Thankful

This evening we went to Dan & Kelly's house where we dined on a delicious meal. We got to eat some great appetizers beforehand - I tried out a new recipe and Kelly made this AWESOME artichoke dip. Delish.

Anyway - it was a good time with family and friends.

The picture below was taken after Dan wiped whipped cream off his finger...onto Maddie's face. This is the same uncle that taught her how to scoop peanut butter out of jar...with all her fingers at once...when she was about two. You'd think she would have learned by now not to trust him around food.

Dan and Kelly also came up with a great dessert for the kids - they all got to decorate turkey cookies. This provided a lot of fun, quite a bit of mess and a nice sugar high.

I thought I'd round this out with some things I'm thankful for. These are other than the standard "family and friends". I mean...I'm very thankful for my husband and kids. I love them to pieces, but I try to realize that thankfulness every day...at least every few. My extended family and friends are perks that I realize I've been quite blessed with in my life. So, apart from that...here's some less obvious things that I've realized over the last day or so I should also be thankful for:
1. My kids are able to feed themselves. We generally have to help dish up plates, but after that, it's every man/woman/child for themselves. This means we all get to eat meals together and communicate. With my teaching schedule I generally don't get to eat with everyone Monday through Wednesday which makes me appreciate Thursday through Sunday more. I love our dinners together.
2. Mike's knowledge when it comes to handy-stuff. He really can figure out either how to build a lot of things, or how to get the answers to do it. That might mean calling my dad, searching the Internet or *gasp!* reading a book. But, he's really pretty awesome with all that and I might take it for granted at times; especially when my computer acts up.
3. My music skills. Not to toot my own horn, but I play pretty well. And it gives me a lot of pleasure to sit and play for my own enjoyment or others'. This morning in church the choir sang a piece that my friend, Susan, wrote the words/melody to and I wrote out the choir/piano parts. We were pretty proud of this effort - and the fact that it actually sounded good. A couple years ago I would have laughed at anyone if they told me that before two years was out I would have recorded a CD and written choir music. But...just goes to show how much is possible in our lives.
So - Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you found a moment to appreciate the big and little things in your own lives!