Thanksgiving in honor of our missionary

One of our most favorite Thanksgivings was in Monterey when my brother and his family joined us. We had a really great time cooking together, the kids loved walks on the beach and we even did some great Black Friday shopping.  I have other great memories having Thanksgiving all together at my moms house and Mema Jackie (who passed last year) would bring her famous deviled eggs and Logan and Patrick would fight over sitting nearest them so they could eat them all. 

Appetizers -

 Thinking about all of these great Thanksgivings brought me to think of Patrick and how he is on a mission in Canada - Not celebrating Thanksgiving. While they do have Thanksgiving in Canada its not the same day and not celebrated quite the same way. I thought about how we have had a rough few months and how our letters and packages to him have been fewer and farther between.

 I am thankful for a lot of things this year, mostly that Logan and Dan are doing well and the health problems  have gotten more under control.  We do miss little Meg but are so grateful for the years we had with her. However I was thinking about Patrick a lot and lots of sweet memories came to mind. Id love to call and share with him, but that's not the nature of a mission. So I decided to dedicate our Thanksgiving celebration to him and to the work he is doing and to how Thankful we are to those like him who sacrifice their time because they want to share the peace, and love of the gospel. If it weren't  for people like him I may not have the blessings of the gospel in my life. I am So grateful as well for the example he sets for my kids! So much strength and faith. Seth wears the Tie Patrick gave him before he left for Canada - EVERY SUNDAY!

 So we invited the Sister Missionaries and the Elders over for Thanksgiving dinner. We made everything homemade and went all out to have a beautiful set meals with all the traditional fixings. We asked them to bring anyone with them that they were teaching that didn't have a place to go for the holiday.

 They didn't have anyone to bring, which is great that we have such a wonderful area that families all have each other. We enjoyed hearing about their families and the people they were teaching.

 They enjoyed all the little touches and loved my mashed potatoes!

 They also loved that I had prepared large plates for them to mound with leftovers to take home. They covered them and put their names on it and we saved it till they left. We sat around talking about the things we are thankful for.

 Elder Olsen, Elder Talbot, Sister K, Sister Lund - Seth went for a nap, Logan was taking the picture

 Seth came back, Paige took the picture!

 Fun note: Sister K- this was her first Thanksgiving. She is from the Cook Islands off the coast Australia.

I let the missionaries know how proud we are of Patrick and the things he is doing!
Happy Thanksgiving Elder Rodgerson we love and miss you!