dia de gordo y gracias

“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” -Melody Beattie

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for thanksgiving, we were lucky enough to have a TON of people visit us for the holiday. this is the first time this has actually happened. no one visits us(except you NATALIE that one time). which has it's perks. our garage never has to be that organized. 

grandma sandy was our first visitor and she was able to attend stake conference with us the next morning. 

unfortunately, we arrived an hour late for the service and it wasn't even our stake's meeting. somehow we missed the memo about the accurate starting time. but it totally explains how we scored such a sweet parking spot. plus, since my mom was in town we got to feel extra stupid. fortunately, we still got to hear a great, but somewhat abbreviated message. my favorite quote was, "we are like a block of marble becoming a beautiful sculpture. we must chip away the things that are not us to find who we really are."

grandma had m&ms for each kid and they sat as far away from us as possible. it was like a mini-date for thomas and me.

we got to spend several days with just grandma sandy. it is such a treat to be with her. she is one of those people who loves to serve. she just simply does. she finds things to do and does them. we put together almost all of our thanksgiving dinner the day before. there was no panicky screaming(related to thanksgiving prepartions)!

next to arrive was aunt heather, uncle daniel and baby cousin june. 

heather was quite the funster. my favorite activity was the cheerleading lesson scarlett gave heather and me on the tramp. heather was put in time out several times. and i won't even mention the set of keys that got misplaced and as soon as we got back from the dealership to pick up a replacement set, the original set turned up. no need to say anything about that here. 

ebony and ivory. 2 generations.

my brother mark rode a bus from NYC to south carolina. it was such a great experience that he bought a plane ticket for the return trip. i am so glad that he came. i don't know if i would have ridden a bus down my street, let alone 12+ hours to just sleep on my couch.

we also had my uncle sherm and aunt susan and their kids came for thanksgiving too.
i look at my darling cousin cami and i think, if i could have been half as put together as she is i wouldn't have spent so much of my high school years locked in my room writing poems about unicorns and working on not breathing exclusively through my mouth. 

plus, thomas' mother, my sister-in-law lauren and her two kids came too and round the group out to a nice even 17. they were good sports to put up with the chaos.

then we ate. and ATE!

instead of a traditional thanksgiving dinner we had mexican food, which is pretty much my all-time favorite. at least i was happy and that is what is important. it was the dia de gordo y gracias(the day of fat and thanks)!

and then wackiness ensued.

and manners flew out the window!

i am grateful for family!

and  naps!

and more naps!

later that night, reagan performed a thanksgiving-themed puppet show slash musical.

then we tortured extended family members with beck family home movies from the mid-90s. and they were ugly. being a perpetual nerd kept us from all the hazards and perils of popularity. thank goodness.

but my personal highlight was when the group sing along commenced. seriously. this is a beck family tradition. we can't walk by a person playing the piano without the hankering to bust out in a disney themed sing a long. if only we had the phantom of the opera songbook!!! regrets!

mark and i created a day after thanksgiving 5k. we found the biggest hills in my neighborhood and ran up them at full speed. which was about 2 steps above a slow walk on a stomach full of mexican food.

i'm a gazelle.

we both came in first place.

and then after all the the "real" adults went home, i felt like we were just a bunch of kids hanging out in a really messy house. 

my new favorite picture:

mark thought he was being funny by kicking scarlett's doll out of her stroller. scarlett made him rectify the situation.

fake adults masquerading as real adults. after this picture, reagan threw up all over my car.

poor marky was the best help around my house. i don't think he realized that his vacation would include running errands and helping out with my kids. 

we even gave him the flu. i got a text the morning after he got back home asking if i was barfing too. affirmative good buddy. (athena is playing with industrial size bag of wipes and a string of broken christmas lights. i was encouraging creativity.) 

then scarlett was lucky enough to get it too. and also threw up in my car.

and that was the thrilling conclusion to our holiday.