functioning.

my family --

we function in ways that could easily be deemed "dysfunctional".

but we're functioning, nonetheless.

and sometimes that's what counts.

thanksgiving was great! we planned on eating at 4:30. but, i know my family, and i knew that there was a high chance we would not be eating at 4:30. so i snacked at work to hold me over when things didn't go according to plan. it's taken me 20 years, but i'm catching on to the fact that things rarely go according to plan. and in most cases, that's totally fine.

well how long it would take the turkey to cook was miscalculated, so we actually didn't eat until 6:00. but that was quite fine cuz it gave me some time to make a few desserts i had wanted to make. and then when the turkey did come out, my mom was frustrated there was hardly any meat on it! turns out she was trying to carve it upside down. gosh, i love that woman.

dinner was de-licious.

& these were the desserts i made:

cheesecake bites! okay, they really looked nothing like this. this is what i pictured them like in my mind before i actually made them. [image via partyinthepantry.blogspot.com].

this is what they really looked like. not quite as cute but they were yummy!

 

and pumpkin spice chocolate chip cookies! [this one turned out as a heart by accident, but i thought it was cute. none of the other cookies looked this cute.]

my brothers made fun of how bad my desserts looked, but they sure ate a lot of them.

after we ate and cleaned up, my friend-that's-a-boy came over and we set up an egyptian board game my dad was really excited about. we sat at the table for at least thirty minutes passing around the instructions and trying to figure out what on earth they meant while i whined that this game just looked way too long to play. yeah i really contribute a lot to family time. we finally gave up on the game and ended up playing wally-ball in the court. for those of you who don't know, wally-ball is volley ball with walls. we had a ton of fun playing wally-ball. even though there was a lot of trash-talking and laughing at each other (not with each other-at each other), and i almost slammed my face into the cement wall when kason shoved me out of the way so he could hit the ball, it was a lot of fun and definitely a thanksgiving memory i will always cherish.

we realized after the wally-ball game that we skipped the "what we're grateful for" speeches. so one of the boys said that they were grateful for ginger (our dog). the next person said they were grateful for ginger. so did the next. we all ended up saying we were grateful for ginger.

this is the only picture i have of ginger. she's a goof and a sweetheart and we love her.

after all this, the family dispersed and the boy and i turned on a movie. harry potter and the half-blood prince, to be exact. we have two more movies left in our marathon. while we were watching the movie, my eight-year-old brother kept sneaking downstairs because he is soooo sneaky. he would tip-toe down the stairs, army crawl behind the couch, and then either burst into laughter or throw a shoe across the room or something like that. and then he'd jump up laughing about how he got us sooo good, and then say, "welp, i'm off to bed, goodnight!" and go upstairs.

and then repeat this whole thing again ten minutes later.

oh, and he was wearing an ape mask the whole time.

OH, and he isn't eight. he's eighteen.

bless his heart.

this weekend i was also able to get some good black friday shopping in, spend some time with my cousin michelle and her family, go to a huge kendall family thanksgiving lunch, see my best friends, play cranium with the boy and some of his family (that is SUCH a fun game), and today go to a farewell for one of my usu friends in springville.

lace panties on sale? now that makes everything better.

this weekend was a good time. i even got a little bit of studying done.

all these good things, these are the things i live for. because even when i'm confused and overwhelmed and frustrated and hurt, these are the things that matter most and these are the things that get me through.

life isn't perfect and my family isn't perfect.

and i, kandis t kendall, am the furthest thing from perfect.

the truth is, no one talks about it like this, but holidays can be very hard sometimes.

but all these good things, the fact that my family could be together and that we all love each other, these other fun things and these blog-worthy things, and also the things that are too good to blog about,

these are the things that make me love the holidays and love my life.

-kandi