Thanksgiving

We decided to do something a little different this year for Thanksgiving. Last year, we headed to downtown Sac to cheer Ethan on as he ran in the Thanksgiving Day run. But as the girls are older now, we decided we wanted to start serving with them to try and get them to think beyond themselves. We tried to find a church or shelter that served a meal that we could help with, but they had age restrictions that we didn't qualify for. Then at church the weekend before Thanksgiving, they had an announcement that the Salvation Army was doing meals at a Roseville church and needed drivers to help deliver food to those that couldn't make it in for a meal. We thought this sounded like a perfect thing for our family! We can totally put the kids in the car for a couple hours and drive around delivering meals. So we prepped Hannah Gray about not being shy, that some of the older people might really enjoy having little visitors and then a last minute prep to tell her she might notice that some people have injuries or oxygen or something else "wrong with them" that might give her a lot of questions. She just nodded and I hoped that we wouldn't end up in some horribly awkward situation where she was starring asking, "what's wrong with her?!". The girls were super excited, but especially Hannah Gray, who began drawing pictures ("66 of them") of turkeys and Christmas trees to take with her to give to the people too. Then she even drew some Hannah-Doggie pictures (pictures of her BELOVED stuffed dog that goes everywhere, think of Flat Stanley).

Thanksgiving morning came and Ethan wrapped our Angel Tree presents with the girls. We loaded up, picked up meals from the church and headed out to a condo complex of elderly people to deliver a total of 10 meals. Hannah Gray was not shy, excitedly handed them her pictures, chatted with them, wished them a Happy Thanksgiving and skipped between houses and back to our car each time. She loved it! AND, we did eventually hit the home where it could have been me shoving my hand in her mouth to try and stop a little tongue from saying anything recognizable. We were invited into a home of a sweet woman who had an amputated leg just below the knee with no covering or dressing over it. She was in a wheelchair, so her leg was right about Hannah Gray's height. And she said NOTHING. She chatted with her, handed her a picture of her Hannah Doggie, talked about being an artist, wished her a Happy Thanksgiving and that was it. She skipped out with us to the car and as I was loading Tenley, Hannah Gray looked at Ethan and I said, "Can I ask you a private question now?". "Sure thing kiddo." Ethan and I looked at each other because we had forgotten about what we asked her earlier and realized what we coming. "What happened to her leg, where was it?". We could not have been more proud of her.

We came home and got started on our Thanksgiving Day meal and Hannah Gray's highlight? Giving her pictures out. :) That, and the pie eating contest...

a sampling of two of the three kinds of pictures she handed out