The One Where We Are Thankful

This was a Thanksgiving filled with family, love, happiness, and sorrow. We have so much to be thankful for. We also had reason for our sorrow. Our pastor's wife, Karol Pruett lost her battle with cancer. Our sorrow lies in that. Karol ran a good race and finished that race in the arms of Jesus. We are thankful for that. She was an amazing woman who will continue to impact lives for generations to come.

Our Thanksgiving also held many happy moments. On Thursday we celebrated in Milaca with Mark's family, and on Friday we celebrated in Waconia with my family. Austin and Noah had many hours of fun with their cousins.

Wes and Bev have made a point of turning their basement into a fun zone. They have a dart board, air hockey and a carpet ball table. This year was our first ever Thanksgiving Carpet Ball Tournament. The competition was stiff, but Austin garnered a championship victory. I was proud of myself when I took 2nd place in the competition.

The boys also had fun goofing around with Alex & Brittany. Brittany likes to keep things calm by playing board games, but the boys always end up in wrestling matches that shake the whole house.

It has become a tradition to meet up with the extended family for bowling on Thursday night. It's a fun way to catch up with cousins that we don't get to see often enough.

On Friday we headed for Waconia to celebrate with my parents. Austin and Noah are always excited to see Uncle John and to show him their latest gadgets. He is always appropriately impressed. We had fun taking family pictures together. After many hilarious outtakes, we ended up with a few decent shots where everyone is at least looking in the same direction!

We ended our day on Friday by playing BINGO with the kids. My grandma Potras started this tradition when her grandkids were small. Whenever the cousins were all together, Grandma used to gather all of her grandchildren at her huge dining room table for fun filled afternoons of BINGO. She always went to the "five and dime" and bought prized for us. She made a huge presentation out of each prize won. With each prize we felt like we had won the jackpot.

When Austin and Noah were small, my mom decided to carry on this tradition. Austin and Noah have had the fun of winning dollar store prizes and having special "kid" time with Grammy. This year, Johnny was able to play his own card. It was fun to see the numbers increase at our own family BINGO game.