Thanksgiving is over. The turkey has been massacred. The stuffing devoured. The Christmas decorations hung. And the tryptophan hangovers are slowly subsiding.
Now we get to look back on the memories, and oh how thankful I am for them.
We were able to drive the 8 hours up to Reno to spend Thanksgiving with my family. This would be the first Thanksgiving meal we would sit down to with family since David and I were married.
On Wednesday afternoon, David convinced his supervising attending to let him leave the hospital a little early. So with darkness descending we hit the road, laughed at the ridiculous slogans on the small towns we passed and marveled at the middle-of-nowhere’s endless expanse of stars.
Thanksgiving morning, the family’s adorable (OK, kinda a pain) little mutt greeted me with enough enthusiasm to launch a missile. She knew that when I was in town, we went exploring (aka, a run) in the morning. Then, with the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade playing in the background and the Huz enjoying some much-deserved lounging time, I helped mom prepare the feast!
When it comes to Thanksgiving, mom is a homegrown master of epic proportions. This meal is not the can-shaped gloopy cranberry sauce nor gravy from a packet, my friends. I love my mom’s cooking! We scrambled to yank the ingredients out of the freezer for the perfect homemade pie crust, pulverized pumpkin from the garden for the pie filling, peeled and mashed plenty of potatoes and made creamed corn with real cream. Oh, and the orange rolls!!
It is a Cooper family tradition to sneak out and get Jack in the Box for breakfast – basically the most unhealthy thing possible. Victory is achieved when mom has no clue and thinks we have been starving all day. This year, we pulled the wool over her eyes by sneaking out for donuts. I am happy to write that she was shocked. 😉
That night, the older Broski went out to check out the Black Friday madness, but we opted for a lazier night on the couch filled with pumpkin pie and ice cream.
Friday morning came with a flurry of Christmas decorations, Christmas Pandora radio and (admittedly) a little Black Friday shopping. I knocked two names off my list and got a pair of free shoes out of the deal to boot! 🙂
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I’ve been trying to think of the right words to express how thankful I am that we can spend these precious holidays with family. But I will probably fall short here. So I leave you with the words of one of my favorite LDS apostles from this most recent General Conference.
If we fail to give our best personal self and undivided time to those who are truly important to us, one day we will regret it. Let us resolve to cherish those we love by spending meaningful time with them, doing things together, and cultivating treasured memories.
~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency.
I am so thankful for my family and for the eternal treasured memories we get to make together.
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