Greetings with grateful hearts from the Smith clan! 
The food has been prepared, the meal has been enjoyed immensely, the dishes are in the dishwasher, and the triptophan-induced nap is fast approaching. We've enjoyed a quiet day at home this Thanksgiving, watching the Macy's Tgiving Day parade while we performed our culinary wonders.
We all took turns describing one thing (at least) that we are thankful for this year that we couldn't say last year. Our list?
Anya: for the musical "Oklahoma" that she got to be a part of. She loved being with friends, and finally getting to perform the finished product and see all the people who really enjoyed watching what they'd done.
Emily: for our trip across country this summer, and especially for the historic downtown Philly tour we took on her birthday. Her teacher for 5th grade made history exciting and being in Philly (and for a brief few hours in DC) made the things she learned a reality. She is also thankful for the months we got to have Brooke live with us (we all agreed with that one, and still miss her).
Jenna: for science. Yes, science. She is really enjoying that this year they get to do lots of experiements in science, and it is very fun!
Karen: for Financial Peace University (a Dave Ramsey 13 week program that teaches money mangement and personal budgeting). It's been a hard adjustment as we've learned to make our money do what we want it to, instead of doing what we want and trying to figure out how to make the money cover it. Karen said it has been a great change of perspective for her, and while it's been hard, she knows our financial picture will now be much more secure down the road.
Rich: for the trip this summer. I figure that it may be the last time for a long while that we can take an extended family trip like that, and it was three weeks of memories I'll cherish for a long time to come. Also for our church offices we moved into this spring, because it means I have a place to practice with my worship teams that doesn't involve pulling a trailer to another location and unloading/loading for practice!
We hope that all of you are finding reasons to be grateful, and that you offer that gratitude to the One who gives us every good thing!
On a completely different note...
For biology, Anya had to make a model of an animal cell. She could create it out of any materials she chose, so she decided to make an edible cell. A sugar cookie to be exact.
It was too fun not to post.
Here's the key to it's parts:
· Ribosome---------------sprinkles
· Nuclear envelope-------pink frosting
· Nucleolus---------------orange fruit snack
· Chromatin--------------red frosting
· Cell wall-----------------black ring
· Mitochondrion----------blue Jelly beans
· Lyosome-----------------blue frosting
· Rough ER----------------green squiggly icing
· Smooth ER--------------hard macaroni
· Golgi apparatus---------purple frosting
· Micro filaments--------thin spaghetti
· Micro tubles------------thick spaghetti
· Cytoplasm---------------bare cookie
· Nuclear envelope-------pink frosting
· Nucleolus---------------orange fruit snack
· Chromatin--------------red frosting
· Cell wall-----------------black ring
· Mitochondrion----------blue Jelly beans
· Lyosome-----------------blue frosting
· Rough ER----------------green squiggly icing
· Smooth ER--------------hard macaroni
· Golgi apparatus---------purple frosting
· Micro filaments--------thin spaghetti
· Micro tubles------------thick spaghetti
· Cytoplasm---------------bare cookie
Bet you'll never think about cells, or look at sugar cookies, the same way again!
Yeah, the makeup is a little extreme, but when she was on stage it looked great!
