Eight Reasons to be Thankful

Aw November....a great month and the best month in my opinion.  Of course it's my birth month and my favorite holiday is Thanksgiving.  We started the month off with snow on the ground, but thankfully it melted away quickly.  Even with the nasty snow storm we were still able to do our family photo shoot at our favorite park, Lockridge in Alburtis.  There were some downed tree limbs, but the leaves were still beautiful and the foliage was at its peak.    A few of our favorite pictures from the day:

Ernie traveled a bit, but the week seems to fly-by when he's on the road....I'm not sure why.  We're just so thankful to have our weekends back, and treasure our family moments and adventures together.  We took a trip to Philadelphia and learned a lot of cool new things about our country's history.  The kids enjoyed collecting historical trading cards only available from the local park rangers.  The cool part was the cards were only offered if you talked with a ranger and answered the rangers questions correctly.  Our little budding historians were very impressive.  Josie even schooled one of the rangers a bit on how Pennsylvania got its name....she's studying the colonies in social studies.  So thankful for our kids' educational experience and the advantages they're getting by being in such a wonderful school district.

photo with the Rising Sun Chair where George Washington once sat 

and presided over the drafting of the Constitution of the United States

collecting cards from the ranger in Independence Hall...which 

by the way was originally called the Pennsylvania State House.

My birthday was a wonderful day....Ernie was in town and brought me flowers and coffee and took me to lunch that afternoon.  Turning 37 wasn't a big deal just another year to be thankful for everything I have.  We made Grandma's homemade spaghetti and meatballs, watched a movie with the kids and finished the day off with ice cream sundaes.  

Thanksgiving came a little early for our family with the birth of Patty and Sergio's daughter Sofia Annabella on November 23 in Buenos Aires.  We were able to see her very quickly thanks to Skype what a wonderful invention.  Of course we wanted to reach into the computer and just grab her, but it was still so neat to see and hear her even though she is thousands of miles away.  Thankfully Mimi is able to travel there and is in Argentina now enjoying her new granddaughter and Papi will arrive later this month.

Thanksgiving was nice spent with Ernie's parents and Grandma...we were all thankful for family, Sofia and everyone's health and happiness.  Now onto December and the holidays...Nana is spending Christmas at our house and we are thankful to have her, and the kids are so excited they can't wait for her to arrive.  While she's here we will stroll around Bethlehem on Christmas Eve and explore Manhattan after Christmas.

~~More later.....