THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving commemorates the feast held by the Pilgrim Colonists. On this day people express gratitude to God for his blessings and give thanks to dear ones for their love and support. Feasting with family is an integral and most delightful part of thanksgiving celebrations.

This year we had a wonderful turkey prepared by my friend Laura. Along with the turkey we had about six different vegetables and a salad. To top it off we had, trifle, chocolate cream pie, cranberry cake and pavlova.

We had a wonderful, peaceful day and enjoyed each others company and of course, all the food. After the meal we went around the table and one by one expressed our gratitude for the blessings we enjoy. Number one on everyones list was FAMILY. I couldn't really say all that I wanted to say for fear of raining tears all over the table but I hope all my children know how much I love them and are grateful for their love. Graeme is an amazing husband. He has worked so hard all his life to support his family. I can remember times when he would be working up to 18 hours a day, 6 days a week. Other times holding down 2 jobs at the same time. I was at home with the kids and being frustrated at times but he was always there for me. During one period of time he was in the bishopric and working long hours. I had a particularly hard time trying to get the kids to sit and behave in church and after the Sacrament meeting he came up to me and all I could do was cry and say "I'm going home", and I did. I wasn't home but a few minutes when Graeme walked in the door and gave me a big hug and told me he would do anything to make it easier on me. Boy did I feel silly. He was the one with the stress, long hours, and commitments yet he cared and wanted to make ME feel better.

He has always been like that. He has always treated me like a queen and he has taught all our children to respect me and treat me like a queen. How do I deserve this man?

One of he most important things he does is bring humor into the home. He is always saying funny things. Sometimes in the company of others he will say a joke and only I, or those in our family will laugh. Sometimes I don't even get the joke but I laugh and he appreciates it. Then we laugh even harder when I tell him I didn't get the joke in the first place.

So today especially, I am thankful for a wonderful husband. I am thankful for great kids. I am thankful for our health which we pray we will always have. I am thankful to have the necessities of life plus MORE. I am thankful to have the gospel in my life. My life has been blessed beyond belief because of the gospel. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father and the relationship I have with Him.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY EVERYONE.

Duel Citizenship

With November being a huge political month over here in America, I thought it was about time I did my duty and vote. But before I could do that I had to take out citizenship. So in June I sent in my papers to get the process started. I thought it would take quite a long time to get any reply back and I might not make it in time for the November elections but to my surprise within a couple of weeks I had received notification of where and when I needed to get my finger prints taken. From then on it all went quickly. On September 22nd I became an American citizen.  I now hold duel citizenship. I dressed up in my red, white and blue clothes and thought the taking of the oath would be a big deal, but it wasn't, in fact I was quite disappointed.  Then on November 4th I dressed up to brave the cold and snow and prepared myself to stand in a long line to vote. There was no line where I went and it was a very easy process. I actually had a few tears well up in my eyes as I cast my vote. This was the first time in my life that I had ever voted and it felt good. I proudly displayed my "I Voted" sticker all day. 

Over the past few months we also managed to get Kelsey and Emily duel citizenship too. They are now Australian citizens as well as Americans. 

So let's see where this new president takes us. It is a scary economic time for most people and he has a lot of work to do to try to bring America back to where we have faith in the government, where people can feel secure in their jobs and can trust that things will get better before too long and before too much damage has been done.

I still call Australia home but America has been very good to us over the past 22 years. Luckily my red, white and blue clothes work for both countries.

My Children

So as the title of my blog says, this is me and my aussie family. This was taken almost a year ago at our annual buffet night up in Deer Valley.

Jason, Michael, Me, Graeme, Steven, Damien. Front row, Kelsey, Crystal and Emily. I hope we can get together again next January. 

It amazes me that I have been a mother for over 38 years now. I love my kids so much. They give me so much joy and my chest swells with pride when I see them all together which is not often enough.

With Thanksgiving approaching I count my blessings that we have had such good health over the years, that we have wonderful daughters in law and a son in law and 7 grand children. Crystal is expecting our 8th in March. This will be Crystal's first baby and everyone is thrilled and extremely happy for her. It's a boy by the way. I feel we are a close knit family but how else can that be when the 4 boys all work with their dad.  Even though the majority of the kids were born in the USA and Canada, we all feel like fairdinkum Aussies. My own family in Australia keep in touch by a family newsletter that gets sent out 3 times a year and lately there are a lot of family members contacting each other via facebook on the internet. I am most grateful for a loving husband who treats me like a queen. We have been married nearly 39 years and he is my best friend. I love spending precious times with him because he is humorous, loving, gentle, generous, kind and sensitive and I love him with all my heart.

The Crucible

On Friday night the limo arrived, on time and picked up Crystal and Kyle, Kelsey and her friend, James, Emily and her friend, Natalie, and Graeme and I and drove us down to Springville, to see our son Steven perform in the local community theater production of The Crucible. Steven played the amazing part of John Proctor. He did a wonderful job of portraying this main character. The play went for over 2 hours and Steve was in every scene. I sat in amazement as I watched him perform. He loves acting, you can tell by his passion in his character. We all arrived early so that we could sit in the front row and not miss a thing. At the end of the play I had tears in my eyes after a very emotional last scene. 

This is the second year that Steve has perform with Springville Playhouse. Last year he performed in "Sherlock Holmes and the West End Horror" where he played several different characters, including Oscar Wilde, Sir Arthur Sullivan and H.G.Wells.

He has to devote hours to practice and his wife Tara is very supportive of him and helps him to practice his lines. The play started on October 31st and plays every Friday, Saturday and Monday nights until November 22nd. So it is very time consuming for him.

I am so proud of Steve's hobby and talent in acting. I wish him lots of success and enjoyment from it. We all had a fabulous evening as well as a fun ride in the limo.