Thanksgiving 2010
This Thanksgiving I experienced what the Book of Mormon describes as “the sweetest joy and deepest despair. “ Spending the holiday with the Lughesworth family for the last time at the beach was pure joy. It took us almost 10 hours to get there on terrible roads and horrible traffic, but we arrived in time to enjoy the “Greedy Pilgrim Feast” which included almost two dozen pies: from pot pies to ice cream to pear-plum.
On Thanksgiving the sun came out long enough to enjoy a bit of football on the beach and a turkey trot to work up our appetites.
Thanksgiving dinner was spectacular and the food (especially the fluff salad) was plentiful. It didn’t feel like work to make dinner with friends, even if it was 2 turkeys, 4 pans of stuffing, 115 rolls, sweet potatoes with marshmallows and enough mashed potatoes and fluff salad to feed an army.
After dinner we went to the nursing home in Lincoln City. Unfortunately the Bingo we had hoped for was unavailable and so the residents were priviledged to enjoy the Lughesworth family singers.
Confident Lily proudly asked each resident their name and age. The residents joined in on many of the songs, with the exception of Book of Mormon stories. 
On Friday we climbed the dunes in pouring rain and gale force winds, but we all made it to the top! Tillamook Cheese factory didn’t know what hit them when all 22 of us barged in wet and sandy with our leftover turkey sandwiches. I had to promise them that we would all buy double scoop ice creams to be allowed to have our picnic indoors.
We forgot our Sunday clothes which gave Betsy, Andrea and I a great excuse to spend the evening returning to our roots at the Goodwill and outlet stores outfitting the Lundbergs.
Saturday was dominated by the Holy War. The Dads and big boys spent the afternoon consuming enough cholesterol to fuel multiple heart attacks, and sadly their beloved BYU team lost by a single point. The Moms took the rest of the kids on dates in small groups—very fun to have one-on-one with each of them. Eliza selected this fuzzy pink phone as the thing she wanted more than anything in the world. No amount of negotiation could change her mind.
For our last hurrah on Saturday night we enjoyed our traditional adults-only Thai dinner. That night was one of the moments of pure joy when I was snuggling in bed with Andrea and Betsy for good girl talk while all the little kids were asleep and all the guys were watching a movie. Poor James came in to go to bed expecting one wife and found three! The deepest despair occurred on the way home. We decided to attend church in Portland so we could get on the road before the roads got too bad. Right before Portland we stopped to go to the bathroom at a gas station. We completed our pit stop and had been on the road about 30 minutes when Cooper asked where Max was. His car seat was empty and in slow motion I realized we had left him at the gas station. That feeling was pure terror and despair. I thought of every worst case scenario. I called Andrea sobbing and she got a hold of the gas station. I called Max to make sure he was OK and we raced back to explain to the policeman how and why we left our 6 year old at a gas station for nearly an hour in his church clothes. Max was very brave and the store manager was kind. Jason got to him first and said it was the biggest hug he had ever received. Later when I took the sacrament I thought about how awful it felt to be a parent separated from their child. I thought about Heavenly Father having to be separated from his Son and I gained a little more perspective of His love. Poor Max will never be able to go to the bathroom in a gas station again. I’ll never be able to live this down with my other kids who started praying in the back seat as soon as they heard me panicking.
If I were asked today what I was most thankful for it would be a tie: the joy of dear and lifelong friends and the protection afforded a small black boy sitting alone at a gas station in Sherwood Oregon.
