A Time for Giving Thanks

We are grateful for so many things.
To start, we are incredibly grateful for our two boys.
Our marriage.
Our Savior.
Our Testimonies.
The roof over our heads.
Running water.
A safe vehicle to drive.
Our friends.
And plenty of food . . .

Two events down: Kristy's Shower and the Hampshire House Fundraiser. Two to go: Thanksgiving dinner with Michael's Learning Team and Thanksgiving dinner on Thanksgiving.

It's hard to imagine Jennifer Smith being fooded out, but I was on the brink. Four large parties in a matter of 6 days made me not want to cook for a month! (and much to Michael's chagrin, I didn't!) Both Thanksgiving dinners turned out great. It was really enjoyable having so many great friends at our table that week. I don't know what we would do without such wonderful and loyal friends. Thank you all!

And a special thanks to Joel Williams for always entertaining our boys with the Wii. He was so helpful while we were busily cooking in the kitchen!

The Hampshire House 2008

In honor of my dear friend Catie Stubben, who is still battling cancer, decided that I wanted to host another party at the Hampshire House to raise funds for basic cancer research for the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. So in September I applied to run with the Dana Farber team in the Boston Marathon again and was accepted! Overwhelmed by the thought of training for another marathon and planning another fundraiser, I decided to do things a little differently this time around. I was going to work on just the fundraiser and then work on the training. Last time, I had begun my training in September and threw the party in November and for three solid months my entire life revolved around this endeavor. Splitting this up this time around has helped keep the rest of my life a little more balanced.

Invitations went out and RSVP's trickled in until the event. We hosted around 60 friends for an evening of dinner and dancing. The Hampshire House was decorated so nicely and the food was delicious. Our DJ, Reggie, was amazing. We raised over $5,000 that night toward our goal of $9,000. I couldn't have asked for things to go more smoothly. We had such a blast!

Honoring Kristy Williams and her son

We celebrated in anticipation of Thomas Mario Williams the best way we know how . . . with food and friends! Two dear friends of ours flew in from D.C. (Leanna Kowallis) and San Fransisco (Regan Williams). It was a fun, but busy weekend. As you can see from the first photo I look exhausted . . . because I was.




We are so glad that Thomas is here safe and sound. Sometimes it helps to blog 6 months after the fact, things always seem better with a little time. I remember this weekend being really stressful because we threw Kristy's shower on Saturday, we had guests in town for the weekend, and then on Monday I was hosting a Dana Farber fundraising event. It was a non-stop weekend. Now that I look back at the photos, I can appreciate more how much fun it was!