What's it about?

I am embarrassed to admit that until this day I did not know that Thanksgiving was established in this country by President Abraham Lincoln. Our Sunday School teacher read the speech below, and I felt more than a little sad that only 155 years later, such a beautiful speech has little chance of being delivered today by a national leader.

The following is the text of a speech that Abraham Lincoln gave on the day that he signed the Thanksgiving Proclamation.

It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the LORD.

We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.

But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to, feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

--Abraham Lincoln - October 3, 1863

Thanksgiving capers

We had a great Thanksgiving in Houston this year. By the day I left, I had finally gotten over my cold I'd suffered through for a week and a half. I think getting up at 4 a.m. for Kohl's Black Friday sale helped immensely. Nothing like fighting a crowd of 300 cranky people in the middle of the night to clear the sinuses right up! I will definitely not do that again. I really thought we'd be the only ones and it would be a fun adventure. But, we did get the $29 KitchenAid knife set that I came for. Since we knew everything else would be gone after we got that, we grabbed a few more. Anyone need a knife set for Christmas?

In other deal news, we got tickets to Hawaii for our trip in March! I've been watching the prices for a while and they dropped a ton last week. Clicking through to Priceline from Ebates also got us $17.50 cash back - at least enough to pay for one of our bags! Seriously guys - if you haven't signed up for ebates yet, do it! It pays off (not that it costs anything) even if you just use it for the airline tickets.

Charlotte was glad to get out and enjoy a fresh set of books, toys and parents for the week.

Now we're back in Frisco, loving the fall weather that was noticeably absent in Houston. No matter how many Christmases and Thanksgivings I spend there, I can't ever get it in my head to pack shorts and flip flops!Anniversary flowers

Before and After

1982

26 years later...Long live the little people!
(and the Mom who hung unto my stuff that long)

5 Years!

5 years
2 apartments
1 house
2 cruises
1 Bachelor degree
1 D.D.S

1 booger picking cutie

10 seasons of ER watched on DVD
Hundreds of cartons of ice cream

I can't believe it's only been 5 years - I feel like you've always been a part of my life. Happy Anniversary Helaman, I love you!

Uncle Mark

In September, Charlotte had a good time playing with her Uncle Mark.

How quickly they forget... we went to see Mark when he was interviewing in Dallas last weekend and she was a little shy.But, warmed up fast when he took her over to see the "Baaas". She can't say fish, so she always says Baaa (bath) for fish since she has fish in her bath.