Time-Honored

For thousands of years, families have been gathering around the kitchen fire, sharing stories and preparing food. Sometimes, even today, the kitchen is no more than a certain area of the dirt-floor room a family shares. It's the area that contains the fire and the food, two vital components of survival. Although we didn't gather for survival yesterday, we still gathered around the kitchen, preparing food together and sharing life's best moments. I love my parents' kitchen for all the momentous events that have happened there. My brothers opened their mission calls there, I said goodbye there when I left for college, it's where I lured a skunk inside to give it an oreo...Scott proposed to me in that kitchen. Fortunately, all those events had happy endings, and yesterday's impromptu Thanksgiving breakfast turned out just as happy. My dad even wore his traditional Thanksgiving tux.

Bruce and Marlene's kitchen is exceptionally special to us. It has always been the single most inhabited room in the house, thanks to Marlene's cooking and her good company. Last night, we laughed over some of the crazy episodes that have taken place in the Dopp kitchen. Marlene throwing pancakes at the ceiling...Scott being lectured for trying to drive to Jackson Hole in the middle of the night...Nikki moving a baby Golda away from the kitchen cabinets moments before the inexplicably came crashing down where she had been standing.

I bet if you think about it, some of the biggest moments of your life have centered around the kitchen, because that's where life happens. Yesterday's Thanksgiving was another in a long line of perfect holidays. I'm thankful for our families' kitchens.