Every Seat

For dinner last night every seat at our table was filled, no empty chairs. Our daughter, Ashton came home from college to spend the week with us for Thanksgiving--and it was a surprise. She filled our empty seat. What a great feeling to know that our family is complete once again.

Ashton bought herself a plane ticket last June for Thanksgiving. She wanted to surprise us. Well, I caught wind of the surprise over the summer accidentally by seeing her ticket through her email. I was able to keep the surprise along with her for a long time. Her flights into Georgia went well. She had some good friends pick her up at the airport. She arrived home around 12:20 am, Stephen and I were still up watching TV in our room. I turned up the sound really loud so Stephen wouldn't hear her coming up the stairs. She slowly opened our door and poked her head in. "Hello, I'm home," she said very casually, like she has done with us for years. Stephen just looked at her, almost as if it was perfectly normal for her to be checking in with us. A few seconds later it sunk in. "What are you doing here? How did you get here? He looked at me and said, "Did you know about this?" We jumped out of bed and hugged our little girl. It was a very fun moment. A fun giggly feeling was in my tummy.

The boys were asleep and Ashton couldn't wait until morning to see them. She woke up Dallin by sitting on him and smacking him with a pillow--that's sisterly love! He just covered his head and said, "Stop." Landon rolled over, looked with acknowledgement and went back to sleep. I didn't want Easton woken up because he'd be up for hours just bouncing off the walls. She jumped in his bed early the next morning and he looked at her, thinking that it was Landon. Then he did a double-take and asked why she was here. He said, "I'm confused." It took a moment for it to register in his little brain. Finally he said, "Well, Hi Ashton" and gave her a huge hug.

I think I know how my Mom and Dad must have felt when my brothers and I were home for the holidays from college and when my brothers were home from their missions. Together again, spending time laughing about old memories and making new ones. My family is complete. Every seat has someone I love in it.