Thanksgiving in Napa

Well, as we said we would...we've put together a slideshow of our wonderful trip back home to Napa, CA for all our friends and family. Thanksgiving day was held at my Aunt & Uncle's home, Jackie & Richard in the City of Napa. Wonderful Turkey from Jackie and my dad, home made Cranberry sauce and the famous Hamilton ham rolls from my sister Erika & husband Will (its a secret and I cannot tell...you'll have to request them next time you come to our home!) were some of the delectable delights we enjoyed. We stayed with my father and he even re-arranged his bedrooms (He even gave us his room just to accommodate the over taking of his house by my family!) just for us. He was quite the host!

This year has had a combination of many joys and sorrows. As many of you know the joy of my 2nd daughter being born on January 18th was very precious and such a blessing to us. The one sorrow to follow was the passing of my mother just 3 days later that has brought many challenges to me personally. She was able to see a picture of Olivia Joy through the incredible technology of email just before her passing. Needless to say with the arrival of new life and the loss of another, this Thanksgiving was the first time for all my family, with exception of my father, to meet our newest addition 10 months after her birth, and the first without mom. I will admit...upon walking into my aunty's house, the ring of laughter and the many voices of those I love and miss so dearly filled the home, I was instantly in tears within the first five minutes. In fact I'm having a pretty difficult time even getting past this paragraph....

...Family is so amazing. My father has been yet another amazing example to me even this year with the whole hearted example of Thankfulness he has shown. He is Thankful for the years he had with mom and he CONTINUES because of that thankfulness. I am so pround of him. I wish you all could meet him....he is truly amazing and has been a strong pillar in our house my whole life. He's enjoying life and pressing into new things that have been set aside, on stand-by, all these years and its so fulfilling to see him pull them off the table one by one to pursue.

We have alot to be thankful for, and many of those seem to come into a deeper perspective the older we get. I am deeply thankful for the time I get to spend with my family, which sadly enough is only 1 to 2 times per year, but a time I cherish dearly. We really hope your Thanksgiving and time with your family was as much of a blessing to you as our time with ours was to us. We are greatly thankful for the dear friends, clients, family and peers who read our blog frequently. We are honored to share our life with you and appreciate all that you have given us!

We hope you enjoy our slideshow. Its filled with the events of our whole trip including a short 5 hour run to San Francisco which was such a blast!

Many blessings to you all!

Damion.