November and Thanksgiving

November always seems to go by in a blur.  It feels like I start working on Christmas the day after Halloween and November hardly gets recognized for the lovely month that it is.  A few weeks ago I was driving my mom home after taking her to a follow up doctor's appointment and I remember talking about what a beautiful day it was.  The sun was shining and the wind was blowing the fall leaves all over the ground.  It was one of those last warm fall days and I'm glad I took a mental picture.

November is also the month that I wrap up the Reflections Contest at our school.  We have an awards party and then there is lots of paperwork to be gone through before the winning entries can be submitted to Council.  Then, for some reason, I volunteered to help with Council this year.  Since I'm having this baby when those entries are usually due we decided to move things up and get it all done by Dec. 2nd when we would have the Council Awards Party.  It made for an extra busy November.

So, usually the only day in November that I remember is Thanksgiving and usually that's not the fondest memory.   Because of my mom's unexpected situation we decided to have Thanksgiving at our house instead of hers.  I was trying to gear myself up for days of cleaning and then one long day on my feet of cooking and party hosting when I got this in an email from Ryan.  It was an invitation for my mom, sisters, and me to spend the day at a spa and a movie while Ryan and the other brothers in law, and my brother, prepared the dinner.  At first I thought it was a joke, then maybe some kind of advertisement.  When Ryan called later I was genuinely confused and he had to explain that he had this idea a few weeks ago and called the other brothers and planned the whole thing.  My brother in law Kimball even made the invitation.  I think it took me about 24 hours for it to all sink in (and to let go of my natural controlling instincts to turn the whole meal over).  Then I just cried.

I did spend a few days cleaning the house and getting everything ready but the best feeling ever was when all the company showed up Thursday morning, I got to leave.  I walked out the door and put the whole meal and all the kids out of my mind and went to a spa.  Just so you know Ryan had to call almost every day spa in Utah County to find one that was open on Thanksgiving Day.  This one wasn't open but the owner found 3 willing employees to come in that morning just for us.  It was wonderful!  

After the spa we grabbed a quick lunch and then went to see a movie at the mall.  It was so nice to sit back and relax for the day.  When we got home dinner was completely ready and it turned out fantastic.  The boys did a great job (especially considering all the tricky food allergies my family has).  Ryan was completely exhausted by the end of the day and I was so grateful that it wasn't me.  I also really appreciate that Ryan could see that it was going to be hard for me to do everything that day and that he stepped up to make my load so much lighter. 

The day after Thanksgiving we left everything and went out to play for the day.  We took the kids to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake and let them play for hours.

After the Museum we went to see Tangled and then we took the kids out to dinner.  It was wonderful to spend time together and step away from the messy house for a day.  Cameron said she especially appreciated not having to clean up after they had worked so hard to clean up before the company came.  I have to say that was part of my motivation.  The kids really did work hard to help me get the house ready and then while the dad's made dinner Dallin and Cameron made sure they were available and played games with the younger kids instead of hiding in their rooms with just their favorite cousins.

So after all that you can only imagine how grateful I feel right now for my family and the love they've shown me these past few weeks.