3 Years & 7 Weeks Married | Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving this year felt a bit anticlimactic… There wasn’t the same build-up and anticipation as previous years and it kind of felt like Thanksgiving Day just came and went without any fanfare. Maybe it’s because of the pandemic or because we didn’t have any plans on actual Thanksgiving Day, or a combination of the two. Jake’s dad is a first responder and Cindy’s mom is a healthcare worker. Ever since we’ve been together, it’s coincidentally worked out that only one parent had actual Thanksgiving Day off while the other worked so our celebration plans with each family have always worked out. This was the first year that both parents had to work on actual Thanksgiving Day. Still, we’re grateful that we were able to celebrate the holiday with each of our families– Jake’s family on Wednesday and Cindy’s on Friday. We ended up putting up our Christmas tree and decorations on actual Thanksgiving Day.

Jake’s Family

The recipe for the Kohlhepp Family Thanksgiving is pretty much always the same. Arrive, eat some appetizers/snacks, do some sort of extreme physical activity, short message or prayer, and eat! And then games afterwards. And that’s exactly what we did this year. It’s always so much fun. We love hanging out with Jake’s brothers and his brother’s fiancé. Mealtime is always super rowdy and rambunctious but in the best ways. And we’re always reminded of how important family is.

This year, Jake’s dad shared a short message on what it means to rejoice in Christ. Though short, it was really powerful and moving. It really got us thinking, would we still rejoice in Christ if life isn’t working out the way we want it to or the way we planned…? If something really devastating were to happen to us, would we still be able to love God and trust God with all our heart? It’s a hard question. And while we hope the answer would be yes, we can’t know for sure. It made us think about what it means to love and trust a God who can give and take everything away, a God who punishes harshly but also has shown us so much grace. We realized how blessed we’ve been so far and we’re super thankful for that. At the end of the day, it simply comes down to faith– to have complete trust or confidence in someone or something. We can only hope that God builds in us a faith that is strong enough to carry us through the storms of life.

Cindy’s Family

Growing up, Cindy often got asked whether or not her family celebrated Thanksgiving. And the answer is: yes, obviously…what else are you going to do with that day off…

Her family just celebrates differently. Instead of the classic American meal, her family does Hot Pot! And that’s exactly what we did on Friday. Hot Pot is to Asians what Turkey is to Americans. JK. But really… It was delicious and a nice break from all the leftover turkey we had been eating.

Jake did bake a couple of pies for dessert. He really enjoys baking pies. And he enjoys eating pies even more. This year, he went with a classic berry pie. And he mixed it up with a lemon meringue pie. The lemon meringue is one of the hardest pies he’s ever had to make. We don’t have a mixer, so the two of us took turns furiously hand-whipping the meringue. As you can tell in the picture, we failed. And the lemon meringue pie really just turned out to be more like a lemon bar.

Cindy’s parents live a little farther from Los Angeles, so instead of driving back late at night, we slept over. Cindy loves sleeping over at her parents’ because it means being taken care of and not having to do anything. It’s always a nice refreshing break from our daily routine. On Saturday morning, we did a mini hike with her parents to burn off some of the food we ate from the night before.

Overall, even though this Thanksgiving felt a little different, we still enjoyed spending time with our families.

Other Highlights of the Week

Jake got glasses!! Jake has always had 20/10 vision… “Eagle Eyes” as Cindy likes to put it. But lately, his vision has been getting worse. And for the first time ever, he’s wearing glasses.