Happy Thanksgiving

I think our family is on the mend. A stomach virus is not what I had in mind as I anticipated the Thanksgiving break. I had planned on some relaxing family time, some shopping, taking the girls to the zoo at the beginning of the week due to the beautiful weather, getting caught up on some things around the house with Gene off work, etc. Sometimes things just don't work out like you had planned.

If I have to focus on my blessings, we have definitely had a lot of "family time" together, granted some of that was in the bathroom, and we have all had a good bit of rest. Being sick takes a lot out you (no pun intended) and we laid around all day Monday and Tuesday and slept about 11 hours both nights. The girls even slept late on Tuesday and Wednesday morning, like 8:30 a.m., which is a gift in and of itself.

Another blessing...my washing machine and dryer. Who knew a stomach bug could produce so much laundry. Of course, some of that was my fault because I am a germ-a-phobe. If any item took a "direct hit", like a towel or a bed sheet, it got washed twice, in hot water. This was probably a waste of water, but it sure made me feel better.

Tuesday afternoon I did get out of the house to buy some groceries. I didn't really want to go anywhere and still didn't have any energy, but the trip was out of necessity. When I got home, I wanted to redeem some of our lost family time and got out the craft supplies with Reagan. We made two projects together and she had a blast.

The first project was a leaf turkey. Gene took her on a little scavenger hunt while I was at the grocery store to find the perfect leaves. Here are a few shots of the project. I didn't get any shots of her gluing the leaves down, just her putting on the finishing touches.

The second project was making a paper cup turkey. Here she is painting the body.

And again, I missed a lot of the middle steps, but here is the finished project.

Gracen was at the end of her nap during some of our art time and was in her high-chair enjoying a long snack during the rest of it. Here is a snap shot of her.

After we finished our art for the day, I read 4 books to both of the girls...two fun books and two "educational" books. Reagan loves to read and Gracen did pretty well listening to the stories too. If you are looking for a fun Thanksgiving book for young ones, Run, Turkey Run! is a really cute book that Reagan wanted me to read several times. Gracen laughed at some of the sounds I had to make while I was reading it, which made us all laugh.

Here are the two fun books, followed by a picture of the two educational books.

After reading these books, we spent some time talking about the true meaning of Thanksgiving and we each named things we were thankful for. Reagan's list was so sweet. It included things like her family, having a mommy and daddy who loved her so much, having a sister, her Gram and Pap, her Gran and Paw Paw, her aunts and uncles, her cousins, having her own room, her friends, having food to eat, Mrs. Vicky (her teacher), Jenna and Kimberly (from church), etc. I loved listening to her name different things, especially when she said she was thanful for Jesus, "her savior". That was powerful.

We finished the night with a classic movie on the air mattress.

When we put both girls to bed, Gene said that he thoroughly enjoyed the whole afternoon and evening, doing all the different activities. He said it kind of made up for all the sickness that we had endured and he was right. I treasure every moment with my family and I hope we are making memories for them that will last a lifetime.

Today, we are going to read our books again, do another art project or two, and Reagan has already asked to watch the Charlie Brown movie again.

I read a blog this morning that talked about "not being a grateful generation". I thought it was a good read and was definitely something to think about. You can read the entry here if you would like.

I hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Until next time...