Turkey, Larches, Lights & Family

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, this year, mostly because Abby came home to visit! 

It is hard to believe that she had already been away for 6 weeks, by this point.

She got home late on a Friday evening. We ordered wings from Pizza Hut and all sat around the table listening to her share some highlights of her new life in the city. 

The next day we prepared our first Thanksgiving feast of the weekend. We had to have TWO turkey dinners because the plan was to share a dinner with John's sister and her family, but I still wanted Abby to have our normal Thanksgiving dinner here at home too. 

It was tough, you know, all that turkey and stuffing...;)

Dinner #1:

Dinner #2:

After Thanksgiving Dinner #2, John and I took the kids out to Waterton to watch the Elk. It was a really nice evening out there and the Elk were close to the road, which doesn't always happen. 

Abby left for home (well, "home away from home) early on Monday morning, but we still had the day off and the sun was shining. We figured it would be a good day for a hike to Upper Rowe Lake. 

John had been wanting to dip his rod into some water again, and I longed to see some Larch trees, which I'd heard were looking amazing this year. 

John and I both struck out. When we reached the lake, we found that a thin, but an unpenetrable layer of ice had already formed above the water. Poor guy. 

Up until this day, I had heard about Larch trees, but never seen or noticed one before. They are a type of deciduous tree, that looks like a pine tree, but the needles are soft and turn a beautiful burnt golden color (for a short time) in the fall.  I suspect I was a week too late, as all of the needles had fallen by the time we set out in search of them. John and I were thrilled to get to find one, lone baby larch, as evidence that these trees do grow in our area. It was cool- once we found this tree, we began to recognize that all of these other trees around us, that we had assumed were dead, were actually larch trees, after their prime. 

We will have to time things better, next year. 

It was a great hike together, even if we weren't as successful as we'd hoped.

And - as if my Thanksgiving weekend had not already been totally perfect, that night I got a call from a family member, letting me know that the Northern lights were out and visible. 

It didn't matter that I was in the middle of taking a bath, when the call came, I FLEW out of the house and headed straight north, towards Standoff. 

Sure enough- lady Aurora was out.

This was a first for me.  I've been wanting to see the Northern Lights for YEARS!

We don't often get a show this far south, so it was definitely exciting. 

As I stared at the sky that night, I felt overwhelming gratitude for this world and for my family. 

I got to see the sky light up, I found a larch tree that had hung on just long enough for me, and I had the best three days with these people that I love. 

God is always good - but sometimes that truth just hits harder.