This year for the first time I focused a lot of effort and thought on making Thanksgiving important to our own family. I love celebrating Thanksgiving with my family and all the traditions that have accumulated that make it such a special day, I also love that my girls are getting to share in those things; this year, however, I realized I want to nurture the same love and reverence for Thanksgiving in our children that I have, and for that to happen I have to put more focus on why Thanksgiving is important to us and not just why it's important in general. There needs to be some focus on just their immediate family; first and foremost thanking God for blessings to our own little family, and meditating on why I am thankful for Wesley and the girls, therefore setting an example of how they can think of things about each other, their daddy, and I, to be thankful for.
Things we did to make Thanksgiving important to our own little family:
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| Wesley's gifts to me <3 |
This year was especially fun because we got to include the girls with them knowing what gifts are. Last year we got Jerusha a lego train set which excited her but this year for the week prior to Thanksgiving she knew the little wrapped boxes on the piano were for her and Wyn, it was fun to see her excited by it. We chose to get the girls little Elsa and Anna figurines and the movie Frozen. For months now Jerusha has knelt in the checkout line of Walmart as we're being rung out and perfectly obediently has talked to the little dolls, never once asking for one or throwing a fit when it was time to leave them, so, we felt like it was the perfect, special little gift. She was so thrilled Wednesday night as we sat around our dinning room table opening our gifts. Her giggling in pure joy as she unwrapped it and realized what it was, she was excited for Eowyn as well and kept explaining that Elsa and Anna are sisters "just like we are, my Wyn sister!" Sometimes I hear her pretending Wyn is Anna and talking in character as she has seen the movie so many times she has it memorized.
(2)For the first time this year I made our own "We Give Thanks" chart. Something I've done for my family for years and participated in now that I'm married but this year Wesley and I wrote on our own and I'm excited to keep it for years to come and get it out every Thanksgiving season to reflect on the little blessings of our past years.
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| "We Give Thanks - 2017" |
(3)And our last little new possible tradition we did this year was to have a special breakfast together before heading to my family's. I fixed a Jalapeno Popper Quiche and Cranberry Apple Scones. The quiche was delicious as ever but the scones weren't all that special, if we continue this breakfast thing as a tradition I will put more effort into it in the years to come and make something more rare - a tea ring or perhaps a Poticia Roll...
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| Breakfast as a family :) |
After our breakfast we gathered up our belongings and headed to my family's where the rest of our traditional Thanksgiving continued.
Something else I always do to make Thanksgiving all that more exciting to me is picking out new or at least nice outfits to wear. I put the girls both in special dresses and dressed up myself, doing my make-up and wearing something more than just a regular going-to-dinner-at-my-family's outfit.
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| Wesley's gifts to me were a travel journal, an awesome photo album meant just for my fujimax pictures, and this snazzy travel themed locket. |
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| Boots and socks were my gift to Wesley. The cool socks are not pictured because he took them to work ;) |
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