We took our first “family” picture without Hallie on Thanksgiving. It didn’t feel weird in the moment, but looking at the pictures, it’s clear someone is missing. And I’m feeling really out numbered. And Steve is not loving having to stand next to Hunter in any picture these days. 🙂
I have been on Thanksgiving (and every other holiday) roll duty for years and years. Thanksgiving is way too busy with Turkey Trot so I make them the day before and freeze them on trays – the next morning they get placed on baking sheets before the race and they rise while we we’re gone.
There isn’t ever much time between the race and Thanksgiving dinner because we have to clean up after the race but many still found moments to take some quick naps.
I don’t have a single picture of our dinner – but I documented the puzzle party. I know puzzles aren’t enjoyable by everyone, Steve included, but I find them challenging while still relaxing.
Hallie spent her first holiday away from home and I was a little worried for her – especially since it was just two days after she left home. She shared with us, “Thanksgiving was the BEST day this week! They really pulled out the works for us and it was an amazing day. It started off with a special appearance by Elder Quentin L. Cook! He gave a great devotional on missionary work and left us motivated to be better missionaries. Then we had a 2.5 hour service project and packed over 500,000 meals. They were blasting real Christmas music (Mariah Carey) and it was so fun to serve all together! Later, we watched a movie and had Thanksgiving sack dinners on the floor haha! Then they surprised us with a Christmas musical devotional with John Schmidt! (Apparently that is the main guy in Piano Guys, but I had no clue 😂) We walked outside after, and the campus Christmas lights were on!! It officially feels like Christmas and it’s so fun. Wow it was such a memorable Thanksgiving and I’m grateful for that!” Hearing that from her made my mom heart so happy.
Friday morning, we had our annual Pothier cardio tennis. It wasn’t the same without Hallie smoking everyone, but fun still the same.
And after we got the outdoor Christmas lights up, the tree out of storage and pulled out enough Christmas box decorations to get overwhelmed – we dropped it all and went to the high school football state playoff game. I don’t know about your community – but our community loves the high school and shows up for them – even when we have to travel. It was a packed stadium and I ran into several friends who graduated with Hallie. It was an intense close game and we won when we were not expected to win shooting us to the state championship next week. I enjoyed watching Hunter storm the field with his friends to celebrate the big win. Should be a good game this weekend. Go toros!
