Thanksgiving, Etc.

 Happy December 1st and Happy Birthday to Lauralai Allison today!

Okay, so God caught my attention with this verse in my reading this morning:

I'm thankful that we can entrust the people we care about to Him... that He also loves and cares for them and is able to build them up and provide eternal hope!!  I needed that gentle reminder to give everyone and everything to Jesus... I've been concerned about my precious niece and nephews lately.  Their hearts have been through a lot in the past two years - mostly really difficult and messy family stuff that I wish on no one... but also school stuff and pandemic stuff and eye therapy and losing trips and other things they were excited about.  I love and adore them, and Jesus does too!!!  They matter to God, and He will take care of them and give them a hope and a future. ❤

In lighter news, here are some pictures from the past week.  I did a 60-minute bootcamp with Jess Sims to start off Thanksgiving Thursday!  I even hit 1,111 miles somewhere along the way, which made me happy!  I'm doing the thumbs up, but Google Photos cut that off in this collage, so it looks like a fist-bump selfie. lol.

I drove to Mom and Dad's where we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with the fam... Mom went all out even though it was just 8 of us.  We had mashed potatoes, mac n' cheese, rolls, dressing and gravy, ham from Ty's restaurant, jello pie, chocolate cake, and whipped cream (both homemade and canned). lol  Jaceman set up the table for all of us, which was pretty cute!

Jace seems to agree with Chet Lee in his distaste for my prayer pictures. lolol  I got very cracked up when I saw this!

Rachael's attempt at a group selfie didn't go as hoped... but still makes me happy!

I took this one from my seat, and it makes me happy too!  I'm thankful T&C got to join us for Thanksgiving dinner!!  (There's a chance that Josh has COVID right now, and Brooke decided to get them Saturday and Sunday instead of Thursday and Friday).

I made the chocolate cake myself (at my house on Wednesday night whilst watching Marvel movies)!  Layer cakes continue to be problematic for me, but much like the strawberry cake of yesteryear, this one was well-received!  I took a risk and used espresso powder this time (the recipe calls for it but none of us like coffee so we've left it out before), and it paid off and made it richer!  Jace was a big fan and asked me for the recipe (sent it to him on Messenger for Kids - not holding my breath for him to make that himself! lol), then he started calling it "Lindsey's famous chocolate cake" which made me happy!

Took a pic of the mini Miss K doing the splits, then found a baby Miss K pic in the same pose from 2014! ❤

Around 4:30 on Black Friday, Mom and I met Rach and the kids at Regional Park to take some Parrish fam pics... I was definitely dressed to take photos rather than be in them, but I *was* in the black-and-white theme, and I did get one with J&K at the end of the day (T&C had already hopped in the car to leave - LOL).

This one makes me smile - they decided to fake laugh and it turned into real laughter, as it tends to do!  Clearly, we need to use that method more often.

I mean... Get. Out. lol

She is so much cuteness and sass and gumption and sweetness in a preshface little body with tall boots that make her so happy.  "Lindsey... Hey, Lindsey!... Lindsey, over here!"  Kyndal Faith was about posing it up by every tree (and slide, etc.)  And I'm here for that all day long! lol

The Jaceman is doing well with eye therapy.  Mom works with him for 45 minutes to an hour a day on that... and the doctor said 55 weeks is the starting point - crazy!  But his eye muscles need time to totally retrain themselves and connect.

Rach got Kyndal this glittery water bottle - cuteness!

Before taking the family pics, Dad and I went for a neighborhood and park walk with the kids!

The box on our side wasn't working so the boys had to crawl under the neighborhood fence to open the gate. lol  Once we reached the park, there were so many tree branches down from the ice storm a few weeks back!  Also, I love that the Miss K wants to hold my hand on our walks!

It was nice getting to chat with the kids as we walked along.  Since we did the 55-minute park walk and I threw in a Peloton arms class later, I got to take a rest day on Saturday instead of Friday - I drove home and ate dinner and watched movies and relaxed!

Sarah invited me and the Wilsons for Sunday dinner... we got calzones from Mazzio's and we chatted about her and Karli's pregnancies, our Thanksgivings and any family dramas or stories, and the royal family!  My favorite part of that convo was Chet asking if they had guns in the 1800s, then Karli and Sarah both immediately mocking him for that and talking about the revolutionary war being fought with guns... then he said, "Hey, I'm not a history buff on anything except the royal family!" lolol  It does seem true - he's watched The Crown along with several documentaries on them.  We all agree they're kinda terrible and should allow their kids and/or grandkids to marry for love instead of being so freaking focused on building their own image.  My gosh, it's a painfully repeating cycle as I've watched The Crown this year.  I feel a lot of empathy for Charles and the way they worked so hard to kill his spirit and push away the woman he loved and force a miserable marriage on him.  It's sad.

Aaaaanyway, Steve and Loki were in the living room napping during a lot of the above convo, so we grabbed a group selfie with him on the couch! lol

Then had him get up to take this awkward fireplace pic of the four of us! =)

Sarah made peach cobbler for dessert, and despite her intense annoyance at Steve's getting "FRENCH vanilla" instead of Homestyle, it was all really good! lol

We're back at work as of yesterday, but we've continued all the cases from this week and next over to the week before Christmas... which we can probably rename the nightmare before Christmas, since we're cramming 3 weeks worth of hearings in there.  But this week is lovely and light... I brought clothes and went for a delightful walk at CP during lunch yesterday! ❤

And we've finally made it to today, which is Laura's 41st birthday!  I'm thankful we didn't end up having a felony Tuesday docket for her to deal with today.  This = my FB post + card + Barbee cookies!  My other more official gift is forthcoming... I ordered a calendar that I thought was same-day pickup at Walgreens, but I got a size that apparently they only do as ship-to-store (which I realized after putting in over 100 photos one by one).  But whatever - it'll be a belated birthday/early Christmas gift in a couples weeks!

This pic is out of order, but here's me and the Miss K on our Black Friday park walk!  So much love for her and her brothers!! ❤

*Photo taken by T-man

That's all I've got for now.  It was not completely traditional, but it was a really lovely Thanksgiving break weekend!  And now I've got two easy weeks at work to focus on projects and to-do lists and all things not work-related. lol