Thanksgiving with just us two

Thanksgiving is such a wonderful holiday to gather as families and friends and reflect on all the things that you are grateful for this year. Because one manager had to stay during the holidays, it was our turn this year. We were sad that we could not make the trip to Oregon but as we only had two days off that month, it would make for a very tight trip so hopefully we can save up for a longer trip next time. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get out there!

Leading up to Thanksgiving though, I'll post a pic of me dressed up for our Halloween party. Austin had to volunteer as an engineer that night so I went by myself. I didn't realize how different events are in a married student ward without your spouse! ha!

Can you guess what I am?

Love the colors of this time of year

Right outside our house

Austin participated in 'no-shave-November' (this is two weeks in-and he's quite proud of it) I also participated in no-shave-November but I'll spare you the pics of my legs :)

Early run on Thanksgiving morning. It's amazing how dead Rexburg is once students are gone and it was nice. 

Thanksgiving program in the historic Tabernacle. Such a great way to start the day!

Me and the turkey battling it out. Working under its skin. First time I've ever made a turkey and I've never felt so domestic...and grossed out:)

Homemade vegan pumpkin pie!

Made this simple banner for our living room

Tis the season!

We had Thanksgiving with another manager within the company and ate really good food, played a dice game, and ate more good food. Austin and I came back and watched a couple of movies. One of them was Belle which we hadn't seen before and really enjoyed it! I would highly recommend it. I want to see it again because the dialogue was fast...English....can you blame them? 

My favorite part of the day was coming home that night and before watching the movies, Austin and I talked about the things we were grateful for the year and how we've been blessed. And oh how we've been blessed! Sometimes things just fall right in our laps and we think "we were definitely not deserving of that!" 

I'll just share a few points of the things I'm grateful for this year. I have been blessed with experiences I would not have had otherwise if I were in a different circumstance. I've had a lot of reflective moments over the course of the year as I've had time to converse with the Lord and that buoys me up more than anything. I've been blessed with special experiences with the Lord that has helped me to realize things about me that I didn't know before. 

I'm grateful always for diligent parents and a Mom who wants to talk to me every week. Same goes with my sisters. I'm so grateful for their wisdom that helps me!

I'm always grateful for a supportive husband who encourages me in the new things that I'm doing-like my new lifestyle change in my eating habits. 

It's been a good year. Despite our challenges (expected or unexpected), we are truly blessed! I love the end of a good year and the start of another one. There is this sense of hope about starting anew. This year it will be full of surprises! We really have no idea where we'll be come the end of April but I guess that's the fun of it, right? Our little adventure is still continuing...stay tuned :)