Keep Thanksgiving Day a Family Day

I LOVE Thanksgiving.  I love all the cooking and hanging out together.  I love that my boys are excited about being together with family.  I love the traditions and special foods that we only eat once a year...pumpkin pie, jello salad (yes, really!), special stuffing, and oh the cranberry sauce!  And my college roommates could tell you I get very excited about decorating for Christmas....but everything in its own time. 

I have been super disheartened this year to hear more and more stores are open for Thanksgiving.  (some all day, some part of the day).

Why am I so troubled?
1.  Each of these stores have employees who also have families.

2.  Is our consumer-driven culture so money hungry that we can't close our stores for one day?  Is opening at midnight (or 4/5 am) friday morning not enough anymore?

3.  It seems like we're pushing out Thanksgiving altogether and going straight from Halloween to Christmas.  (and what a rich heritage we're missing teaching our children about the sacrifice of the pilgrims)

4.  I'm saddened for what used to be. Is shopping really that important? (and those of you who know me would be shocked I'm saying that!)

5.  Back in the day, if you forgot an ingredient in your massive thanksgiving feast, you just dealt with it (or called your neighbor to see if they had something...but wait, we don't know our neighbors anymore either, but that's for another blog :) ).

I know I will get some different opinions on this-- but I just had to say something.  (and I'm not talking about hospitals, hotels, etc.  I know some people have to work).  Here's a good article I found about it:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/10/stores-open-thanksgiving-day-2013-disguisting

What's your thoughts?

family reveal party

With baby #4, we knew we wanted to find a creative way to tell my family what we're having.  Since penguins have been the "theme" for this baby, the boys and I had a blast getting cupcakes ready for the big reveal....

we made these from nutter butters dipped in chocolate.  The tummies are marshmallows, and the beaks are corners of orange starbursts!  So fun!   and then stuck them on top of yummy cupcakes

 

the announcement was tied on to the
special penguin we bought for baby :)

Matthew learned how to read "boy" and "girl"
 this week-- this is his first reaction!

all the cousins (we'll get a good pic someday!)

It's a boy!!!

Well, I must say that we were quite surprised when we found out that baby #4 is a boy, but we are beyond excited!  Excited that....
-Caleb will have a little best friend (just like Matthew and Joseph have)
-we have plenty of blue :)
-Brett is excited he doesn't have to repaint C's room
-excited that we have the privilege to train and raise (with the Lord's help of course) godly young men who will be fabulous husbands and daddys
 -and yes, I'm already praying that we have wonderful daughter's in law :)
-our only issue is that we have a hard time deciding boy's names!  Very open for suggestions!