Happy Thanksgiving!

1 Year, 31 Weeks.

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

The Holiday season is officially here! 

You can just feel it in the air.  Or, at least, see it wherever you go:  Christmas decorations are up!  Black Friday marketing ads are suffocatingly everywhere!  It's on every channel on TV and you hear it constantly on the radio!  The shopping madness!  This year's "must have's"!  Doorbusters at midnight!  No, at 9 pm Thanksgiving Day!  The best deals of the year!  Get it before it's all gone!  Don't think about it, buy it now!  The biggest stuff!  The best stuff!  Even stuff you don't need!  Never ending stuff!  All consuming stuff!  Stuff, stuff, stuff!  Just...stuff!

Enough.  Stop.  Be thankful.

Here is what's important:  Love, family, relationships, friends, health, time together, and peace.  Be grateful for what you have.  Share your blessings.  Cherish the moments. 

The Holiday season is officially here.

I'm sure most of you, like ourselves, are busily getting ready for the hustle and bustle of Turkey day and weekend, so I'll keep last week's summary brief:

• Friday night:  Tangie came home from 3 days in Pensacola, fighting a cold.  I couldn't sleep due to a couple of owls perched on top of our house at 2 AM having a hoot off.
• Saturday:  Everyone still sniffling so we skipped out on church to be outside.  Swung by a family festival in Winter Garden and had lunch at the park.  Went grocery shopping for our 27 lb. turkey that evening.
• Sunday:  Drove out to Christmas, FL to use a Groupon for Jungle Adventures for the kids.  Braelyn enjoyed feeding all the animals, including the alligators!  (vienna sausages on a pole for the baby gators)
• Monday-Wednesday:  Braelyn has entire week off of school so is hanging out with Daddy and the twins.
• Tuesday:  Spur of the moment, I challenged myself to take all 3 to Downtown Disney.  Had lots of fun!

At the oriental market, the twins point to the fish swimming below, before they meet the fate of their cousins on ice above.

Who is this masked crusader?

What great weather to spend outside!  Festival in downtown Winter Garden.

Braelyn tours the old trolley, now a museum, that used to be part of the Winter Garden railroad.

Kohl enjoys munching on some kettle corn.

Befuddled.  How do these work?

In front of "Swampy the Gator", at the entrance to Jungle Adventures.

Close encounters with the alligators.

I sure hope the fence is strong enough!

Maddy at the Indian village lecture.



The cutest Spanish conquistador!



Maddy spots something way in the back.



Got gator?

I spy...an alligator!  Can you see it?

The peacock wanted to be in the picture as well.

Mommy making new friends.

Pretty fearless, waiting for Tangie to crack open some peanuts.

Braelyn feels the smoothness of the boa constrictor.

Madelyn with a tarantula.

Kohlden touches the scorpion.

On a private boat tour around the swamp.

The kids feeding the black bears. 

Rainforest Cafe at Downtown Disney.

Warming up to the fake giraffe.

Mesmerized by the fishes.



To infinity...and beyond!

Putting together their Mr. Potato Heads.

Playing with the legos at the Lego store.



Maddy:  "It's our's Kohldie.  Yours and mine!"
Kohlden:  "I can reach it!"

Maddy does a great version of planking here.  Or gymnastics.

At the T-Rex restaurant, they have a place where kids can excavate fossils.  Pretty neat.





Sibling love.

This week's randoms:

And we thought we had a lot of stickers on our vehicle.

When you gotta golf, you gotta golf!

I didn't know Lala had her own brand of milk!

Some foods prepared this week:

Pad Thai with quail eggs.

Cheese platter.

Grilled ribeye with garlic mashed potatoes and basil cream sauce.

Have a great weekend, and a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Kids nowadays and their hats!