Walking off dinner

The ultimate hot chocolate

Penzey's dutch cocoa makes the WORLDS BEST hot chocolate. That's what were having for breakfast.

Thanksgiving

I'm laying in bed blogging from my phone. For the first time ever we are having Thanksgiving dinner just with our own little family. I'm kind of sad about that. Last year we had 11 people over and that was a little crazy. But fun. I'm also paranoid about us getting sick right before our big trip so maybe its best that we don't spend the day with another family. We usually do get sick right after Thanksgiving. Not this year. Too much at stake.
My parents were just in Hong Kong and my dad had to go back to Saudi on business. So my mom came to the states to spend Thanksgiving in Nashville with Shawn and his family. My little brother Stan flew out too so he wasn't by himself. He's a recovering heroine addict. He's been out of rehab like 9 months now. Sam, my oldest brother, lives in Boston with his wife Carol and son Charlie. My sister Sandra lives in Dallas with her husband Philip and daughter Maya. Scott, just older than Stan, lives in Provo with his wife Alisa and they're going to BYU. My parents mostly live in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia but my dad travels alot. At any rate, I think the last time we were all together for Thanksgiving was probably about 15 years ago before anyone was married.
I didn't feel like cooking a turkey this year so I bought a prepared ham from Costco. And a lot of other yummy food.

Anyone else making gingerbread houses?

Its a sticky mess in our kitchen right now but lots of fun. I want to see everyone else's gingerbread houses;)

The kite store on Pearl St in Boulder

This is the kids favorite toy store.

Went swimming with the Hanks today. I'm not sure why but my kids always feel the need to get in the lockers at the gym. The Hanks' kids did too. Olivia doesn't look happy here but she did have a good time. She just isn't big on smiling for the camera.

Prayer

I read Elder Scott's talk on prayer.  Prayer is something I want to understand better.  I want to understand how to be more effective in my prayers and how to recognize answers to them.  I know I have had prayers answered, when I look back in retrospect.  I think one way to make the answers easier to recognize is to write down both what I'm praying for and what I think the answers are when they come.  Elder Scott said there are three ways that prayers are answered:  "First, you can feel the peace, comfort, and assurance that confirm that your decision is right. Or second, you can sense that unsettled feeling, the stupor of thought, indicating that your choice is wrong. Or third—and this is the difficult one—you can feel no response."

He goes on to say if we feel the 3rd way, getting no repsonse, we should give thanks to the Lord because he trusts us enough to make the right decision. Prayer is a difficult thing but something worth always improving.  We have the chance to talk freely with the God who created us and worlds without end.  One thing I don't really do often is pray vocally but I'm going to try that this week and see how that changes my prayers.