What we're thankful for about each other

We're reading quotes, poems and scriptures about thankfulness during homeschool.  We're having FOH lessons about gratitude (that's our family's acronym for Family Night; when Kian was younger he called it "Family O'Hevening.")  We're hearing talks at church about Christlike love, service and gratitude.  And we're soon going to celebrate one of my favorite holidays, Thanksgiving!  So tonight at FOH when it was my turn to give a lesson I wanted the kids to recognize that they are one of Matt and my most blessed gifts.  After reminding them verbally that we love their unique selves and that they are what Matt and I thank Heavenly Father for each night in our prayers, we played a game where we anonymously wrote what we appreciate about each other and then I read them aloud.  Here are our thankful responses.  You can probably tell who wrote what.

Daddy:  His funniness.  Being loving.  How he accepts us as we are.  His school.  His majesty's usefulness.  Working hard.

Mommy:  Her happiness.  Being kind.  That she does laundry every day.  Her work.  Her queenly cooking.  Selfless service.

Kian: His crazyness.  His computerness.  How he is growing up to be a responsible young man.  His babysitting.  His technological aspect.  Intelligence and righteousness.

Abby: Her giggles.  Her compassion.  Her lovely, musical singing voice.  Her Barbies.  Her ability to not be constantly yelling.  Her way with writing words to create fantastic stories.

Ella:  Her crazyness.  Being myself.  Generously sharing her snacks with family and friends.  Her kindness.  Her ability to share snacks.  Her playful manner.

Felicity:  Her red hair.  Her helpfulness.  She is trying hard to learn to read even though sometimes it is boring.  She's a good cleaner.    How she's a good sister.  Her beautiful red hair.

Klaus:  That he is a baby.  His cuteness.  When he sings his loudest.  His laugh.  His Thomas movies.  His love of trains and silliness.

What we love about the world:  It's animals.  It's bigness.  Living in the country and breathing pure air.  I live on it.  That global warming doesn't progress too fast.  Opportunities to learn and grow.

What we love about the gospel:  Jesus Christ.  It's wisdom.  God answers sincere prayers!  Jesus Christ.  That it is relatively easy to understand.  We can serve and become more like Jesus.

Bonus response to unprompted category "Possible future resident:"  That it is not a man-eating giant.  ???  (What can I say?  He's 12).

Then we made a Family Fun Night jar with 52 ideas written on popsicle sticks for fun activities to do together each weekend.  Ideas like:

* Watch Mom's favorite movie when she was a kid
* Craft Night
* Ding Dong Ditch
* Invite somone over who is lonely or elderly and play games
* Play Bananagrams
* Ella's choice
* Write life lists
* Dance Party
* Game Night with friends
* Build a blanket fort
* Make a family movie
 * Build a train track using ALL of our train track pieces

Thinking about trains...  Here are some pictures from this summer when my family visited some park in some state between here and Utah (Nebraska?).  It had a train we could explore so Klaus was really happy!  And we got to ride the train with Auntie Sara and Grandma Randi to Salt Lake City!