Thanksgiving Day

When I was thinking about how I would describe our Thanksgiving on this blog, I thought about sharing how wonderful the dinner was with the rolls, mashed potatoes, dressing, green bean casserole, turkey and the rest of the food.

I thought about how much fun we had playing Telephone Pictionary and all the laughter.

I thought about how wonderful it was when Steve's sister's husband showed Jared how to shoot rubber bands to knock off figures from blocks and how much he loved doing that all evening long.

But the memories I'll most remember came from our Thanksgiving circle sharing time. We all sit in a circle after dinner and go around sharing something we are thankful to God about. We do this three times. When my turns came around, I shared how I was thankful that Steve and I can still be crazy silly together after 8 years of knowing each other. I also shared how I was amazed how we need to be thankful about the hard things in our lives because they're there for a purpose we might not even be able to understand for a long time.

But the thing I was most thankful for, the thing I felt most passionate about, was that God has blessed me with the ability to give my children the gift of time and freedom. They are four and a half. I'd only have another 8 months with them before they'd be gone from home a good chunk of the day. They'd not have time to pursue those things that excited them for large blocks of time, and they would constantly be compared to others, tested continually and not living to the fullest.

I thought about the day, how Alexa took the camera from me and followed everyone around, taking silly pictures. I wanted to remember this Thanksgiving as a time of freedom and joy, of unbridled learning and unending adventure.

Here are some pictures of our Thanksgiving day as seen through Alexa's eyes.