More Than Thankful

It is hard to believe that last year at Thanksgiving, Ava was one week away from being born. This year, Matt and I could not wait to celebrate Thanksgiving with Ava for the first time.

Does anyone else find it annoying that our society has been sweeping Thanksgiving under the rug for the past decade as retail stores make the jump from Halloween to Christmas? Well, here in the Gardner house, we choose to give Thanksgiving the pomp and circumstance it deserves. Now, understand, I love the decorations, the festivities, the family gatherings and food of Thanksgiving. But more important than all of that, is thanking God for all of His wonderful blessings. What a great reminder that we should show our thanks and gratitude every day of the year and not just the 4th Thursday in November.

This Thanksgiving was no exception when it came to being thankful for God's blessings in our lives. First and foremost, we are thankful that Jesus died on the cross so that we may live! There is nothing more amazing than that. Hands down. Of course we are also thankful for our health, family, friends and a million other wonderful blessings. Something else Matt and I are thankful for this year is that God provides for every single one of our needs and He meets us right where we are... everyday. This is a lesson that God has been teaching us lately. It may not be easy to learn and it might take us a while to see what His plans are for us... We know and trust that the Lord loves us and we are always excited to see what He has planned on the horizon, which always leaves us... More than thankful.

So here is a run down (literally) of what we did over the Thanksgiving break:

Thanksgiving morning, Matt, Ben (family friend) and I ran The Greensboro Gobbler. (My brother was supposed to run with us, but he deiced to catch a nasty chest cold just in time for the event!) The Greensboro Gobbler is a 5k through Country Park right here in town. Here is a picture of the three of us before the race. It's rather easy to tell it's before the race because, well, we're all smiling, not out of breath and we're not bent over in pain.

In case you're curious, our race times are as follows:

Ben: Excellent

Matt: Awesome

Me: At least I finished

I hope if you weren't running The Gobbler, that you were tucked in your warm bed Thanksgiving morning because it was COLD outside! Ava braved the chilly temps with Mimi and Poppy so that they could cheer us on as we crossed the finish line.

After running and getting cleaned up, we headed over to Matt's uncle Tim and aunt Kathy's house for lunch with family and friends. 

After eating, Ava discovered her cousin's bucket. She spent the next several minutes putting the bucket on her head, taking the bucket off her head, and repeating.

Ava and cousin Leah were by far the youngest people at lunch. I wanted nothing more than to get a cute picture of the two of them together and they wanted nothing more than to be uncooperative. After a lollipop bribe for Leah and everyone making funny faces for Ava, this is the best picture I got.

With full bellies and tryptophan pumping through our veins, we headed to my parent's house for round 2. The last time we were at my parent's house, Ava was not entirely mobile. This time, she was completely mobile and she spent the weekend exploring Oma and Opa's house. One of her favorite things to do was look down into the family room from the 2nd story balcony...

See what I mean?

I thought that Matt was downstairs, still taking pictures of Ava peeking through the banister. I was wrong. Instead, my sneaky husband came around to the front of the stairs, took a picture without my knowledge, and proved that my brother and I are more alike than I thought...

We do not have any baby gates in our house so Ava couldn't figure out why Fergie (and my parent's 2 dogs) were always on the other side of the gate.

The reason we do not have a baby gate at our house is because we do not have any stairs. Well, my parents do have stairs, and Ava found them quite intriguing. It took her a minute to figure out how to move her arms and legs the right way...

...But once she figured it out, she was a stair climbing machine and she made it to Oma's arms, every time!

We hope that you and your family had a Very Happy Thanksgiving!