The Ghosts of Thanksgiving Past

There is so much to be thankful for. Some of the things I am thankful for include great holiday memories, including past Thanksgivings. There was the year when I was in college and I went to a drag queen breakfast in San Diego with my dad (none of us participated, just observed). Later that day I sat down to eat Thanksgiving dinner with my dad, my dad's boyfriend, my dad's boyfriend's wife, and my dad's boyfriend's wife's boyfriend. Wrap your brain around that--and there is even a somewhat logical explanation for it. There was 1996, in the MTC, when I was brimming with joy and excitement about sharing the gospel. I just read in my journal how humbled I felt that day and realized how much I had to rely on the Lord to succeed and grow--what a good reminder for me now. The next year I was in Valparaiso, Chile and the missionaries in our zone decided to have Thanksgiving dinner together. There was not a turkey to be found, but we made do with some rotisserie chickens. I was in charge of the stuffing--and wouldn't you know it, apio (celery) is very hard to come by in Chile in November--not to mention the stark lack of Stovetop. The stuffing wasn't so good, but it was nice to recognize the holiday while sitting on the basketball court at the Edwards Stake Center. In 1999, just a few months after Ryan and I got married, I woke up on Thanksgiving morning to my very first kidney stone and quickly learned how very much I like morphine. That year, I was very thankful for the people who miss holidays with their family to administer drugs to people in need. Years since then have been mostly uneventful, yet full of family craziness and adjustments. Last year we started a fun tradition of eating pie for breakfast. Who can turn down pie on an empty stomach? Every year that we are at my mom's house we get to write down something we are thankful for and then everyone guesses who wrote it. We all roll our eyes that we have to do it, but I for one appreciate the opportunity to contemplate and share what I am thankful for. This year, I am grateful that I have a wonderful husband and two beautiful, intelligent children. We have a great home, Ryan's got a good secure job, we all have our health, and we are members of the true Church of Jesus Christ. We have wonderful friends, extended family, and so many opportunities to do good things. What more can we ask for?