Thanksgiving!

We enjoyed our Thanksgiving vacation time last week.  It was nice to have some family time.  I enjoyed visiting with some of you on video calls.  It is a fun way to do it so we can see each other.  

The week before Thanksgiving I enjoyed going to the school and eating a special Thanksgiving lunch with Spencer and Caleb.  We had fun being together at the school and the food tasted good too.  Then on Friday I went to Caleb’s class and helped with a craft project of making little turkeys out of oreo cookies and candy corn.  The kids were well behavied and enjoyed doing the project.  I am glad that I could go help.  We also fed the sister missionaries that week.  They are sweet girls and it is nice to have them come over.  We have had the same missionaries in our ward for a few months now and it is nice to get to know them more.

Saturday the 19^th we went to a big train show.  The boys were excited to see it.  Neal and Andrew took a lot of time looking at everything, even bought a couple of items.  They are planning Andrew’s layout and ideas for making his own train things.  He really wants to do this and we are working on helping him to do it.  Although when he told me he wanted to make a layout that would be 18 x 12 feet I told him he needed to think smaller, so it will fit in the guest bed room.  We had fun looking at all the layouts and things they had out and the show.  It was a nice family outing.

We all thought the DisneyLand layout was pretty amazing

Ruth coloring while she waited for the others to be done

Monday the 21^st I had parent conferences with Spencer and Caleb’s teachers.  They are both doing well in school.  Their teachers had kind things to say about them.  I am thankful for the teachers and their hard work to bring so many fun ideas into the classroom all the time.  They are working well with my boys.  Caleb is going to be tested for the gifted program.  It might take a few months to get all the steps done but then he could go into the gifted classroom for 2^nd grade.  I am glad that this school is one that has all day gifted classes.  I feel pretty confident he will do well with the testing and get into the program.

Last week we enjoyed some time away from our regular schedules.  The kids had time away from school.  Neal was home from work a couple of days and we just enjoyed being together.  We did a “pie week” where I made a different pie every day from Sunday to Thursday.  We enjoyed eating it all.  We had a nice turkey dinner on Thursday.  Ruth and Andrew helped to decorate the table.  They folded napkins cute and placed the china neatly.  It reminded me of me doing that when I was growing up.  Thursday morning Neal and the boys went to the school and played soccer with a group from the ward.  They had some fun doing that.  

The boys had fun playing outside last week while the weather was so nice

At our Thanksgiving dinner

Friday Andrew was outside looking at plants and came in to tell me that there was a bobcat in the open space.  Neal was curious and went out with Andrew to see it.  Sure enough, there was a bobcat wandering around by the houses and even going into some of the yards.  I know there are wild animals about but they usually stay away from people.  Saturday afternoon as a family we took a little hike in the open space.  Andrew brought his bike and rode around on the trails.  It was nice to get out.  It was cool but not too bad.  Then we got a cold spell.  It has been cold this week, the mornings are around 25 degrees and the high is only about 40.  We had a little snow on Tuesday morning too.  

Andrew likes to help cook.  He cut up these onions and said he liked the way they looked and asked me to take a picture of them.  He is artistic, even in his cooking.

Caleb has enjoyed playing with blocks this week and kept asking me to take pictures of him and his creations. 

Saturday evening Ruth and I went to a production of the “Nutcracker.”  It was very well done and we enjoyed seeing the professional ballet dancers.  It was the first time either of us had seen it.  I am glad that we did it.  I enjoyed watching the choreography from up high in our balcony seats.  Ruth had a friend from church dancing in some of the parts.  It was fun to see her dancing too.  

We have started getting out Christmas things.  The kids are excited about that.  We still need to decorate the tree, but it is up.  This week is busy.  Tonight we have Pack Meeting, young women activity and scouts.  And the boys have choir rehearsal for their Christmas performance this week.  It will be busy but they have enjoyed practicing for the event and I am sure it will sound great.  Thursday and Friday are the performances.

Sandia mountain was pretty last night and Neal stepped out and got a picture

I am thankful for this time of year when we tend to think more of others and how we can serve them as Christ would.  I hope we can all remember Jesus this season and be thankful for his wonderful life.