Thansgiving 2023

 Its holiday season again and we recently celebrated Thanksgiving. This was different than any other Thanksgiving for me because I had a first - I lost weight instead of gained weight. That's hard to do...unless you have stomach problems and can't eat much of the delicious food that was prepared. I ended up losing 4 lbs. over 3 days due to an inability to stomach any food. That's ok. I don't need all of those calories anyway.

This Thanksgiving was different in another way, also. Never before had we had a visitor from Colombia, nor a friend of Evie's at our Thanksgiving table before. Jared and his girlfriend, Catherine, who is from Colombia flew up from AZ to join in the festivities. They don't celebrate Thanksgiving there, so it was fun for her to witness a traditional Thanksgiving meal here in America. Jared and Catherine have been dating about 9 months (I think). She has been visiting Jared in AZ for about 2 months and will fly back to Colombia in two days. I know they will really miss each other and will look forward to seeing each other again a few months from now.

Evie's friend, Wolfram, was fun to have in the home. Very friendly, good personality, and fun to have around. Evidently, Wolfram's family doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving so it was a nice treat for him to join us.

Besides our local family members in attendance, Kyle, Milo, and Clara flew up from AZ to join us. It was fun. It's been a while since we had sat at a Thanksgiving table with them. 

We had 14 people in attendance, which necessitated setting up two separate tables. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food. Eric & Nicole contributed a lot to the meal - mashed potatoes, gravy, two different kinds of rolls, and pumpkin squares.  Everyone helped before and after the meal.

After eating the meal, we played "Deal or No Deal". This is a game that our family loves to play. I think this is the 3rd or 4th  time we've played it. They like it because they have a chance to win money ranging from $.05 to $50. Boy did they win money this year! They broke the bank! Ryan and Kyle teamed up and won $50! That's the first time that's happened before. I can't exactly remember for sure all the winnings, but I believe that Ethan and Wolfram won $30; Milo & Clara won $5; Ella & Olivia won $20; and Eric & Nicole won $17. We are going to have to restrict how often we play that game if they are going to keep winning like that. 

One highlight of the day was when family members shared their musical talents with us. Kyle and Olivia sang a duet, which was amazing. Each of them also sang solos with their guitars. Ella even sang an original song on the ukulele. What an amazing family we have!

It snowed in Riverton this Thanksgiving so it was fun for family members who don't normally get to play in the snow be able to do so. Milo and Clara built a snowman in our front yard and they also went down the street to the park to slide down the hill. Kyle also took them up to Woodward to do some tubing there before they went home on Sunday.

Another person really enjoyed playing in the snow - Catherine. They don't get snow in Colombia so she made sure Jared took her places to play in the snow. They built a snowman at the park. They also went to Park City to experience a ski area without skiing.

All in all, it was a great Thanksgiving. It's always so nice to be able to spend time with family. We were only missing Cheryl's family this year. With three very small children, it's difficult to do much traveling, but Christmas is just around the corner and we are excited that they will be coming here to celebrate with us.