This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at my sister Melanie's house. It was a nice break for me, since we usually have it at my house. She did a great job with her house and the dinner. Of course everyone brought food and helped, so hopefully she wasn't completely exhausted at the end of the day. She has a great house for entertaining. I hope she will be willing to have us again!
Of course, we missed having my brother Matt and his family with us. They are in Pittsburgh for his residency and so we will have to swap photos. They do have some exciting news to share -- they are expecting a new baby in June, so our big family photo will have stayed current for exactly one year! Oh well, it's the new babies that are important -- we are so excited for them!
It was especially fun to have Loren home from BYU for the weekend. We went to see a couple movies, slept in, spent time with Grandma and Grandpa and put our Christmas tree up.
We also had the opportunity of giving a short music recital for the residents of Holladay Healthcare Nursing Home, which is where Aunt Shirley is living. The kids did some solos and some duets and then we actually sang some Christmas Carols together. The older people seemed to really enjoy it -- one sweet lady told me that we were going to "make her day."
The rest of the month can be summed up as all of us being grateful that Bush won the Presidency, sad that BYU didn't win their football game against the U of U, glad that Tess and Madeleine survived their final exams and happy to enjoy yet another piece of pumpkin pie.