Giving thanks

and we have plenty to be thankful for!

It's so odd.  Through most of this year we felt like time was creeping along.  Every month seemed to take forever and time was barely moving.  I think we last had that conversation in august, and it's like we went to sleep that night, woke up and it's now Thanksgiving.  Whoah.  Time flies by.

Luckily, it's also a constant reminder to live the life you want right now and not wait for the future; because you'll likely wake up and realize the future came faster than you thought.

We've been doing our best to take in as many fall/holiday events as possible.  A second annual wine tasting crawl on our street, the annual chili cookoff, holiday parties at friends' and clients' places, and of course thanksgiving with the fam. It's such an interesting contrast.  These events and the people we're doing them with are the reason we returned to the northwest to begin with, but the weather is simultaneously changing to the very weather that prompted us leave.  The last week has been hovering in the 30s and 40s... not frigid for most of the world, but cold for our temperate climate.  Its also been dumping rain half the time.  Bleh.

The holidays have also brought more excuses to be at home in the garage, which means more hot tubbing and nesting.  Mostly all positive events.  Last week however we were prepping for an interview at our place.  Seems we've been doing a few of these recently and getting somewhat more comfortable talking about ourselves, at least as long as the goal is spreading the word that anyone can live the lifestyle they want.  And our place literally flooded an hour before the film crew was supposed to show up.  One minute we're putting finishing touches on the place to make sure it presents well, the next we have a wave of water flowing out of the bathroom into the living room as though a levy had busted.

In full on panic mode, we built a quick wall of towels at the doorway and I proceeded to bail out the flooding room while jen ran to a friends for a wet/dry shopvac.  On the upside...this is one of the reasons a wetroom bathroom is such a good idea.  What would have certain been a huge set of damages/expenses turned out to be nothing more than a quick (and much needed) workout bailing the water into buckets.  Sadly, we had to postpone our interview...but we'll forward the link when it finally happens.

We stole away last weekend for a few days at the coast with the fam.  As always, we feel amazing and are loving life as soon as we see the ocean, arrive at the house and walk in the door.  Mostly we sat inside enjoying the company, but appreciating an impossibly clear and beautiful couple of days on the oregon coast.

We also managed to squeeze in a sunrise crabbing session with the kids (not our best work, but we at least came home with enough for dinner), some surfing and tons of game playing and relaxing.  Always such a good time and so fun to watch the kids growing up there.  We've been coming to this beach house as a group for almost a decade and in the same way that we as "big kids" do now, it will be so fun to look back and remember these many memories with the kids.

We get back to portland just in time to wrap up some projects and then enjoy a long weekend of Thanksgiving celebrations.  It no longer seems enough to only celebrate/give thanks on the day itself, so starting a weekend early at the coast seemed fitting.  We went out for our traditional pre-thanksgiving night, hit happy hour and then somehow found ourselves bowling.  Been years (at least), but more fun than i might have remembered, and not a bad cheap date!

Thanksgiving morning we wake-up early and walk a few blocks over to start a daylong celebration.  Lots of football, communal cooking/prep and several games all leading up to an impossibly good meal for 7 that could have easily fed 20+, a wine selection worthy of royalty, and a perfect day with the fam.

We couldn't have scripted it any better if we had tried.  We love any chance to take a holiday and stretch it out to almost an entire week of fun with loved ones!  But of course, it's also a great chance to reflect on where we are, how far we've come and how thankful we are for the life we have created for ourselves (and those who we get to share it with). It's weeks like this we can't help but stop for a few moments to reflect and truly realize how lucky we have been, how lucky we are.

Not that we haven't worked hard for where we are, fought for opportunities and jumped at them when they presented themselves... but we still feel so very, very fortunate for the things that we can't control.  For the people in our lives, for the opportunities we've been given, for the fact that we and the people around us are healthy and happy.  It's a brilliant, shiny, beautiful world we live in...and we don't take a moment of it for granted... but today we are overwhelmed by the pure greatness of it all.