Gratitude: Thanksgiving in Ogden Valley

I know that Thanksgiving was a while ago, and that all of our minds are focused in on Christmas (which is a very good thing!), but I think it would be a good thing for us all to be grateful all year, as well as to remember Christ all year.  Thus I am going to write about my experiences over the Thanksgiving break.

Our family is a bit spread out over the western U.S., some of us in Colorado, some in Southern California, Idaho or Utah, so as of last year we created the tradition of renting a cabin in Eden, a little mountain town in Northern Utah, and bringing all of the family there.  The family is relatively small, but we had a group of up to 20 people there at a time, just relaxing and spending time together for a few days.

It was incredible!  We had so much fun playing endless games, sledding and having snowball fights, watching old home videos--it was a great way to honor the memory of my grandparents.  James Dean Clayton and Madelyn Stringfellow Clayton were my heroes--examples of quiet, simple, hardworking, selfless people.  All of us there were direct relatives of them, so I made the design for shirts for us all to wear to remember them.  Here's the back side of it (I used to attempt to draw cartoons), depicting the grandparents and the rest of us who were physically there:

(Bonus points if you can find me!)

During one of the last days, we decided to go on a hike.  It had snowed a few days before, but there was generally not snow in the valley at this point, except in small patches.  We were going to the Wheeler Creek trail, a gently sloping trail through a deep north-facing canyon.  When we showed up at the trailhead, however, the whole trail was completely coated in ice!  This made for an interesting trip, as the more bold tried to see how far they could slide in one push, and most of us took small teetering steps up the canyon.  We made slow progress, but it was a beautiful hike, surrounded by towering cliffs of limestone and quartzite and immense slopes blanketed in firs, a small stream trickling by below.


At the top we took a picture of the whole group.  I had to set the camera on a rock and position it just right so we could get the picture, and then brave my way across the icy trail to get in the picture, but the first shot taken was perfect!  I thought just how lucky that was that we got that first picture to work, that everyone looked good and no one had their eyes closed or their pinkies bleeding.  With so many pictures that could be taken with something wrong, I counted it as a small miracle just to have that picture:


Humans seem to have an incredible ability to take things for granted.  It is so easy to forget the little things and to think about where they come from.  We are also quite good at forgetting about the big things, such as the fact alone that my family was able to be together during Thanksgiving, that we are all healthy and happy and that none of us turned out to be murderers, druggies or lawyers!  There are so many people who don't have that blessing (if you are one of those people, have faith and hope and look at the blessings you do have).

As will often happen with me, the rest of the family had their fill of hiking after a while, but I hadn't, so they turned back and I kept going.  I walked into Icebox Canyon, a deep narrow canyon very hidden from the sun and aptly named--it was very icy there and there were some slopes on the trail that were very hard to climb.  It was an intensely beautiful and peaceful canyon, though, the stream covered in snow but still flowing, so that you saw a flat white expanse of snow but heard a stream babbling.  As I walked I thought of just how lucky I am to have Jenn.  I remembered when I was a teenager and went on camping trips with the Scouts, at night sometimes I would wander a ways away from the group, look up at the stars and just imagine what it would be like to have someone always there with me.  To have a friend, a companion, someone who for some bizarre unknowable reason loved me and would always love me.  And now I do!  There is no greater blessing I have experienced in life than being married to Jenn.

To those who are older than teenagers and who are not married yet, let me just say that it is very well worth looking into.  To have a deep selfless commitment to each other, to worry more about her than me, to know that she is always caring for and thinking about me--there is nothing sweeter.  Don't be afraid of commitment--yes, with marriage comes plenty of difficulties and responsibilities, but the bond and care for each other and intense joy it brings is so worth it.  To those who want to find an eternal companion but have not been able to yet, your time will come.  God will not deny you from any blessing you worthily seek to obtain, even if the blessing does not come for a very long time, even into the next life.

The slippery slope.

We all have so much to be grateful for.  We don't have to forget about gratitude and move on to Christmas--we can infuse Christmas with the spirit of gratitude.  Shouldn't we be thankful that the Savior of the World chose to come down and be born in the most humble of circumstances, be spit on and ridiculed and endure unthinkable torment so that we can repent and live again?  May we be thankful for Christ, for our families, for the beautiful world wherever we live, for our health, and for a million other things as well.  Merry Christmas and happy holidays to you all!