Julie and Morgan have known since they were very young that Santa has a magical way of opening our front door since we do not have a fireplace. They believed me every year as I told them that when Santa comes into our home to leave their gifts, he brings a couple of his reindeer in too. The reindeer get to warm up for a minute or two and have a snack too.

After the kids are asleep, I slip on my big rubber boots and sneak out to the living room armed with baby powder snow, Milk Dud surprises, and bird seed treats. I walk over to our Christmas tree and start sprinkling the baby powder snow, which I walk through with my big rubber boots on the way to the stairs. Baby powder snow is sprinkled on the stairs in front of me before I walk in it, and then down the front porch steps. I also sprinkle the bird seed treats. Reindeer love bird seed treats!

Next, each Milk Dud surprise is pulled into 2 pieces and rolled, just enough so they look like something reindeer might leave behind. As I walk up the front porch steps, I...

For as-long-as I can remember every Christmas Eve we would sit together turn off all of the lights (except the Christmas tree) and read a Christmas story.  After the Christmas story we were allowed to open one present.  It's a tradition that I carry on with my own family now.

We also bake sugar cookies and have a huge Christmas party decorating them, after we are done we take them around to families.  The look on my child's face is priceless, and it's great to have fun tradition's for her to hopefully,  carry on with her family.

Merry Christmas!!!

As a wife, I am thankful for the love of a most caring, devoted, and hard-working husband and father.  To witness the excitement of the children as daddy comes home from work, I am grateful to grow old with this man.

As a mother, I am thankful to be blessed with three beautiful children.  Each day may be full of dishes, laundry, diapers, and tears, but are also days of smiles, laughter, and joy.

As a family member, I am thankful to be a part of such an intricate group of people, who love me for being me, quirks and all.

As a neighbor, I am thankful to live in an endearing neighborhood.  Something so rare, it is truly a place of service, love, and care.

As a citizen, I am thankful to those men, women, and families fighting for our freedoms.  That there is still goodness in men.

And, as a daughter of God, I am thankful for the opportunity to come to Earth to experience the many trials, and the many joys;  to learn and take back with me this gratitude.

My family is the most important thing to me and I am so thank ful for them. This last summer we experienced a very trageic event. Which changed the lives of not just my immediate family but my extended family as well. Losing a child is the hardest thing to face, with this your entire life changes and your priorties as well as your view on how thankful you are for things. I have come to realize that nothing matters first, but my family. To have them and to be able to know that they are with you on earth as a gift. I am so grateful for my extended family and thier love and support to us through our loss of our son. Some of them were present the day that he died and I am so sad they had to witness the accident, but grateful that they have been here as a support and that we can support them. I am also so grateful to my father for his strength during this trial we are dealing with in life. He is a true example of strength and love for all of our family.

Marnie Bushman

I am thankful that for my wife. She has been such an inspiration to me over our first 2 years of marriage.  The first week of our marriage, my wife got really sick at our job in Denali National Park. She was diagnosed with H-Pylori, its a very bad intestinal bacteria. About 100 times worse than Gardia. We had to fly back here to Utah, to get the right diagnosis.  She had to go through 2 medical procedures as well as a ton of blood tests. She fought hard to get back to good health, and right when she was starting to feel better. We found out through other testing that she had Cancer. She started chemo immediately and was in and out of the hospital and bed for 3 months. She has been fighting the same illnesses and diseases all of her life. This was her second bout with the same cancer, and right now, we are pretty sure it has came back a 3rd time.  We have gone through a miscarriage this past September, me being laid off from my job and being barely able to scrape by. But what has kept me going,...

My life as a busy mother of six often leaves me wondering if there is something to be grateful for. And then, every once in a while, I get a wake up call and realize how truly blessed I am; so I determined that this season, I will count my blessings. After all, motherhood isn't all fevers and flus, carpools and homework, dirty toilets and dirty dishes, piles of papers and mountains of laundry. So, here goes...

I am thankful that my living room has not been declared a national disaster area, even though it often looks that way. I am thankful my neighbors are too kind to mention it. I can enjoy my kitchen even when it looks like a tornado hit, because it means my family loves to cook and eat together (we just all hate the cleaning up part.) I am counting as a blessing 6 pairs each of wet snow pants, gloves, and boots piled in front of my patio door, because it means my children were warm today. Heck, because it means they went outside to play! I am grateful for my children's school papers, lying in unsorted...

What's not to be thankful for in the greatest country in all the world?  We have hot water that's piped right into our houses, we have restaurants that we run to when we don't want to cook dinner or when we need a romantic setting, we have hospitals that do their darndest to keep us healthy and alive, and we have grocery stores with fresh food and chocolate!  When the weather is not to our liking we can turn the heat up or the air on.  When we want to talk to someone we can pick up our home phone, our cell phone, or jump on FaceBook.  When we want to exercise we can go outside in a beautiful world or hit the local gym or hop on the treadmill in our basement in front of the TV.  Life is good.  I am thankful for every moment that I have, and every breath that allows me another moment...another memory.  I am thankful to be able to hear my children laugh and to feel my baby's hand when she reaches for my face for the first time.  I am thankful for neighbors who repeatedly rake...

There are so many wonderful people in the world. When times get hard it seems like there are so many people that are there to support and love us.

I am thankful for my husband. He is my hero. Right now he is serving his second tour of duty. I am thankful for his sacrifice. I am thankful for his dedication to this country. He is a wonderful husband, a great new father, and a hero in every sense of the word. Because of his sacrifice I am able to stay home with our son, I am able to live free, to worship freely and so much more.I am thankful for my husband because he is someone our son can look up to and learn from.  I am thankful I was able to marry not only my bestfriend but also my hero.

What a wonderful time of year to express such thankfullness!!  I feel that I should be expressing it all year long.

 I would just like to let my parent's know  how grateful I am for all the sacrafices they have made for me and still make for me.

Also with it being Vetern's Day this month I would especially like to send a thank you to my dad for serving our country.  I am so emotional when I think of all the soliders serving and the great sacrafice that they and there families make so we can enjoy the freedom that we do.

I just wanted to tell him thank you.

 He works so hard for our family, so that I can stay home and be a mommy. This economy has really had an impact on the company that he works for and I know the stress is intense. Trying to find work to keep other families out of financial troubles. Taking a pay cut so that his workers can maintain the same. Losing his work truck and driving his personal so that the workers can still have access to theirs. I am sure if they knew the extent of your sacrifice they would be as greatful.

He is a great Dad and a Great Husband. Yes we have our fights and our bad days, but overall I owe him so much. And I couldnt see my self growing old with anyone else.

 So thank you,  and I love you!