Happy Belated T-Give!

So I really meant to do a post last week of all the things that I am really thankful for since there are so so many, but obviously I did not get around to it. We had a great T-Give, which is what we call thanksgiving in our fam, and now that all the excitement is over, I have time to do a little gratitude post.
Ok, first and foremost, I am so grateful for Blair. I know, or I hope at least, that every wife thinks her husband is the best, but Blair is pretty great. He keeps me sane through all of my self-induced or otherwise-created insanity, and he makes me laugh every day of my life, literally. Even when he is ill or stressed or something, he is really positive and always keeps a great sense of humor. I'm so glad that he married me and that he's been part of my life for the past 5 years!

Second, I'm really grateful for my family and Blair's family. We had a great time hanging out with all of them over T-Give, in Fool Creek and in St. George. My sisters are my best friends with whom I love spending time, and my brothers are great guys that I look up to in a lot of ways. And my parents, what can I even say about them besides, how great are they? They are pretty great. They are so willing to help any of their kids at a moment's notice and would give anything for them. And all of my in-laws are great people too--Blair's family as well as Brenda, Brooke, Darci, and Dan. I have been very blessed with a great family and extended family.

Third, I'm grateful for good friends. I love spending time with great ladies like Liz and Candice, and I miss hanging out with ladies like Lynn and Amy. And their spouses are all pretty great, too--it's nice to find couples where both Blair and I like both of them. I work with girls that I love hanging out with, and guys that make me laugh a lot. It's so nice to be able to hang out with people who share the same standards that we do and that are so much fun!

Fourth--and this should have come first, really--I'm so so thankful for the gospel of Jesus Christ and the knowledge that I have of it. I know that I'm rarely serious in my posts, but I was struck by the enormity of this blessing when I was thinking of the things for which I am grateful the other day. It's so great that T-Give comes right before Christmas, because it gets me thinking of my blessings, the foremost of which is my knowledge of Jesus Christ and his Atonement. I'm hoping that I can do a better job this year of remembering the Savior and the Atonement this year at Christmas. One of my favorite quotes is from President Howard W. Hunter: "We must know Christ better than we know him; we must remember him more often than we remember him; we must serve him more valiantly than we serve him."

Lastly, I'm so thankful for all of the material blessings that we have--our nice new home, plenty (most of the time too much) of food to eat, cars that work, computers on which we can access the internet, good jobs, the list goes on and on.

So I know that was a little more serious than I usually am, but I have been feeling the need lately to let people know how much I appreciate them. I really do have great family and friends, and I appreciate all of you, so thanks a lot for all you do. I hope everyone else had as good of a time for T-Give as we did. In other news, we have a couple really ridiculous trials scheduled the next three weeks, so I'll have to give everyone an update of how they go. I'm really hoping that they will settle, but they probably won't just because they're so lame. I'll even give you a sneak peek: this week is a felony shoplifting case where the defendant is probably 75 there is an admission by the defendant and video footage; next week is tampering with a witness where the defendant told the witness that something "really, really bad" was going to happen to him; and the week after that is the old dude defendant from this week in another shoplifting case. So you'll probably all be on the edge of your blogosphere seat wondering what is going to happen in these cases. Fear not, because I will keep you updated on all the excitement.