Skateboards and Jesus

Here are things I am thankful for: a warm home, a happy, healthy family (well, mostly happy and mostly healthy), and a husband who makes the entire Thanksgiving dinner and actually enjoys it. This Thanksgiving was spent at home with our little family. We miss being around extended family for Thanksgiving, but the retail world prevents any sort of travel. So we tried to make the holiday as memorable as possible. We spent the morning watching the parade and watching the rain fall outside -- a perfect day to be trapped in the house. Oh, and while we were doing that, Josh was cooking. . .all morning and afternoon. Much to his dismay, we only had two pies -- pumpkin and pecan, which technically fulfilled his rule of "a pie per person," but was still disappointing to him in its limited selection.

Before dinner, Jonah and I made some crafts (napkin holders, place setting cards and centerpieces) and set the table. I don't remember where Noel was, but I can guess he was watching TV or complaining. Finally, we sat down to dinner. It was delicious. Noel particularly enjoyed the entire can of olives that he ate, as it was the only thing he would touch from the dinner. Jonah claimed to be most excited for the stuffing, but I think he really only ended up eating some potatoes and rolls. But he could eat anything he wanted because, at one point, he said to his dad, completely unprovoked, "Dad, thank you for making this beautiful meal." And if you know Josh, you know that a little validation will get you a long way.



Right before we started the meal, we went around the table and told what we were grateful for, followed by a toast. Jonah's really into material things, and Noel's really into saying things that he knows we want to hear. Which led to the best toast of evening (and perhaps in all of history): "To skateboards! To Jesus!" To skateboards and Jesus indeed.