Monday, December 12, 2016

Thanks-Giving!

From Boston we flew to Toronto and then literally flew through the Toronto airport as our flight was late out of Boston, our connection was tight and the Toronto airport is HUGE! We arrived at our gate to Edmonton in the nick of time and had a great two days with good people who are already doing a great job with their families but are anxious to do better! They were awesome!

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Getting there just after the election, we were reminded that we had promised ourselves that if Donald Trump won, we would be moving to Canada! But it was a bit cold and dreary there and many weren’t happy with the government there either so I guess we’ll give that crazy guy some slack and see what happens!

I had been a little nervous about getting home in time for Thanksgiving, as 40 people were showing up at our house the morning after our late afternoon arrival for a delicious and fun feast! I was pretty much horrified to see that our flight at 6 a.m. the day before Thanksgiving had been cancelled and greatly relieved when they somehow got everyone on a different plane and a different airline in time to catch our flight out of Seattle! Tender Mercy!

It was so great to know that the Carvers were bringing lots of the food but by the time I got home and hit the stores for last minute necessities, pretty much all the fresh flowers had been sold!  Luckily Saren had already bought some beautiful ones which I was so happy to see when the Looslis arrived to help, set tables and put out place cards.

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We were together just in time to watch the first big winter storm roll in. Magical!

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Back door!

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Early in the morning, our kids started FaceTiming and Apple TVing in from all over the world!  So FUN!

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The Looslis went on a morning hike to revel in the beautiful snow and to run off a few calories before stuffing themselves with the Thanksgiving feast!

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The girls were in charge of working on the traditional thanks-giving lists and did a good job of gathering a plethora of things people were Thankful for on rolls of adding machine paper!

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Even though I look fairly drunk here (on water), I’m including this picture because I love my one and only sister so much! We had a lot of fun working together on this meal that included two 23 pound turkeys and all the fixings!

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Jared, the potato master, peeled and prepared 30 pounds of fabulous tasting potatoes! This is about half of what he prepared!

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was pretty much preoccupied with coordinating that meal so I am grateful for pictures from Saren’s good phone of what happened in the last minute flurry before the feast. Richard read the inspiring original George Washington Thanksgiving Proclamation and then we sang “For the Beauty of the Earth” around the piano before our prayer of thanks!  

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And it was on to the feeding frenzy!

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After dinner we played a fun game about gratitude!

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Love this this crazy group of cute boys:
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And this “collapse of the overfed” on the couch after the meal:

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And beautiful families like this:

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As many of you know, the the past 40 years we have sent Thanksgiving Cards (we’ve caved into doing this online) instead of Christmas Cards. It includes an original poem by Rick and a couple of family pictures at Bear Lake (sorry the top one is so small...too many people :)!  I’m including that card here since we don’t have most of your email addresses, although we appreciate your “tuning in” to our Eyrealm blog and thought you might like to see it!

The Sin
 
Sometimes thankfulness is easier to feel in singular isolation,
Because public profusion, like flowers covering an Alpine meadow
Overwhelms us.
Individual blooms go unnoticed—apathetically assumed,
While a single desert cactus flower, stark against the sand,
Stands out, vivid and indelibly perfect, searingly beautiful.
 
The abundance of our rich lives,
Forests of favor, vast fields of the friendly familiar,
Creates a sensory overload of diminishing returns—the
Dampening, dulling oblivion of routine entitlement.
Seeing suffers,
Noticing neglected,
Emotion ebbs,
And the glorious gift of gratitude gradually gives way
To the sin of taking for granted.
 
A counterintuitive conundrum: too much to love?
Consider the unlimited bandwidth of the heart
When connected to the cloud of The Spirit.
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TOP PICTURE FROM LEFT:  Eli & Julie+2 in NYC,   Saren & Jared+5 in Ogden, Saydi & Jeff+4  in Boston but moving to Half Moon Bay,  Josh in Arizona, Tal & Anita+1 near Zurich,  Us in Park City,  Jonah & Aja+5 on Maui,  Shawni & David+3  in Arizona+Max on Mission in Taiwan and Elle at BYUH,  Noah & Kristi+6 in Orange County, Missing: Charity & Ian+1 in London with a new baby. 

SECOND PICTURE: Proud Us with 26 of 29, and Noah standing in for Max (same height), and Linda’s doll representing little baby Moses, and N&amd;K’s 6th arriving any day. 

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We hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving, even as you are already immersed into Christmas!

With love from The Eyres!

3 comments:

charity eyre wright said...

Mom, you are the absolute best. That drunk picture of you is classic.
I'm just thinking about that time that you meant to comment "great shot" on Saydi's picture on Instagram and I'm laughing really hard.
The winter wonderland scene inside the great room is, as you would say, to die for. I'm feeling a bit homesick :)
Love you!

Shawni said...

LOVE YOU MOM! Love seeing all these pics, makes me so excited to see you in a couple days!

Jenny Marie Hatch said...

Please, move to Canada, or better yet, move to Venezuela or Cuba, and save those of us who are dedicated Trump supporters the anguish of your smug know it all "positive globalism" political views as he and his administration diligently work to restore our constitutional republic.

I read all of your Eyre family blogs and while you don't bother to chime in much about this most important topic of politics and freedom, there is a strong undercurrent of your family being just a bit too sophisticated to be dirtied or sullied by the important political debates of our day.

That's great.

We all get to choose how we will spend our time, but please, do not insult a dedicated reader of your invaluable insights on family life with the typical mormon elitist arrogance that has reared its ugly head during the presidential campaign.

I have had the finger of scorn pointing in my general direction for over a year because of an early and loud endorsement of Trump.

Look in the mirror Linda and see if your comments above do anything to contribute to the healing of our nation.

I would humbly suggest that they do not.

Jenny Hatch
Founding Mother of the Tea Party
http://www.michaelpatrickleahy.com/teapartyfounders.html