Thanksgiving

We had our first Thanksgiving without family in town.  Kind of a bittersweet thing.  We may not have family, but we have very dear friends.

We started our day with a new family tradition.  Or at least when we are in town.  In the past we have done some of the 5K runs on Thanksgiving morning, but they are not close by.  This year, in our very neighborhood, a 5K was started to raise money for ALS.  It was great.  We left our house about 15 minutes before it started, got to the starting line, stretched, saw our little community come together for a good cause, and ran!  We always love starting this particular day with a little exercise.  At the finish line was a little bit of fruit and a playground, good enough for all of us!  John was sweet and pushed Chase in her jogging stroller, allowing me to run freely.  It was a chilly morning.

As soon as we finished that, we moved on to our next activity!  We drove a few minutes to a local park where every year our church holds a turkey bowl.  John always loves this.  This year our numbers were down, but some sweet girls were there that love Chase and they played with her the whole time and I got to chat with some friends.  A lot of fun was had by all.  It started to warm up a bit, but the sun was shining bright.  I am so thankful to live in a location where we can be outdoors year round.  It is such a blessing and I enjoy it so.

We ran home, showered and scooted out the door to dinner.  Our dear friends the Fitzpatricks invited us to their big family dinner.  We had a great time there.  It was fun hanging out with them and I saw Chase get enveloped by their whole clan.  It was really sweet to watch.  Our friends' cousins really took to her and by the end of the night, Chase was watching Polar Express from one of our friend's aunt's laps with another kid.  This was her second time watching a "real" movie.  She did well and hung with all of the big kids.  Dinner was of course delish.  Who's ever had a bad Thanksgiving dinner?  Not me!!  One treat that came from gathering here was avocados!  They have 2 trees and I took home a bag that must have weighed 7 pounds or so.  I'm still waiting for them to ripen....I've given quite a few away.  That's always fun.  Even living in Southern CA, they are like gold to me!!

When we got home and after Chase went to bed, John and I hung out by the fire, eventually ate a little dinner, watched some tv and talked.  We are using our fireplace a lot these nights as it has been cold, to us.  We love it.

I have so much to be thankful for.  I could go on and on.....but mostly I feel so very blessed and fortunate for the life I am living.  What a gift it is!

Miss Sue's Visit!!

Can you imagine MORE visitors???  It was our last one for this year....boo hoo.

My dear friend Sue came for a quick two night visit.  But even that short time was great to catch up with what is going on in our lives and just have good hang out time.  Sue is who introduced John and me, so always a fun reminder of what she's done for us.  I'm thankful for her being in both of our lives!!

Saturday morning we went down to Little Italy's Mercato (fancy word for farmer's market).  It was really fun.  We'd never been, but it was much more than just fruits and vegetables.  Then Sue and I got to go see a movie, like the good old, before kids days.  Not a great choice in movies, but nice to get away nonetheless.  We did a little shopping after the movie, then came home for some yummy baked potato soup.  Sunday morning we drove her up to Temecula to meet up with some of our college friends that live up in the Pasadena area.  That was a bit weird for us, not going to church on Sunday morning!  It was a quick drive up there and then we ate breakfast with Mary, Brian and 6 month old Baby Elizabeth.  Chase just loves babies!!  We were appreciative that they came close to us to get Sue because I had to hurry home to help host a baby shower.

Notice anything funny?

November is almost over, hard to believe.  I actually think that December will be calm for us.  Almost all of our Christmas shopping is done, the cards are ordered, we have no parties to attend.  I am really excited because this week we get to see the famous Radio City Rockettes!  That has always been one of my life's dreams! Coming true this very week!!

Uncle Zach's Visit!

More visitors!!!

My little brother, by 12 years, came for a short weekend visit.  He is working hard putting himself through college and we thought it would be fun to fly him out to spend some time with us, giving him a little break.

Zach and John went rock wall climbing and toured a local brewery together.  Chase and I missed out on this fun due to the napping phase of life that we are currently in.  We had some good meals together and nice time visiting together.  We are thankful that Chase was able to get to know him better.

Zach showing Chase rock climbing videos

Thankful

November has been a crazy month for us with visitors.

But it has been truly a wonderful month!

As Thanksgiving approaches, it is easy for me to see so much that I am thankful for.

What a great month that I would be able to see both of my brothers (and my new sis-in-law) and one of my dearest friends from when I lived in Philadelphia.  (I still have friends to come, but can't write about them yet!)

Selina has become a dear sister in the faith to me.  We were good friends while I lived in Philly, and met at church, and had lots of fun....beach house in the summer, nights out on the town, one fun formal event!  And then I moved out to San Diego, got married, and there were some years there where we did not communicate all that much.  But then in about 2005 or so, we got reconnected and now she has become one of our more frequent visitors.  We have a lot in common and share a lot of the same beliefs, feelings, ideas on life.  Every time we are together, we just pick right up and start where we left off.  This visit in particular was great because she stayed almost a full week and offered to watch Chase for 24 hours for us!  What a friend!!  She always cooks a delicious meal for us (usually something Spanish or fish) and always makes sangria for John, because it has become his favorite little treat.

