Grateful Thanksgiving

Since Brady would be in the MTC for Thanksgiving, and Kasey, Kolby and Braxley would be with their dad for this years Thanksgiving, I decided to have our family's Thanksgiving on Veteran's Day. It was simple, nice and tasty. I also wrote a grateful letter to Kasey, Kolby and Braxley that they could read on Thanksgiving while they were away.

Dear Kasey,

Happy Thanksgiving! This Thanksgiving I am grateful for YOU! I have loved that our family created a grateful frame, and I often thought of things about you that I’m grateful for, and I would add to it. I could fill up a frame just on you alone! Some of those things about you that I’m grateful for are: You are an amazing young man. I’m grateful how you say goodbye every morning to everyone. You tell the boys that you love them and you wish them a good day, and you give them fists for high fives. You always hug and kiss me goodbye and tell me to have a good day too. Every night you also give me a kiss and hug and wish me a good night’s sleep. I appreciate your affection towards me and your siblings and making sure we all know it. That’s a great gift that you have. That goes right along with your generous heart in how you are always looking out for others. Thank you for that. I’m grateful how you encourage Kolby and Braxley in basketball and helped Kolby during his tryouts. You are a good example of working hard and preparing your body for the sport that you love to play. You have been a great help with Kolby and Braxley. I’m grateful to see you reading your scriptures. It gives me so much pleasure to come into your room and see you reading your scriptures, and you even sit at the desk and read them! I’m grateful how you are working hard in school and how it’s important to you. I’m grateful for your laughter and smile. You’ve always had the best smile and laugh. I’m grateful that you have good friends and for the good fun that you have. I’m grateful for your tender heart and how much Brady serving a Mission means to you. I’m grateful that you can cry like I do when we miss Brady. It’s okay to do that, we miss him, but we are happy where he is. Thank you for taking care of his mission board. I’m grateful you want to serve a mission. I’m grateful that you have always been so responsible with your Priesthood duties and with your progress in Scouts. I’m grateful with how responsible you are about everything and how organized you are. I am most grateful that you are my son. I love and admire you. I love being around you. You are always in my thoughts. You mean everything to me Kasey. I am proud of you Kasey, and I’m so grateful to be your Mom.

Dear Kolby,

Happy Thanksgiving! This Thanksgiving I am grateful for YOU! If I had a grateful frame to write down some of the things I’m grateful for about you, it would include: I am so grateful and proud of who you are. You are an amazing young man. I am grateful for your desire to fulfill your Priesthood duties. Your excitement to receive the Aaronic Priesthood, to pass the Sacrament and to collect Fast Offerings, and to wear a suit to church is so admirable. I am grateful for your hard work in Scouts. You are so responsible and have accomplished so much because of your own hard work. It is something to be proud of. I am grateful for how hard you work in school to make good grades. I just smile and am so pleased when I see your grades. They are amazing! I am grateful that you have this quiet confidence about yourself, and at the same time you are so humble. You are really good at basketball and baseball, yet when given a compliment about what a great job you did at pitching by taking your team to the championship, you find it hard to believe, and don’t really like the compliments and the lime light. I am grateful that you work hard at whatever you do. I am grateful for your happiness and laughter. I am grateful for your love and sweetness towards me. I love your hugs! I am grateful for your talents in music. You have a beautiful singing voice and you have a gift with the piano and the trumpet. I am grateful for your generosity, compassion and gentleness. I am proud of you Kolby and I’m so grateful to be your Mom.

Dear Braxley,

Happy Thanksgiving! This Thanksgiving I am grateful for YOU! I have loved making our grateful frame and I love the things that you wrote. I could write down so many things just about you! One of the things that you wrote was “influences.” That is awesome that you are grateful for good influences! I am grateful that you understand things like that. You are so wise. I am grateful for your smile and your smiling eyes. I am grateful for your goodness. I am grateful for your hard work in getting straight A’s. I am grateful for our time together alone every morning before school and after school. I am grateful that we both like tennis and can do that sometimes together and have our special time eating sushi at AJ’s. I am grateful that you like to read stories together. I love the things you say and listening to you talk. You are the most interesting person. You think deep and understand so much and have such a good insight into things. You have a great vocabulary and the quickest wit of anyone I know. I am grateful for the funny lines and quotes you say because they bring so much laughter and happiness into our home. You keep us all laughing! I am grateful for your love of ties. I think that is so neat. I am grateful that you work so hard at whatever you are doing, whether it’s school, basketball or learning something new. When you put your mind to something, you accomplish it. I admire that. I am grateful that you spend time playing in the backyard and find creative things to do. I am grateful that you draw pictures. I love the pictures you make for me. I’m grateful that you love band and for the talent you have at playing the saxophone and the piano. I just love everything about you and my love for you grows everyday. I am proud of you Braxley, and I’m so grateful to be your Mom.

During the month of November our family wrote down things we were each Grateful for on this Grateful frame.

Here it is all complete. I am so glad I did this before Brady left. I love to have is displayed so we can see it everyday.  We each have our own color. Mom is teal, Brady is red, Brinkley is purple, Kasey is orange, Kolby is blue, and Braxley is green.