Our First Thanksgiving

We spent our first Thanksgiving with the Jergensen family - including dinner for 35! My Thanksgiving experience was with a much smaller group, but I had a great time with my in-laws and meeting new cousins! My husbands family is awesome. Of course it was hard to be away from my family and I missed them a lot, but new traditions are fun and I'm blessed with the best in-laws.

Since Nathan had a 3-week break from school we could spend a full week in Hemet. I had to work for a few days and he had to study for boards (which he's taking the day after Christmas - wish him luck!) but we still had lots of fun family time like tennis lessons, seeing Catching Fire with all the siblings (9 including spouses!), visiting Grandma & Grandpa Tibbitts and the Martins (usually right at dinner time), and of course playing games (I won Settlers! 2 for 2 against my husband!)

Nathan and Tal also took the opportunity to work on my TMJ (jaw) issues. They made me a splint to help relieve pressure in my jaw, and while the jaw pain is gone, it was replaced first by a 4-day migraine and now by shooting pain in my neck and back. The only times I've been pain-free are while on heavy drugs (I did not know how heavy when I took them, and let's just say never again) and in the hot tub. They keep promising it will get better. I seriously hope they're right. Anyway, here we are in Tal's office taking some impressions of my teeth (lovely, right?? And doesn't he look excited?)

Lindsey did a great job making the place cards and making the table lovely for Thanksgiving dinner, don't you think?

And Nathan sure knows how to carve a turkey, and rock an apron!

Katie took a family picture outside after dinner. The leaves were incredible!

And of course we all had fun with little Hudson, the world's cutest nephew. I love that little guy. He kept running into the office while I was working and wanting to play with my laptop. He's my favorite little "helper" (who accidentally turned on voice commands and inverted the colors on my screen - I didn't even know you could do that!) He also loved smelling the roses (aka, eating the roses) with Grandma!

I'm so grateful for my husband, for my family and for his family, for our temple marriage, for my testimony of the gospel, for our home and friends in AZ, for the friends we're made before coming here, for my job that allows us to take out minimal debt, for his passion for dentistry, for his job offer(!!!!), for whatever exciting things happen in the next 6 months before he graduates, and for the family we can't wait to start together. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!