What's Thanksgiving for Me

Thanksgiving is probably my second most favorite holiday with Christmas being my favorite. I have a lot to be thankful for in 2018.

I was able to get a new job doing what I like to do in the field of analytics. I worked for a couple years on learning programming and it allowed me to get a job where I get to learn new things everyday. My job has kept me on my toes and made things at work fresh again. I'd worked in the same area for a couple of years and it was great to make a change and just see a different part of the company.

I was able to travel to some really cool places this past year with my wife like Santa Barbra, California. We went out there to watch my first cousin Rachel get married. I got to drive up the California Coast line all the way to San Francisco and see the Golden Gate Bridge. That was an awesome experience. Along the drive we got to see Big Sur and it was great because she had never been out to the West Coast. We drove down to Malibu Beach as well and that's some of most awesome beaches I've ever seen. People out in California really like to get involved in the outdoors and it seemed like everyone's constantly exercising or on the move.

I made a trip to Mexico with Courtney earlier this year and got to see the Chichen Itza which is one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world. It was a great experience to get to think about how people did things in those ancient civilizations and how some people today still live that way. I got to eat lunch with a traditional Mayan village and that was pretty cool. It's always fun going to different places and just seeing how well we have it in America. There's some really amazing sites to see and its crazy to think that the people that live there probably live on less than a couple dollars a day. It wasn't until I met Courtney that I ever traveled outside of the country so seeing new things has opened up my view of the world a little bit.

On my birthday this year we went to Nashville and I'd never been there before. It was an awesome experience to get to see all the live music and get some southern cooking. Normally I don't do anything too crazy for my birthday but this year I turned the BIG 30 so we had to do something to celebrate. It was a fun weekend for sure and I'd say Nashville has it going on there's a lot of stuff to do there and they have some really nice parks. We got to do some hiking and catch some live music performances at dinner and do some beer tasting. Nashville's a place I wouldn't mind visiting again.

Another thing we did this year is we went to Florida and checked out Universal Studios. I'd never been to Universal before or anything like that so that was a really cool experience. Probably won't ever go back because it was super expensive but life's too short. I wanted to see it all at least once. I got to visit with my cousins Drake and Lisa in Tampa Bay while down for a weekend. Courtney and I did some deep sea fishing although she out fished me. I don't remember catching much. I had a couple big snapper on the line that broke me off. Courtney caught a big sucker fish and some grunts but that was about it. The sucker fish was a fish that attaches itself to whales and cruises along.

Yesterday I spent Thanksgiving with Courtney's family and last night we visited my parents and my brother. I also got up in the morning and replaced my kitchen faucet. I know so exciting but that's the kind of projects I get to do when I'm not fishing. Sometimes we get pretty busy and don't get to visit family as much as we probably should but it was good catching up with everyone. We had some great Turkey and Ham and I'll be munching on the leftovers this weekend. We are coming into the homestretch this year and I'm excited for Christmas. I'm looking forward to Christmas with the Clark's and heading up to Iowa to spend Christmas with Courtney's family. They usually have a ton of Iowa home style cooking that Paula Dean would even envy. Loaded with 15 sticks of butter. Enough to clog your arteries in one hit ;) Speaking of good food the other thing I've been keeping up with is going to the gym so I can prepare for that upcoming fun.

My doggies are getting ready for Christmas too. They've been pretty good we've taken them on the boat a couple of times this year which they always enjoy. Yesterday they got some of the scraps from our thanksgiving dinner because they have been good. I've got some down time for a couple more weeks but pretty soon things will start to get really busy around here again. We got a lot going on for 2019. I think it's good to stay busy and experience whatever you can. Nobody can predict the future but hopefully 2019 is just as good to us.