Kid's Night & Girls Manicures

On Saturday night, my parents went to an annual dinner that my great grandmother's church puts on before Thanksgiving.

(As a side note: Two years ago TODAY, my parents and grandparents were at this same even on the evening that Josh proposed to me on my grandparent's patio!)

Amal & Sudha joined in on the event this year and so we had the boys for the evening. Amy & Phoebe were also over so it just ended up being an evening full of fun activities and good food!

Sarah helped the boys make a fun craft for their parents. Ethan loved the "painting"!

Matt helped the boys make a tube track and they had fun racing tennis balls from one end to the other.

I don't think the blanket fort needs an explanation. However notice that sweets making is going down in the kitchen!

For some hard to explain reason, Sarah's school schedule has changed and she has Mondays off for the next few weeks until she finishes the program. So Mom decided to try and use those days to spend time with family. Last Monday, she, myself, and my sisters met for lunch and a tennis date. Yesterday she has all the R ladies who are local over for manicures! We had a fun time scrubbing, lotioning, and painting each other's nails!

And my favourite from tonight, Josh wanted to show Grandpa the game that he plays (Ghost Recon). It's been fun hearing them talk about the specs and graphics of the game. Talk about two nerds in a pod! (Or...office...)

My favourite part of this holiday season so far has been the 30 Days of Thanksgiving that my dad has put together for our church. He has chosen different topics per day and scripture to read that goes along with them, and the idea is that during family time you read them and then in light of the scripture talk about the things to be thankful for. We have been doing this with Grandma & Grandpa at dinner and it's been a lot of fun. It's been very helpful to pull my focus to the things in my life which I usually take for granted but for which I need to be constantly and consistently praising God.

For example here is what we did tonight:

MATERIAL PROVISION

God provides after the flood (Genesis 8:13-9:17)

God feeds a widow and her son (1 Kings 17:1-16)

Jesus feeds the hungry crowd (Matthew 14:13-21)

God provides for His own (Matthew 6:25-34)

After each passage we pull things from the text and relate them to how God provides for us materially. And at the end we pray together thanking God for His provision.

I know Dad works hard putting this together and it's been helping Josh and I through the day to be thanking God for His goodness to us. We are so blessed!