Thanksgiving

I am very excited for Thanksgiving!  All my memories of Thanksgivings have been fun as I've celebrated with family and friends at home and far away from home.

All the Thanksgivings growing up with the Clarks set the standard for what Thanksgiving should be: family gathered together with good food, lots of pie, playing games, and doing crafts.

In college, I got to experience Thanksgivings with extended family.  While it was a little different from my Thanksgivings growing up, it was still the same holiday with good food and family.

On my mission, I thought it would be hard to celebrate the holidays away from family, but we were welcomed into our dear friends' homes.  The food might have been better (because any meal someone feeds you as a missionary is good), and there may have been more gratitude in the air as I spent days sharing the Gospel with those who didn't have the blessings of it in their life.

Last year marked the beginning of all my future Thanksgivings.  Dad invited Ben over to run the Scoresby Scamper (conveniently held over Thanksgiving).  It was then that I think we both realized that we were pretty serious about each other.  For our official first Thanksgiving we are visiting Grandma.  Next year, we'll be grateful that law school is almost over.  And in years to come, we'll have children and start incorporating our own traditions into the Thanksgiving season.

I'm grateful for this time of year and the time we have to reflect on the things that are the most important to us.

Terms of Endearment

Joanna and I have the best nick-names for each other!

Confession

There will be no homemade Christmas cards this year.  I couldn't find the right color paper, and now there isn't enough time to get them all done.

Gobble, Gobble

They don't realize Thanksgiving is only three weeks away.

 

And, clearly they don't care either because they stared at me while I was trying to sew and freaked me out when I looked up and saw them right there at the window.  I had to scare them away in order to get outside the building just to go to work.

But, the weather was awesome today.  60 degrees and sunny in November?  You'd think we live in Arizona:)

Halloween!!

Hello!

Joanna and I had loads of fun eating TONS of peanutbuttery-chocolatey delicious candy and watching the first Harry Potter movie as our festivities for Halloween!

We had one trick-or-treater (Lauren). 

We also went to the ward's Halloween Party, which was . . . OK. 

Actually, the highlite of the night was when I found out that I was NOT ALONE in the universe! There are other alien lifeforms that worship Star Trek!! (That is the Elder's Quorum Pres. and his wife! LOL!) 

I took off all my human disguise that I normally wear, and it was nice to be my real self again - a Vulcan science officer on a starship. This year I even had a phaser. . . . needless to say, the Klingons left us alone.

My lovely wife, Joanna, wanted to hide her shame of having such a husband, so she went as an FBI agent - in hat, trenchcoat, and huge sunglasses. . . . . but still people recognized her! I'm sure people thought she was working on an X-File when they saw us together! . . .

In other news, Jimmy (Joanna's little Chevy Metro with 168K miles) got new tires, lube, fluids, and exhaust system, and now runs like a dream! We're hoping it lasts until we can afford a newer car. . . and when we have the need for extra space. 

In more other news, Joanna got a new hair style.   :)

In yet other news, in the recent windy storms, the back fence of our apartment complex blew over, and there are 3 trees leaning heavily on a power line. I do not think the power line will last much longer, and it presents a hazard to parking in the rear. . . .

In final news, Sing-a-ma-jigs are awesome.

Live long and prosper.

- Ben