Thanksgiving Weekend up North

A few of the Great Grandkids.

The cousins! Too bad three of my kids are missing.

Mom, Dad and my siblings and their spouses.

We went up to Logan for Thanksgiving this year. Luckily we had all of Wednesday off of school this year. A big storm came across the state on Tuesday but had cleared out by the time we left for Logan at 10:00 am. Dan, Andrew and I each drove a little. We couldn't decide where to pull over for lunch and Dad said the 2nd Nephi exit so that's where I pulled off. Lo and behold there was our friends the Saaralainens pulled off at the gas station we pulled into and their hood was up. Shauna has a close connection with the man upstairs so we know that it wasn't just coincidence. Her engine light had come on so she pulled off and was calling her father. Dan checked it out and helped her buy anti freeze (that just happened to be last one of the kind she needed!)

We ordered Wendy's while Dan got her off and on the road again. We followed after and stopped and picked up Spencer, Katy and Tyson, our cousins in Kayesville, and arrived in Logan at 5:45--just in time for one of mom's great dinners. The roads had been clear all until we came down into Wellesville and they were snow packed and slippery.

We went over to my sister, Jill's home later and helped celebrate her birthday. It is nice that we are usually in town to celebrate with her. We had German Chocolate Cake and/or Apple Pie. Let the feasting begin.

I woke up to the sounds of mom putting the turkey in to roast before the sun was up. I layed in bed and counted my many blessings for an hour before getting up to help with the pies and the tables. Bryan and Scott arrived around 10:00 to help with Grandpa's project to cut down a tree in the back yard. Despite the freezing temperatures, all the men and kids went outside to conquer the task. They cut the tree up into firewood and hauled out the twigs and waste. Mission accomplished.

The women completed the cooking in the kitchen and had all of the tables set to perfection. Jill brought in the hot rolls at 1:30 and the Thanksgiving Feast began. The food was all divine. Dan agrees that my mom's cooking is always worth the 6 hour drive North. We were not disappointed today. Dad asked me to give the prayer. I didn't give it much thought but as I started the prayer I immediately became overcome with emotion and had a very hard time finishing. I believe it was because I was missing three of my four children. I know that they are all out doing good things and where they are supposed to be, but I missed them a lot today.

We enjoyed visiting and even doing the many dishes that dinner for 37 provides. We played games, looked at Black Friday ads, and enjoyed Grandmas ward home and leftovers for a dinner snack. Of course there was slush, Carmel popcorn and English toffee as well!

Jill and I braved the cold and went to JoAnn's at 6:00 am to fight the crowds and buy fleece and flannel with hundreds of other crazy women. We got number 50 for the cutting line. Three hours later we walked out of the store have saved $300. with enough fleece for Grandma to make blankets for the unmarried kids. We have other plans for the flannel.

Dan and Andrew went cross country skiing with Scott and I had a nap and got ready and just relaxed. Later Dan and I did a little more shopping.

That evening we watched the Jazz beat the LA Lakers and I made three fleece blankets while I watched. Dan, Andrew and Grandpa replaced the faucet in the kitchen, took a load to the dump and helped scrape off Julie's front steps.

We got up Saturday morning and got all packed up ready to go when Shauna called and said that Alyse needed a ride to SLC and we took her we could have three tickets to the BYU vs U or U game. Those are hard tickets to come by and we hadn't been to a BYU game yet this year so we said that we were in! We picked up Alyse and had a nice visit with the Boyce family. We stopped and looked at a job for Dan and made a quick stop at Smith and Edwards. We could have spent half a day there but time didn't allow. We met Timo and Alyse's friend at Smith's and rode the trax up to the game. It was slow getting in the gate and we entered a sea of red dressed serious Ute fans. Of course our seats were smack dab in the middle of them all. Hey, but we were on the 50 yard line but up near the top. We had gone to a game of this rivelry at this stadium before and knew about kind of keeping to ourselves among the Utah fans. :)

Neither team played very well and there was a controversial call and BYU led the whole way but in true BYU Utah rivalry form the Utes pulled out in front by one point in the last few minutes and BYU had their game winning punt blocked and thus the Utes won. BYU squeaked it out last year so I guess they are even. Actually, I was ok with them losing since we were surrounded by all of those Ute fans! They were happy and we were happy to get out alive.

We stopped by and saw Julie and RC Willey in Murry and then grabbed Taco Bell and headed home. We got in at 10:30 just in time to watch the game highlights on Sports Beat. It was a great weekend. I have much to be thankful for.

**The moral of the story is: when you help someone out, good things always come back to you!