Happy THANKSgiving !!!

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For the past... I don't know how many years, I have been in charge of making all of the pumpkin pies for my family's side for Thanksgiving. I actually really enjoy it. Aaron Jr helped me make them this year, so this is a photo of us showing one of them off... but before the photo was taken, Aaron Jr took his fingers to the top of the pie... he LOVES it.


Here we are adding all of the ingredients and mixing it all up. We had so much fun together. He helped with every step of making the mixture.


Here is Aaron Jr with the HUGE bowl of pumpkin pie mixture. Now we are ready to start filling the pie shells.


While I was rolling out the crust for the apple pie, Aaron Jr got his playdough out and started creating his own 'pie crust'.


And here they are... LOTS of ingredients, SIX hours, and FIFTEEN pies later... YUM !


Aaron Jr enjoying the pumpkin pie the way pumpkin pie was meant to be enjoyed... with lots of whipped cream. Mmm...


Dad, Mom, Karey, Richard, Kara... showing off some of their contributions to the feast.


Maria, Teresa, Lorianne, Robert, Tawnie, John... also showing off some of their contributions to the feast.


Lisa and me showing off some of our contributions to the feast. Aaron Jr at top right. Lisa and John's new little one, Henry, at bottom left.


Right before lining up to get our plates of food.


Lining up.


This is one of the kids tables...


Another kids table... I wish I had taken a photo of the other kids tables.


Top left... kids enjoying dessert.
Top right... Sarah being sweet to Aaron Jr.
Bottom left... Angus with his new baby brother Henry.
Bottom right... my dad with a huge bucket on his head and Lori laughing.
A family gathering just isn't a family gathering without SOMEONE using some sort of prop to do something funny... usually putting it on their head somehow.


Some of the kids prepared some Christmas songs to perform for us.

I wish I had gotten photos of everyone on both sides of our families, but I guess this is better than nothing. This year, those we love who were missing were: my brother Bruce, Aaron, Spencer and Kristi and their family, Mark and Suzy and their family, Dave and April and their family, and my nephew Nate...


A week before Thanksgiving, my nephew Nathan left on his mission. He will be serving as a missionary for our church for the next two years in Helsinki Finland. His brother Richard got home just two months ago from his two year mission in Tacoma Washington. So it is a blessing that they got to spend a couple of months together before Nate left. He was missed. We love you Nate.


Sue carved these pumpkins, so walking up the steps at the Harkness home was very sweet.

Thanksgiving was a good day. As evening approached, it got a bit tougher. We went over to the Harkness home later in the evening to enjoy some time with them. It was the first time they have all been together for Thanksgiving since Aaron passed away. So, it was a little overwhelming. We have much to be thankful for this year. We are healthy. We have been blessed to be able to pay all of our bills this year... Heavenly Father has watched over us financially to be able to do that. We have families who love us and who do so much for us. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. I have Aaron Jr in my life. He is a blessing that I hope I deserve. He brings joy to my life and life to my days. It has been a tough few weeks... I will tell more about why in a posting that I will do soon. Thanksgiving will always come close to the anniversary of Aaron's death. It will always be the last holiday we spent together. Even with the tragedy that occured two years ago in our lives... we are still so blessed. We are blessed to live. We are blessed to laugh. We are blessed to love. We still have joy in life... some days it is difficult to find the joy... but we truly do have so much joy in our lives. We are blessed.


Last family photo taken on Thanksgiving 2007.

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p.s. I am also grateful for convection ovens. :)