (yo daddy--the action looked like a gang sign)
Justin Bieber
iPods
the internet
lights
yoga
sand dunes
romance novels
Spiderman


At that point Alan came in, added cycling to our list and guessed who had said each thing. Then we finished dinner and ate desert (peach cobbler with ice cream, thanks to Eliza, Alan, and two grocery stores that were open on Thanksgiving day). By the time we were halfway through watching Spiderman together, I felt enough better that it was okay my husband had to go back to the hospital. And really I am thankful he has a good job. Most of the time.