Thanksgiving and Beyond

The week before Thanksgiving, Abdiel's long-awaited campout with the deacons in yurts at Deadhorse Point State Park finally came around. They hiked and talked and generally did what boys do, at least all the good things that boys do. Lia's favorite part of the trip was hearing Abdiel--who sometimes isn't the happiest piano student in the world--lovingly stroke the keys of the piano before he walked out the door saying, "I'll miss my piano!" When she noted how happy that made her to hear that, he clarified, "I'll miss playing Imagine Dragons on my piano!" 

The night that Abdiel was to return from the campout, the rest of the family attended the BYU basketball game thanks to some extra tickets provided by Justin's colleagues who were at the unfortunate ASU game in Arizona. The sad part was that Abdiel returned to an empty house; the happy part was that Gwyn's Primary teacher snagged this shot of the Collings girls looking either utterly amazed or utterly bored as she watched the broadcast at home. Priceless.

The week of Thanksgiving, Gabriel achieved a milestone on his potty chart that warranted a trip to Thanksgiving Point. Aunt Angela and cousin Royce accompanied. Royce never left the rain exhibit, until it was time to go and Angela helpfully offered to go get both strollers which she and Lia had left downstairs. Royce immediately sprinted for Kidopolis in his Mario run, but Lia miraculously herded him back to the designated meeting point by the time Angela got back with the strollers and before Gabriel had noticed too frantically that he had unexpectedly been left alone.

 

Speaking of Gabriel, after biding our time at the Church Music Festival by taking pictures by the Christmas trees on temple square, he now thinks one takes pictures by every favorite Christmas tree. These were the chosen ones by the Marriott Center.

On Thanksgiving proper, Lia tried very hard to orchestrate things in such a way that the day could be enjoyable for all, yet not imperil her health. This was accomplished by everyone pitching in to make our own little Thanksgiving and then having Gabe, Angela, Royce, Kinsi, Matt, Aria, Rori, and Alexander over for pie and to watch football. The important parts of that happened: we bought a turkey breast and baked beans from Honey Baked Ham; Lia made cranberry celebration bread and rolls; Justin and Abdiel made mashed potatoes; Katharine made sweet potato souffle; Elisabeth made a fruit salad; and Gwyn and Elinor helped make the pie crusts. We also fresh pressed the remaining apples from our tree and had a green salad. Everything was delicious!

Overachieving Gwyn also wrote a Thanksgiving pageant and Elinor and Gabriel helped her throw together costumes for them and Aria and Rori. After enjoying the presentation, we ate pie, but the football viewing had some complications. Sports-crazed Abdiel may have been sated.

Speaking of football, a funny thing happened at the Houston game. In this picture, the astute reader will notice that Elder Christofferson was sitting behind Justin and Elisabeth. By the end of the game, with their own guest Elder Gong having gone and Elder Christofferson's host President Reese gone, Elder Christofferson came and sat by Justin and Elisabeth.

To-the-end viewers of said BYU-Houston game may recall that Darius Lassiter got into a scuffle with a Houston player that resulted in Lassiter getting ejected from the game. Texting updates about the game to her roommates who were home for Thanksgiving, Elisabeth said something about this. To which her roommate responded with something along the lines of: "Bruh, looks like somebody needs to review President Nelson's talk about being a peacemaker!" Elisabeth read this quip aloud to Justin, which was overheard by Elder Christofferson and made him laugh. Elisabeth reported the response to her roommate. 

Roommate 1: "Wait, what? Are you sitting by him? Does that mean I get to meet him??!"

Roommate 2: "Hey! If she gets to meet him, can I come with?"

Roommate 1: "Bruh, get your own Apostle to crack up! I'm going straight to heaven, Losers!" 

Funny on so many levels.