And now she has become one of Chase's favorite people.  Selina is "Ninoo" to her, her name was too hard for Chase to learn at first.  It is always a blessing to me to see my friends embrace my family.  And Ninoo has certainly loved Chase well.  She brings her sweet gifts, reads to her, fixes her hair, loves on her by keeping her for us, and my list could go on and on.  

The Lord has reminded me of how faithful He has been to me over the years, always blessing me with one friendship or another.  I've had a lot of loss as far as close girlfriends go this year, but He is always faithful!  And the friendships continue on, sometimes just in a different way.  And yet, I am reminded that these relationships are not always the most important, because they change, move away, etc. But the Lord is there for me, always and forever.

Joy in Thanksgiving

This devotional is taken from a small devotional book by Lydia Brownback called "Joy".
What a great reminder to me this morning.

"Do all things without grumbling or questioning" Philippians 2:14

Paul's command might not seem too difficult until we consider what "all things" actually entails.  Have you grumbled about the weather lately?  How about a sore throat?  We might feel convicted when we grumble about the little daily inconveniences, but we feel justified in complaining when the major crises hit.  What else can we do when our husband loses his job or we get the news that our child has serious learning disabilities?  But Paul meant what he said.  "All things" means all things, because there is nothing - absolutely nothing- that touches our lives that somehow slipped through the cracks of his providential ordering.

When we grumble about the weather, we are arguing against God's ordering of creation.  When we complain about illness or job loss or whatever it may be, we are declaring, whether we realize it or not, that God isn't handling our affairs very well.  Complaining is actually a form of pride, which makes sense when we recognize its rebellious undertones..

There just isn't any need to complain, because whatever circumstances God sends- rain and snow, sickness, and trouble of various kinds- he sends in order to bless us.  But it is impossible to keep an eye out for God's blessings while harboring a complaining spirit.  Grumbling about hard things blocks our expectation of good things, and if we are not looking for the good things, we may fail to see them when they come.  That's part of why thankfulness is so important.  Offering thanks to God, no matter what is going on in our lives, is a way of acknowledging that he knows exactly what he is doing and that we can trust him.

The antidote to the complaining spirit is a thankful spirit.  "Give thanks in all circumstances, " Paul wrote, " for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thess. 5:18).  Sometimes thankfulness is a choice we make rather than a feeling we have.  We can choose to give thanks even when we don't feel like it. God is pleased when he sees our willingness to give thanks because it demonstrates our trust in his goodness and our willingness to let him run the show.  If we practice thanksgiving before we know it we will actually find ourselves feeling thankful, which al always accompanied by joy.  God delights to bless a thankful heart.

SeaWorld (more to come)

For now a really cute little video on our SeaWorld adventure....

See if you can understand the key points: we went to SeaWorld, saw Sham"poo", saw the real Elmo and Ernie, but did not want a picture taken with them because they were scary.

Oh how precious these beginning years are, full of excitement and wonder at a new place!!

Aunt Rachel and Uncle Adam

We had such a great weekend with Aunt Rachel and Uncle Adam!

They took time out of their busy lives to come for a long weekend.  We are thankful that they were able to come to us.  We did have to twist their arms pretty hard to get them here from the plains of Texas!!

On Friday we went to La Jolla.  I went to a client's while A & R watched Chase downtown LJ.  They walked around and ended up in a toy store.  Chase had a blast playing with the train set and checking everything out.  I, I mean Chase, fell in love with a new toy, these adorable little animal families that also have houses and furniture.  They are called Calico Critters and I see them in our future!  Uncle Adam and Aunt Rachel generously bought her the Panda Family.  We had lunch together and went looking around the mall.

Saturday we went down to Balboa Park and walked around.  Chase got a spiderman tattoo.  She could have chosen Elmo, Dora, Pooh, but no, she wanted Spiderman!  We had vegetarian burgers and hot dogs for lunch.  MMMMmmmmmmmm.................Our sweet friends kept Chase that night so we could have a pleasant night out as adults.  We had a nice, delicious dinner at a restaurant with a great outdoor seating area under the warm heat lamps.  It was a perfect evening.

Sunday A & R got to go to brunch with a college friend of Adam's.  After church Rachel and I went shopping.  It was fun to have someone to shop with.  Clothes, make up, etc....fun times!!  They requested going to Trader Joe's before heading home to stock up yummy things.  Then Adam cooked some delicious Indian cuisine and the best part was homemade naan bread. That was melt in your mouth good!

Today they left.  It was sad to see them go...especially since we don't know when we'll see them next.  We soaked every last minute with them and went in to the airport with them and hung out on rocking chairs a bit.

BOO!!

For a second year in a row, we were able to trick-or-treat with our friends, the Kaese's.  Colin (or Col-Col) was Chase's first friend when they were itty bitty babies.  We don't get to see them too often because his mommy is getting her dental hygienist degree right now.  But soon enough she will be done and we will all be able to play together again!

It's funny to see her up at that big door all alone!

For now all the treats are behind us for another year!