Thanks-living

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, I stayed up unusually late- in an effort to get things done, just in  case Brian was actually going to make it home on Wednesday night. He called earlier in the evening just to check in and then at 11:45pm he called again. I thought it was really odd, knowing he should be at work and they can't have phones with them in the secure building. I answered and he said "I forgot to ask you a favor earlier. Could you please come open the front door?" BOY WAS I SHOCKED! And so, so very happy.

The kids woke up Wednesday morning and found their way into our room, as they usually do to say they are awake. Boy were they surprised to see daddy was in bed too! It was so amazing to see their expressions.

Brian had to go into work, so the kids and I decided to check a few things off of our "Thanks-living" list...

First, we purged their toys and donated a ton of stuff-

Then we went to the local outreach center and donated these 6 blankets that we made, all tied up with 2 books each, for local kids in need-

And lastly, we went to the local animal shelter, for a visit. When we went to the grocery store to buy bones to donate, we ran into Chris and her 3 kiddos, so we decided to take Abby along with us to the shelter-

Wednesday afternoon we took the kids to see Freebirds- the perfect movie for Thanksgiving Eve- so thankful to be a family of 4, and came home to make pumpkin bread! I will only make it for Thanksgiving week usually, and with Brian gone, I had almost forgotten to make it this year! What the heck would we have eaten Thanksgiving morning if I had forgotten? Cherrios? No way!