Thankful for fire alarms, sometimes

Joseph's Indian costume he made for his little Thanksgiving day lunch at school

I haven't been keeping up very well, lately. I have been working on a Christmas present. I can post about that on Monday! It took so long to finish that I didn't start baking for Thanksgiving until 4 pm. We were invited by a very nice family in the ward. I was getting a little nervous that we might be doing it alone, but then they asked. They aren't big turkey lovers, so they were going to have Prime Rib. In the end the store was out of prime rib and so we had turkey and ham. I was a little disappointed, because what an experience- it could be the prime rib Thanksgiving! Everything turned out really well. I made the pies and the rolls and some jello. The traditional rainbow jello. We love it. I let the kids choose what colors went at what point, though. They chose, red first, then orange, then purple, then yellow. You know how that turned out- sort of brownish. The layers didn't mix, but looking through the jell-o sure made it look a little brownish. Taste great, though. The rolls were fabulous, and so were the pies, except for the whole baking situation. Like I said, I started at 4 pm, which means that there wasn't a lot of time to do Jell-o, rolls and 4 pies. I was up until 1 am doing pies and had to still do one today. Since it was a little later than I was used to as far as baking goes I forgot a few things- Ok one really important thing- some tin foil or a catch pan below the pies. Right around 12 midnight the fire alarms alerted me to this forgetfulness! I then sat in a freezing house as all kinds of windows and doors were open while the fire alarm went off for 20 minutes. The pies had 20 minutes left and I couldn't exactly stop them or they would be ruined! It smoked the entire time and the fire alarms let me know that nothing had changed! About 5 minutes into the fire alarm screeching Sam came down with his ears covered with his little sock hands. (Sam has bad eczema and has to soak his hands in bag balm every night. He puts socks on his hands so that the bag balm doesn't get all over.) He curled up in a ball on the floor with his little sock hands over his ears and just sat there like that. Eventually he came up to me and asked if I could do something. Nope, sorry. Emma came down a little later. The little boys never woke up, thank goodness. At the end of the 20 minutes, I was very Thankful to call it a night and go to bed without anymore screeching.
I am thankful for lots of things.
The number one is my husband and family. I am so thankful my husband is coming home soon- a little more than 30 days!
I am also thankful for wonderful people in our ward- so ready to help us out and invite us to be part of their lives. I even had a guy ask if he could take my burnt out light bulbs out for me and come back with new ones. What a great guy! I have been sort of letting them go. They are all burning out en mass.
I am also thankful for 2 good cars. I smashed the 11 year old one into a fire hydrant the other day and broke out the taillight. Sorry car! It has been a faithful thing for 11 years- nary a problem.
I am thankful for friends- can you believe a bunch of high school friends found me the other day. It was so good to see what they were up to.
I am thankful for my health and the health of those I love.
I am thankful for a wonderful nephew that served an honorable mission who just arrived home last week. What a great example for my children.
I am thankful for traditions. I started a tradition a few years back where I wrote people thank you notes around Thanksgiving time. This year I decided it was just too much and I needed to cut out somethings. That was one that went. But, I received 2 from people I had given them to in the past. What a wonderful thing to get. It made me feel so good! I will have to continue that tradition next year now that I know how good it makes you feel.
I am thankful for my kids nagging me to get them in bed. Got to go!