1 Year Ago: 2008
We spent Thanksgiving in Katy, TX at Katie & Dave's house. Rich's parents were there, and Claudia had just started taking a new chemotherapy drug that made her so sick that she stayed in bed and didn't even have any opinions about how Katie and I cooked Thanksgiving dinner. But when it was time to eat, she got up out of bed, put on the blue skirt I'd bought her in India, and tasted all the food and complimented our work.
That night Ross reviewed with us the details of the family will again, just in case something happened. Rich and I felt creeped out by the gravity of it all, so we watched Joe vs. the Volcano late into the night to escape it all. Within a few weeks she was gone from this earth.
Thanksgiving this year is sad without Claudia, especially being in her kitchen this time, cooking the meal without her again. I made the turkey recipe I made the first time we did Thanksgiving together at our house in Austin in 2001. I could almost hear her generously complimenting my work again. I can still feel her presence palpably sometimes, especially when I am in her house, which is comforting and heart-wrenching all at once.
5 Years Ago: 2004
Before or after Thanksgiving (I can't remember which), we drove to Mississippi in our gray Volvo and cycled the Natchez Trace Parkway with Isaac & Russell on the back of our bikes. We took it at a leisurely pace, camping on some nights, staying in bed & breakfasts on others, enjoying the greenery, the friendly people, and the cotton of the South. We had Thanksgiving that year at the Cutlers, with Amy and James's new baby Max, and Grandma and Grandpa Key and Aunt Liz in town. We stuffed wedding invitations for Katie's upcoming wedding, and went to a wedding shower for her. Right around this time we got pregnant with Graham.
10 Years Ago: 1999
I received my endowments in the Salt Lake Temple. Felt amazed, confused, awed, completed, and accountable. Rich and I were frantically preparing for our wedding the next month, finishing our last semesters at BYU, and getting ready to move to Washington, D.C. I went to dress fittings, tried to get RSVPs for the wedding dinner, and got advice from everyone about our wedding, wedding night, and marriage. We spent long hours late into the night at the library, since that was the place we could stay together the latest in BYU Land. Rich would pass me love notes ("URAQT"), and fall asleep in my lap until the Hawaii 5-0 music would play at midnight that signaled it was time for everyone to go home.
15 Years Ago: 1994
I was in my senior year at Cottonwood High School in Murray, Utah. AP classes, Madrigals, and madly in love with Paul H. I was starting to apply to colleges, facing that giant decision with fear and excitement. Paul and I went to the temple to do baptisms almost every week during our AP Physic study period. Sariah and I wrote long notes to each other during school and cut class sometimes to go to Wendy's to get french fries and frosties.
20 Years Ago: 1989
I had just started the 7th Grade at Union Middle School in Midvale, Utah. I remember feeling invisible most of the time. Melissa Blockburger was my best friend, and I loved my English teacher Mrs. Keddington. I have a picture somewhere of doing a presentation in her class on how to get rid of the hiccups--I was demonstrating drinking water from a cup backwards with a napkin over it. I had frizzy hair, which I remember trying really hard to tame, and looked very awkward.
30 Years Ago: 1979
I was two years old. We had recently moved back to America from England to Indianapolis, Indiana, and my parents must have been so happy to be back in America again for Thanksgiving. Mom had just had a new baby--Mark. I must have either been getting used to not being the center of attention, or loving having a baby around to play with. I suspect it was the former. It was around this time I started exploring the vast world of Pinyon Court on my pink and purple big wheel.
