Thanksgiving Eve and Thanksgiving 2008

Wow...what a difference a year makes! Kevin and I celebrated our very first Thanksgiving yesterday. Our festivities started Wednesday night when he got off work. We had already decided what dishes we would be responsible for and since Kevin clearly has the cooking skills in the family, he was in charge of all of the "high impact" dishes. Those dishes included my favorite desert: a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. Since we had to stay up and wait for the cake to bake we decided to go ahead and move the furniture in the living room and start the process of decorating for Christmas.

It was really fun but very exhausting moving the furniture around. We actually put the tree up but decided to wait until Thanksgiving Day to actually decorate it. I decided to get Bentley dressed for the occasion. She of course did what she does best...chilled and let us do all the work.

Although we were tired from staying up late on Thanksgiving Eve, Kevin and I were still very excited. I fixed a special breakfast....waffle sandwiches (Kevin's favorite) and we relaxed for most of the morning. We planned to eat early afternoon because we were invited to a birthday party later that evening. We started cooking around noon and were eating by 3:00pm.
While we waited for our food we decorated the tree. Now I do understand that the tree looks a little malnourished, however I've had for the past 3 years and I couldn't let it go! This was the first and last year that the "Charlie Brown christmas tree" made its appearance in the Reese household! LOL!

Well, once the food was ready we chowed down on a feast fit for a King and his Queen! All in all we had a great first Thanksgiving together. I truly had so much to be thankful for this year.

Our first major holiday...

So Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I have to be honest...I'm getting really excited. Last year this time I was of course VERY single and unhappy. It's so funny because this is possibly the first year in a VERY long time that I have not been depressed around this time of year. In the past, the holiday season served as a reminder that I didn't have anyone. Once I graduated from college I just felt that I was too old to keep going home to "mom and dad's" for the holidays. I felt that I needed my own family unit to celebrate with. I use to go my sister's house and celebrate with her, my niece and nephew but in the end it wasn't all that fulfilling.

I'm so excited that this year I have a husband and the opportunity to start OUR very own traditions for our family. I think that's the exciting part....starting a tradition. I think the tradition will take our married life to the next level. This will be the first tradition for our family..isn't that neat?

On a different note, I had a great conversation with my BFF Jeffy tonight. We went down memory lane spiritually tonight. It's amazing the difference that a year makes in our lives. We serve a truly amazing God. When I think back to where I was a year ago and where I am now....I can't help but get chills! I can't stress enough the importance of allowing God to bless you in his time.

The family that PRAYS together...

There is an expression that we have all heard or said before and it goes like this:

"The family that prays together, stays together"

Of course I've always known what that meant but I can honestly say today that I KNOW what it means!! Yesterday was quite an interesting day for Kevin and I. Granted it we all know that it was Halloween and some CRAZY things happen on that day...well the devil was truly busy yesterday. Kevin and I had our biggest argument/aggressive conversation/disagreement/etc. whatever you want to call it! What made this "argument" so interesting was it started over something so trivial. It seemed like over the past two weeks we have been having these weird interactions where either he or I would say something and it would be interpreted as something offensive to the other person. It was such an uncomfortable feeling because we couldn't put our finger on why things had changed but most importantly what exactly had changed.

Well, last night during our reflection exercises, Kevin makes the statement "we don't even pray together in the mornings like we used to...what's up with that!" It wasn't until he said it that it made sense! The past few weeks have been extremely busy for the both of us. Given the fact we have been so busy and operating on weird schedules, we were getting up and praying on our own but not together as we had done since we have been together. What makes my relationship so special with Kevin is that from the VERY beginning, we would pray EVERY morning together as well as eat breakfast together. It was like it was our special quality time together not to mention it was a great way to start our day on one accord.

So, we both realized that simply praying on our own doesn't work for us. We must pray together at the beginning of our day so that we start out on one accord with each other but more importantly be on one accord with God. God has been at the center of our relationship from day one. I have never been in a position to fully realize and experience the importance and vitality of keeping Christ first in a relationship. It really takes both people to come together and commune with God TOGETHER in addition to their separate times. Granted we know there will be times that we won't be able to pray together in the morning but you better believe that it WILL happen at some point during our day.