Happy Thanksgiving

"Now it's your turn to say 'Happy Thanksgiving' back."

"Happy Thanksgiving back."

Ha ha. Sorry, I am lame, but I had to do that for my sisters.

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. I love to eat, just like everyone else, but to me it's not (only) about gluttony. Ever since I was a kid, our family has spent Thanksgiving in St. George, Utah, with my dad's side of the family. It started out as a big group, what with 8 kids in my dad's immediate family and each of them having 4-9 kids each. Now that many of us grandkids are older and have kids of our own, we have such an enormous group that we can barely contain everyone.

All I have ever known growing up is more of a Thanksgiving weekend. We spend the whole weekend together, the gigantic group of us, cooking, eating, playing games, talking, and acting weird at our annual Silly Song Night. We don't just celebrate Thanksgiving with one meal, but we make a huge celebration of it. We eat turkey and pies all weekend. We don't shop on Black Friday. We have a family night where we learn more about our grandparents and ancestors and get reports from the parents of missionaries out.

I have missed Thanksgiving 4 times in my lifetime, at least that I can recall. That's pretty good for being 29 years old. The first time was on my mission, then twice when Peter and I lived in the Bay Area, and now this year. It wasn't weird missing it on my mission, but the other times were different and of course I felt like something was missing.

I am sad that we can't make it this year, but glad that we have family near this time. It's going to be weird figuring out what to do the rest of the weekend without anything going on. I think we are planning on putting up our Christmas decorations and possibly painting the kitchen. It will be fun as long as we have things to do. Sitting around would just make me miss St. George more.

I know everyone has their own traditions in their families. I don't really have a conclusion to this post (I am definitely rambling here), but I guess it's just important to create traditions and then keep doing them.

I was talking to my mom this morning on the phone. She said that my little brother told her this morning that he has been thinking about going to Thanksgiving this whole week. I thought that was funny, because that's how I always felt growing up, and I still do. So I guess these traditions have an impact on us our whole lives.

Whatever you do, make sure you eat plenty of turkey and have a great time making memories with your families!

Happy Thanksgiving!