Thanksgiving with the Vest's 2011

Thanksgiving 2011 was spent with the Vest Family. We anticipated this event all year long because Grandma and Grandpa gave us the assignment early on in the year to memorize "The Living Christ" as a family to kick off the Christmas Season.

We enjoyed a yummy dinner with contributions from everyone. Mom and Dad did the turkey, vegetables, stuffing, gravy and cranberry sauce and stuffed mushrooms. Scott and Annette made the mashed potatoes. Chad and Jenn brought the cranberry fruit salad. We brought the sweet potatoes and Cornucopia Salad. Wade and Sara did the rolls. Stephen and Emily did the Vegetables in a Cloud. We all brought pies. I think there were enough pies for each person to eat their own. :)

Dinner was amazing. I LOVE Thanksgiving Dinner. All of flavors come together so well. I love when we each get to contribute something to a meal. Sara did something fun with the rolls this year. The night before Thanksgiving she asked us all to name something we were thankful for. She wrote them on strips of paper and then placed them inside of the rolls. When we ate our roll on Thanksgiving we had to guess who said what. Most of us without a major sense of humor told of serious things, but there are a few who told of serious things they were thankful for, but in a funny roundabout way.

After dinner was over, the women cleaned up the kitchen while the men took the kids to the park. We had pie and then we gathered together to have a kick-off to the Christmas season. My mom asked each family way back in January or February to memorize parts of "The Living Christ." We couldn't put up a fit about having our family memorize a couple of paragraphs because she memorized the whole thing by herself. I think she memorized "The Family: A Proclamation to the World" too, but I could be wrong. Anyway, she's ambitious. It really was a neat experience. My parents ended together and were very emotional as they said their part....

"We testify that He will someday return to earth. "And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together" (Isaiah 40:5). He will rule as King of Kings and reign as Lord of Lords, and every knee shall bend and every tongue shall speak in worship before Him. Each of us will stand to be judged of Him according to our works and the desires of our hearts.

We bear testimony, as His duly ordained Apostles—that Jesus is the Living Christ, the immortal Son of God. He is the great King Immanuel, who stands today on the right hand of His Father. He is the light, the life, and the hope of the world. His way is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come. God be thanked for the matchless gift of His divine Son."

We ended with each family telling a story from the scriptures about the Savior's life.

I love my family. I love my immediate family with my husband and children and I love my parents, siblings, their spouses, and their children. We all have such different personalities, struggles/challenges, interests, and talents. There are things I love differently about each of them. I am grateful for their sense of humor to help lighten me up when I get a little to serious about life. I am also grateful for their dedication to the Gospel and the desire to do what's right. They inspire me and are excellent examples to me. None of us are perfect, but I believe that each of us are really trying to do our best.