And, we spent our own Thanksgiving right here in our own little home, after the fact. It was SUCH a lovely, sunny day!  Dad took the girls to the park in the morning for a rousing game of pitch and bat, then he took off on a long, exploratory bike ride.  I spent the day measuring, stirring, mixing, peeling, cooking, baking, and washing, and that evening we had our feast. 

Since we don't observe Christmas, we decided a while back to give gifts to the girls for Thanksgiving, something each of them could be truly thankful for: a new winter coat or nightie or something else needed.  Due to the Lord's blessing on our family, the girls really aren't desperate for anything this year, so instead we just bought a Monopoly game and the latest release in our favorite family read-aloud series, The Methuselah Chronicles. We're looking forward to some fun evenings together!

Several years ago we began a book of remembrance.  Every year on Thanksgiving , each of us names some thing(s) for which we thank God, and I write those things down in a journal.  For the memories' sake it is a lot of fun to go back and read the previous years' entries, and it's fun, too, to see how the girls have matured in their thankfulness.  For example, a daughter who, three years ago, said she was thankful for her nice warm bed now says she is thankful for missionaries like the D____'s and the T____'s, who are willing to take the gospel to China (closed to missionaries, hence the blanks, for their security) and Indonesia, places she doesn't want to go.  I chuckled and told her there are probably also some people who are thankful for people like us, who are willing to take the gospel to the desert. 

It kind of appears that we took the month off school, doesn't it?  We didn't!  We'll try to make our December Month in Review a bit more homeschool-ish.