Thanks

Mom and Dad,

I wanted to say thanks. Thanks for all you did for our family and I growing up. We’ve been talking in family rec about rituals and I wanted to thank you for all the preparation and time you put into our family rituals.

Thanks for making our birthdays special, no matter how busy the week was, or how much it had to be squeezed in between general conference. Thanks for the birth stories on our birthday eve, our choice of meals, and our favorite cakes. Thanks for taking the time to decorate and make us feel as though it really was our special day.

Thanks for letting us stay up on New Year’s Eve even when you knew we were going to be cranky the next day. Thanks for the jig-saw puzzles, the sparkling cider, the New Year’s resolutions, and the time spent reflecting on our blessings. Thanks for letting us throw confetti around the house even when you knew it was going to be a nightmare to clean up.

Thanks for the notes on Valentine’s Day, the special pink breakfast and heart shaped pizza. Thanks for always making sure we knew we were loved. Dad, thanks for buying Mom flowers. That was always secretly my favorite part of Valentine’s Day. Thanks for the Easter egg hunts and letting us decorate our eggs. Thanks for the sunrise testimony meeting. Even though I didn’t like waking up that early then, it is now one of my fondest memories. Thanks for making sure that our focus come Easter was always on the Savior.

Thanks for the traditional family Halloween party. Thanks for putting up with trick-or-treating while we were young, and thanks for making costumes for us. Thanks for letting us squirt water through the dining room at a plastic pumpkin, for letting us get sugar all over the kitchen floor as we violently tried to get a bite from the rapidly swinging donut.

Thanks for the time together at Thanksgiving. Thanks for getting up early with me when I had to go march and for making me an egg mcmuffin and orange Julius so I would have enough energy. Thanks for humoring Kayla and buying a cheese ball. Thanks for letting us sit in front of the TV the whole morning for once a year. Thanks for including us in the dinner preparations. Thanks for making all the food, even when you knew by the end of the next week we were going to be sick of turkey and the stuffing would last inevitably in the fridge. And thanks especially for flying me home this last Thanksgiving so I could be with you guys. You’ll never know how much it meant to me.

Thanks for Christmas and all it entailed. The set up: the lights on the bushes, the candles and wreaths in the windows, garlands of fake holly, the snow village, making us “spruce” the tree even when our arms ended up scratched and sore from the fake branches, the nativities, the music, the atmosphere. Thanks for the butter cookies, the gingerbread men, and the peppermint chewy candies in the advent calendar. Thanks for once again for focusing our thoughts on the Savior. Thanks for staying up late and stuffing our stockings, pulling out Santa’s presents and getting everything set just right so that in the morning it would be as it always was. Thanks for the fondue dinner, the smoked sausage, the various cheeses, the cereals we could snack on while we opened presents. Thanks for making us go one by one opening presents and for making sure everyone had the same number of presents. Thanks for spending the whole day on the floor with us, playing games, building toys, and exploring our presents.

Thanks for our annual camping trip. Thanks for getting all the equipment so that we could all go camping together even when that meant buying an air mattress for each one of us. Thanks for teaching us how to put up our own tents, compile tarp shelters, and learning to weather the storms. Thanks for letting us do the same thing every year after year, even when it might have been nice to try something new. Thanks for the A&W on the way home.

Thanks for the scripture reading, the gardening, the household chores,  that we may have begrudged at the time. Thanks for being patient with us as we were learning and growing. Thanks for being the amazing examples that you are. Thanks for everything.

I love you.

Emily