We each went our separate ways to spend Thanksgiving with our own families this year. In Salem the Andersons all got together at Kristin's parents house, along with Grandma and Grandpa, and had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner. They also welcomed a new addition to the family, Shaelynn Owens, who got engaged earlier that morning to Kristin's youngest brother Joe. They will be getting married in March. Since I wasn't there for the party, Kristin will have to come back to fill in the details, but here are some pictures.
 |
| Emily and her famou homemade rolls. |
 |
| The Anderson Thanksgiving table. |
 |
| Steve carving the turkey |
 |
| Emma making turkeys out of apples and marshmallows |
 |
| Shae's first Thanksgiving with the Andersons after getting engaged to Joe. |
 |
| So happy that Grandma and Grandpa could come to Thanksgiving. |
 |
| Wow! Look at all that food! |
Thanksgiving in Salt Lake was a little more solemn as my mom had just gotten the news a few days before that the chemo treatments she had been receiving over the past 4 months for her pancreatic cancer had failed and her tumor had not only returned, but had spread to her liver. Her prognosis is very bad and she has been in a lot of pain. It was nice however to have the entire family, including mom's only brother (along with his wife and some of his kids, and even grand kids) come to our house and join us for the holiday. Having extended family over for Thanksgiving was a special treat. We all wrote notes on "turkey feathers" about why we were thankful for mom and gave her this cute little gift as a Thanksgiving present. She seemed to really have a really nice time despite how horrible she felt.
We are now looking forward to making the Christmas holidays special and fill them with as many wonderful memories of being together with mom as we can. Last year, before her cancer diagnosis, she had already started making plans and reservations to spend this holiday season with the whole family in Hawaii. I think having that trip to look forward to has really kept her going this year and I'm excited to get to spend what will likely be her last Christmas with us in a beautiful paradise that she's been dreaming of seeing her whole life. To make it even better, since Thanksgiving, mom had a surgical procedure to kill all of the nerves in her back to relive her of the pain that she has been in. So far, the results have been tremendous and although she tires very easily and doesn't have much energy, she is proudly pain free, and as a result is looking much better and has become much more positive. I'll update again, and post some pictures of Hawaii after the trip, but for now, here is what Thanksgiving in Salt Lake was like.
 |
| The night before Thanksgiving Riley came over and helped make homemade rolls, recipe courtesy of Emily. |
 |
| Our Thanksgiving table |
 |
| The centerpiece of each plate was a carmel apple and gingerbread turkey made by Catherine. |
 |
| It's not officially Thanksgiving until the smoke alarm goes off right? |
 |
| Anneli brought mom an early Christmas present to open... |
 |
| ... a great beach bag that she can take to Hawaii! |
 |
| Our buffet tables this year features photographs of past Thanksgivings so people could have a nice stroll down memory lane while they got their food. |
 |
| This picture is one of my favorites! Riley is only 3 years old and mom just let him have at the turkey with a knife as big as he is! I guess she didn't earn the nickname "Crazy Granny" for nothing :). |
 |
| Dave's turn with the smoke alarm |
 |
| Dinner is ready! |
 |
| The family at dinner |
 |
| Christine joined us later |
 |
| Mom and her brother Helmut |
 |
| My aunt Janet |
 |
| Dave with my cousin Mark |
 |
| The family hanging out |
 |
| The turkey pumpkin that we gave to mom with notes of thanks to her written on each feather. |
