Steven, Richard and I are off to South Carolina tomorrow. We're looking forward to seeing Sarah, Joel, and Eliza along with Tiff who arrived there safely last night. Our plane leaves at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow, and we're scheduled to arrive in South Carolina, via Cincinnati, at 6:10 p.m. EST. We'll return on Friday, and Tiff will go back to Charleston on Saturday. It should be a fun time for all. We hope Nate and Lindy and the girls will have a nice Thanksgiving with Grandpa and Grandma Barrett.
We had a pre-Thanksgiving Sunday dinner tonight with Lindy, Nate and the little girls. We had turkey, stuffing, potatoes and gravy, corn, rolls and pumpkin pie. Steven wasn't home to cut up the turkey (he doesn't like to do it anyway), so I did it. And I say "cut up" because I mangled it pretty well. It still tasted good, though. Lindy brought sugar cookies and different-colored frosting, so she and the girls and Richard had a fun time creating Thanksgiving cookie masterpieces. Sidney said, "I love you, Grandpa" when Lindy told her to, and that's really what she said. She is quite proud of herself when she does big people things. She was rocking in Grandma FT's little rocker and kept clapping for herself because she was so big. Before they left, Riley asked if Grandma could play just one song on the piano that they could dance to. So Grandma played "Praise to the Man" for them to dance to.
Steven and I got to speak in sacrament meeting at the MTC today. The subject was "Gratitude." The branch nearly doubled in size with all the new missionaries that came in last Wednesday. Some of them still seemed a little shell-shocked today. In my talk today I told the missionaries a little story on Steven. Last Tuesday night, the night before all the new missionaries came in, I went to bed after Steven was already asleep. I tried not to wake him, but he kind of woke up anyway, and asked, "Are the new missionaries doing all right?" I said, "Yes, they're fine." He said, "That's good," and went back to sleep. He later said he had been having dreams about all the new missionaries coming in. In Steven's talk he reminded the missionaries that we need to be thankful in all things and let the Lord know we're thankful for His hand in our lives and the opportunities we have to be doing what we are; namely, for the missionaries, to be serving a mission at this time and in this place.
He was a little late coming home this evening because he went to the hospital to see one of the new elders, Elder Mott, who had surgery this morning after shattering his ankle yesterday playing soccer during gym time. It was only his second gym time at the MTC. Things went well during the surgery and he should be recovered well enough in nine weeks to go to Uruguay on schedule.
Well, time to finish packing and go to bed. We hope to have a fun trip tomorrow. Adios for now.