Thursday Journal Jar

What was your best Thanksgiving like? Where were you? What did you do?

I guess my favorite Thanksgiving must have been in 2001 when we told everyone we were expecting Alyssa, although back then we called her corny (because she was the size of a kernel of corn).

We started out in Cedar City at Brody and Helen's house. Seth's dad, and his sisters Emily and Liz were also there. During dinner they were talking about camping in July so Seth said, "I don't know if we can go in July because that is when Julie is having the baby." Everyone just sat there. To this day they all swear that they weren't sure what he was talking about. I thought it was pretty clear, but you be the judge.

After our first Thanksgiving dinner we headed off to Las Vegas to meet up with my family. We all met up at our hotel and had a second Thanksgiving dinner at the buffet. Seth announced to my mom, step dad and siblings that I was pregnant. My mom jumped up and ran around the table to hug Seth. She was so excited to get her first grandbaby but I think she forgot to hug ME! Val and Dave arrived later that night and of course we told them and NO ONE ever gets more excited about ANYTHING than Valerie does, so that was fun. We spent the rest of the weekend talking about little "corny".

I have lots of other fun Thanksgiving memories though...

That same Thanksgiving, my sister in law, Emily put little wet wipes on the table for everyone to clean up with and our nephew, Max said, "Why do we have butt wipes on the table."

Another Thanksgiving, when I was in college, I stayed at school for the holiday since I was going home a few weeks later for Christmas break. All my roommates and friends were gone home so I sat home and ate Fruity Pebbles for Thanksgiving dinner.

Another time in college, Valerie came up to visit. That was back when I was a vegetarian, so I made grilled cheese sandwiches to go with our mashed potatoes and stuffing...no turkey.

I can cook a lot better now, but I still don't do the turkey thing. I always make sure to get invited to someone else's house or to invite someone to my house to cook the turkey.

I don't think it was my favorite Thanksgiving but I also remember the Thanksgiving when I turned 8. It was the first time I ever went to Utah. We were staying with my step mom's sister and her family so I didn't know them that well and I was so shy. I remember crying hysterically when they tried to sing happy birthday to me. Did I mention that my birthday falls on Thanksgiving occasionally?

When I turned 18 my dad got me a birthday cake that was shaped like a cooked turkey. That was cute but I probably wanted to cry when they sang to me that year too. I hate to be sung to or to open presents in front of people. It is torture to me.

We have had a lot of fun on Thanksgiving in Wisconsin too. We have gone to friends' houses. We have also had friends and family over which has been a lot of fun, except for when we went to go see Rent. Don't worry we left after 10 minutes. If we'd stayed I think it may have ruined the day.

I think one of my favorite things to do on Thanksgiving is to look at the Black Friday ads. Seth's family got me hooked on that and I think I look at every ad about 100 times.

Alright, that is enough. I do love Thanksgiving though. I do not even like turkey, stuffing or pumpkin pie. Yuck, yuck and yuck again! I only eat that junk once a year but I love to just hang out with family. And this year we will have a full house again. Seth's sister Sarah and her family are heading out this way tomorrow and they will stay a week and then Ann and Tony (Seth's mom and step dad) will be here on Tuesday. My kids are so excited to see grandparents and cousins!