My Birthday: Day One

My Birthday is this week (Wednesday February 20) and thusly celebrations began today. I have decided to do something a little bit different this year, over the next few days I am going to blog 24 things that I am thankful for.

Number One: Favourite Foods and Families That Make Them.

I have a fantastic family (I am positive that they will find themselves with another mention at some point this week) and today to celebrate my birthday they all helped make my favourite foods for dinner. We had funeral potatoes, green beans, red peppers, sweet potatoes, and fruit pizza for dessert. I love love love this meal and I love that my family all helped make it, ooh and they also let me pick their outfits for dinner- now that is love.

Pictures from Dinner

Number Two: My Grandma Hansen

My Grandma Hansen is incredible and I have been so lucky to have her in Taber. Growing up she has always been a part of my daily life; when I was sick I laid on her couch and she took care of me, she let me teach clogging in her basement, I still randomly show up at her house for lunch and she is always happy to see (and feed) me. She is always there for me; whether it is needing somewhere to change my clothes, or someone to make me feel better after a hard day.  I love her a lot.

Number Three and Number Four: My Aunt Dawna and Uncle Tage

My family is particularly close to my Aunt Dawna and Uncle Tage; geography has aided that, and I have been fantastically blessed to grow up with an amazing cousin the same age- Lexie, but as I have gotten older they have become a lot more than just Lexie’s mom and dad. When I was in Provo I missed the Sunday dinners that our families share, and not only because of fire jokes.  I like spending time with them, and I like that they love my siblings and I enough to let us attempt to be helpful; any Aunt and Uncle can be nice to you when you come over, but not just any Aunt and Uncle will let you climb up on their roof and help shingle.  Once when I had car problems I called my Uncle Tage; he left work, came, found me, and made sure that I was all taken care of. I know that I count on him.  When I got home from South Africa I wasn't working very much, my family was still in school, and I was dealing with post vacation doldrums and my Aunt Dawna hired me for a few days to work in her house; it was exactly what I needed; it kept me busy, and  I felt like I was helping. My Aunt Dawna is always helping us, so I liked that I could do something for her. All of the examples in this post are pretty recent but I could go back and give you 24 years’ worth of evidence, I won’t, suffice it to say they are  awesome, and I love them. 

Number Five: Technology

Kelly was a doll tonight and took a whole bunch of pictures for me, and then after dinner we all had fun with the Apple TV laughing at how terrible most of them were.  Technology lets us share our lives; Facebook, Instagram, Face Time, text messages, blogs. It keeps us so connected, and with so many amazing people in my life I have a lot of reasons to want to stay connected.