God blessed us with a great Thanksgiving week.  On Tuesday, as I was getting ready to start the day, BW ran in, waking everyone up because there were deer in our backyard!

I know for some of you this would be an everyday occurrence, but for us City Slickers, it was a momentous occasion!  We couldn't believe that they had been able to jump over our fence and we watched for about 30 minutes or so as they hung out in our backyard and ate from our bushes.  BW had the bright idea to share some salad with them.  So he opened the sliding glass door very slowly and threw a plate of leftover salad at them.  They didn't touch it.  Live and learn!

The night before we were to leave, we discovered that our van was leaking transmission fluid.  Yes, that would be the van we had just got back from after it being in the shop for a month getting a replacement transmission.  We praised God that He had shown this to us before we left on our 350 mile trip, and tried to figure out what to do.  Ultimately, the same dear church family that had lent us their car for a month, graciously let us borrow their car yet again.  So we caravaned(ironic - since our broken Caravan was the reason we had to caravan) up to the bay area. 

Also, just before we left BW had a walk through at our new house.  Because of great weather and no shortage of contractors, the completion date has now been moved from March to the end of January!  Umm...that's like next month!  I couldn't really process it at the time because we were still trying to get out of town.

We got off to a later start and ended up getting into the Bay Area around 4:30.  Though traffic was lighter than what would usually be due to the holiday, I have to admit that I am no longer used to traffic at all (after living in the country only 8 months!) and it really tried my patience.  Didn't convince me that I'm missing out on anything.

We visited my sister and got to see her apartment.  We took her out for pizza before heading over to my sister in law's house where we stayed until Saturday.  It is always so wonderful to see how great the cousins get along even though they only see one another a handful of times per year.  It was like a 4 day playdate/slumber party! 

Grandma & Papa gave each child a pre-Christmas gift, individual fleece blankets(which we will defnitely be using as the temps got down to 28 degrees last night).  Here's all 7 cousins together:

We are so grateful for the hospitality and company of family for Thanksgiving.  I know that looking back these will be fond memories.

Blessings!

-j