Favorite Memes #23: Holiday Edition

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Yes!! My mom warned me about this! We hid our "Santa" wrapping paper in the garage. LOL.

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Yes, it actually does! 

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LOL LOL LOL!!

Email from Elder Johnson #31

11-22-21

Lil update🤘🏼💜

Yo yooo it's been a sec so I hope yall are doing well. :) Things are going pretty well down here in da booonies. Miss all yall bunches so hit me up every once in a while. It's good to hear from ya🥰

Here are some pics for the last 2 months.  I'll just testify to all of you of your Heavenly Father's love for you. He is real and is so so aware of you and what you're doing and wants to help you in every aspect of your life. He loves u and I love u.

Have a good week💜🤘🏼

-Elder Johnson

(There's a cool story that I've included at the bottom about a monk that I've really enjoyed so def give it a read.)

Thanksgiving 2021

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving!! We went to Portland and spent the holiday with Paul, Whitney, and their girls. It was so nice to travel for FUN!! We had the most enjoyable and relaxing Thanksgiving!

It was a snowy mess when we left Spokane on Wednesday but as we got closer to Oregon the weather cleared and the sun came out.

Such a pretty drive!

Mt. Hood was visible!!

We stopped along the way at my favorite place to find great furniture and vintage items! No furniture this time but I did find some great vintage Christmas!!

Since the last time that we visited them, Paul and Whitney moved to a rural area on the outskirts of Portland. It is gorgeous! They are about an hour from the ocean and we could smell the salty air. Their new house is absolutely fabulous and the perfect setting for Thanksgiving! It was so good to see all of them. We haven't been together since pre-COVID.

When we got there they had a big taco salad bar waiting for us. It felt so good to be together again and catching up on life FACE-TO-FACE. We stayed up late talking...the first of several nights!! It was wonderful!

The next day was Thanksgiving! Paul had two turkeys going. One on a rotisserie and one on the Traeger. The weather was nice so we went on a walk and soaked up all of that BEAUTIFUL scenery!!

We love their cute girls Zoey and Quinn!

We got to pet horses!

We saw the most enormous mushroom that I have ever seen! We thought it was a lawn ornament. Nope. It was one of those red and white topped mushrooms. You could totally imagine a pixie or fairy nearby. 

We facetimed with family while dinner was cooking...

We talked to my Aunt Bonnie, Whitney's parents, Reilly, Tyler's mom, my father, and later that night Kameron.

We planned to eat in the evening so we enjoyed snacking on a terrific charcuterie board during the day. Whitney showed her mom (who we LOVE!) our charcuterie and Susan showed us hers. Both looked fabulous and ours WAS fabulous!

Zoey painted each of us beautiful place cards.

Quinn kept us laughing all weekend. She is HILARIOUS!!

Paul working his magic in the kitchen!

Our delicious Thanksgiving menu included:

Turkey... (Paul)

Mashed Potatoes... (Paul)

Gravy... (Paul)

Stuffing... (Whitney)

Cranberry Sauce... (Paul)

Asparagus... (Paul)

Kale Salad... (Whitney)

Parker House Rolls... (Tyler)

Pecan Pie... (Me)

Pumpkin Pie... (Me)

Lemon Meringue Pie... (Me)

Chocolate Cream Pie... (Ailey).

The food was DIVINE and the company even better!!

Kam joined us via video chat while we were having pie. We just propped him (the phone) up at the table while we ate pie and he was able to join in the conversation with everyone. It was awesome and he said that it "made his Thanksgiving!" (He and his companion ate at a member's house.)

Meanwhile back in Spokane, Reilly and Hunter were having a good time at Hunter's family's Thanksgiving gathering. Reilly came over to our house on Thanksgiving morning and cooked up her funeral potatoes and then brought them to Hunter's grandparents house where they were having Thanksgiving. She had fun and enjoyed spending time with Hunter's brothers and cousins. I loved hearing about how they celebrated Thanksgiving...what they ate and what traditions Hunter's family has. A little different in some ways from ours but still a great holiday!

Hunter's family. 

(His mom and dad, his two brothers Kendall and Mason, and Mason's girlfriend.)

We had another late night for all of us including the little girls! I don't know how Quinn survived! She was up until midnight almost every night while we were there. It was such a fun holiday!!

The next day was super relaxing. The whole weekend was. It felt incredible to just be able to decompress and relax! We stayed in pajamas for most of it. We watched football, hung out, and talked. Paul made his famous Turkey Noodle Soup with homemade noodles. It was terrific!

We enjoyed watching Beverly and her twin on steroids Ranger interact. LOL. Ranger is a GIANT Bull Mastiff.

Bev wasn't too sure what to make of Ranger! LOL

I don't think Ranger knew what to make of her either! It was pretty funny!

Beverly made herself right at home! One day the kids came downstairs and found Beverly just sitting in a rocking chair like she owned the place! LOL.

We had a game night that was hysterical!! Traditions were upheld! Spoons played! This is a family tradition not only for my family but also for Paul and I. We also played the Best Friends Game and charades.

Thanksgiving Memes:

This is 100% accurate!

We had such a great Thanksgiving weekend with Paul, Whitney, and their girls!!

On our way home we made a quick stop at IKEA for some Christmas shopping and to buy the world's best Advent Calendars! We also stopped in my favorite little town again on our way home and I found even more vintage Christmas! Score!

When we got home the funniest thing happened! It was late and dark. Tyler had been unloading the car and was in our dark garage with his headlamp on rummaging around putting things away. Our friend Aaron knew that we were out of town for Thanksgiving and happened to be driving by our house when he saw someone rooting around in our garage late at night. Aaron immediately stopped his car and confronted the intruder!! LOL Now THAT is a good friend!! 

So I end this Thanksgiving post feeling incredibly grateful for good friends who love and look out for our family. Extremely grateful for happy times with family! And especially grateful for traditions that tie the generations together!

Happy Thanksgiving!