Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Thanksgiving

For some reason I have been putting this post off for a month now.  I don’t know why.  I have a hard time writing about my family without getting sappy and emotional.  I just want my kids (who will hopefully read this) to know what an amazing family have backing them up.  A family that is full of love, service, hard work, fun, crazy ideas, charity, resourcefulness and just plain amazing people. 
For this Thanksgiving we had almost all of my grandparents kids, grand kids and great grandkids.  We spent three days together doing all sorts of things including eating, cooking, quilting, playing games, cleaning and just playing.  Addison discovered this little car and spent almost an entire day in it.  She  had lots of cousins that liked to push her all around the gym.
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This is a picture of the family Thanksgiving feast!
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Addi was good entertainment during the entire week.
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We quilted two quilts for some family’s that needed them.
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We played a hilarious game of Family Feud that my cousin Jason put together.  The questions were all based around the family and some answers were really funny.  It was such a great game I would love to do it again.
We had a little celebration for my grandparents because they had recently had their 60th wedding anniversary and my grandpa turned 90.  We watched old videos and it was fun to see them when they were so young.  My cousin Janelle has an amazing bakery in South Jordan called One Sweet Slice. She made a cake for their anniversary and it was perfect.  She said she thought about making a standard fancy cake but that wouldn't really work for my grandparents.  They are not fancy people.  Instead she came up with this spectacular cake which fits them perfectly.  The truck is the first one that they owned when they were married.  The bed of the truck holds missionary tags, the initials of all their kids, hay bales, tiny heads of lettuce, and an little American symbol. Every detail was perfect.  She also made 200 delicious cup cakes for us all to enjoy.
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It was an excellent Thanksgiving weekend.  I am thankful to all the people who worked so hard to put this all together.  It was nice to spend time with my cousins that I don’t see often.  I can’t wait to get together again.  The following is an article written in the San Juan Record:
The family of Ruel and Deanne Randall gathered together Thanksgiving weekend for a few days of feasting, renewing acquaintances and celebrating the life of their parents, grandparents and great grandparents.
Ruel and Deanne were the honored couple celebrating 60 years of married life together, and celebrating Ruel’s 90th birthday. Of their 145 posterity 123 were present. Five of these unable to attend are serving LDS missions at this time.
Family came from New York, Georgia, Texas, Idaho, New Mexico, Utah and local.
Ruel and Deanne were married October 15, 1951 and were blessed with eight children: Harriet, Julie, Jared, Todd, Barbara, Sanford, Sheldon and Kristin, 43 Grandchildren of which only 22 are married, and 61 great grandchildren, with five more on the way.
The reunion started Thanksgiving evening with dinner of eight turkeys with the trimmings. Followed with a Randall Family Feud show with survey questions coming from family members relating to time and activities and rules from Grandma and Grandpa Randall. Old family reunion videos were watched with some good laughs from the past.
Friday was spent on service projects, cutting wood, making quilts, along with cooking demonstrations on making bread, noodles, yogurt and the goods were taken to needy families.
Friday evening was a time for memories of Ruel and Deanne their legacy and the importance of family ties.
Saturday included a temple session (almost standing room only), more eating and then cleaning of the stake center. They are grateful for being able to use that wonderful facility.
The cake was made by Janelle Randall Brown portraying the pickup truck Ruel & Deanne had when they were first married. The back is filled with reminders of their life together, children, farming, gardens and missions.
Sometime we just have to stop and really focus on what really matters most. Family gatherings seem to do just that.  

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Words can not express how much I love these two people.  They are a great example to me and my family.  I hope they know how many people they have influenced in their life.

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