Thanksgiving

This year we had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with Jeff's brother and his family.  Despite the fact that we have both lived in Southern California for the past 15 years, we have never had Thanksgiving dinner together.  It seems that one or both of us are always engaged somewhere else every year.  So we were pleased to find that our schedules aligned and we got together for the day.  We had all the traditional foods, turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes and stuffing.  Then it was off to the park for an interim volleyball game.  It was a very interesting game.  My neices and nephews attention spans ranged all over the place.  There were a few times where I was leaping over a somersaulting child, or running around a twirling ballerina to get to the ball.  It was just an extra challenge and made the game very fun and memorable.  My favorite part was Gabe's jump underhand serves.  After the game, we ate pie, then chatted for a good portion of the evening.  It was a nice thanksgiving.

Stout Family Extravaganza

In November, we had the pleasure of celebrating my Jeff's parents 50th wedding anniversary.  They didn't want a big party, but rather a simple family celebration.  Conveniently for us and Jeff's brother, they traveled down to Southern California along with Jeff's other brother and sister to spend the weekend together.  We had a great time.  Our neice was baptized on Saturday morning.  Then we spent the evening at the beach taking pictures and roasting hot dogs and marshmellows.  On Sunday, we took walks, and played games before having a simple family tribute in the evening.  Grandma and Grandpa told us the story of how they met and their first date.  Jason and Lisa sang a lovely song, Jon wrote a great poem, Jill gave a moving speech, and we finished the evening with 50 years in pictures.  It was a great weekend spending time together.  We love them very much and are so grateful for everything that they have done for us over the years.  They are wonderful people.