Thank You, Mom, Grandma, and Alaina!

Living on my own has opened the door to cooking for me. Thanks to all the help, last minute calls, recipes, and endless teaching from my mom, my grandma burkhart, and my sister Alaina, my roommate and I are no longer starving. I used to watch them cook and wonder how they possibly timed everything to hit the table at the exact same time when nothing had the same cooking times or temperatures!!! Now, I can proudly say that I can do it too (and it even tastes good!)! Friends that I have over for dinner are always surprised and I have to admit the everything I know, I learned from my family! I have even been slowly teaching my friends how to cook. Whenever they say they can't cook, I always use a trademark Grandma Burkhart phrase "Can you read? (yes) Then you can cook!" The picture is a magazine picture of one of the desserts I made when my roommate and I had company over. It is a molten chocolate cake and tastes awesome! When I made it, it even looked like this!! Most of you may know, I come from a family of notable cooks. I even remember having people tell me at my high school open house that they made sure they came to mine because they knew the food would be awesome!! This is just one of the legacies passed on through my family that I am thankful for.

There are many things about my family that I am thankful for, mainly the Christian heritage that I have. Yesterday was my Poppy's five year anniversary in Heaven. I miss him and I know the rest of the family does, too. He and Grandma have given so much and invested so much in their children, their grandchildren, and now their great grandchildren (as well as countless others from the church family and beyond). I am so thankful that when Poppy's sister came to visit from Cando, they all went to the local Assemblies of God church and met Jesus Christ. How different our lives might have been! I can only hope that I can be the same example to my children and my children's children that my parents and grandparents have been for me.