Giving Thanks!

Two-thousand and nine has been an exceptional year for our family. I know that this is not the case for many others who have lost their livelihoods and homes, or for those who live in unimaginable poverty around the globe. This is why it is so important to give our thanks. This week Kieran has been very ill with the flu, and today is his first day out of the house in six days! So, I'm going to take this moment of rare silence to reflect on all that we are thankful for:

- Healthy family, and health care when we need it
- Friends and family who love us and keep our life interesting and fun
- Abundance of good food...almost too much a good thing yesterday
- Meaningful careers where we can make a difference in our community
- Excellent place for our children to be cared for and learn, plus we can visit
- Kiki, who teaches us about our humanity and is always ready for lovin'
- A loving marriage and friendship, this week marks 10 years since our first date!
- Warm home with things that comfort us
- Vibrant garden to grow food and flowers, connect us to nature, and play
- Beautiful place to live and grow, mountains and beaches, rivers and trees
- Connection to the web of life...via the living spirit or the Internet ;-)

Here are a few photos from our Thanksgiving 2009! We hope you are enjoying this relaxing holiday weekend.

Niels og Naira Besoege

We had a very hyggeligt (cozy) visit recently with my host brother Niels, and his Swedish girlfriend Naira. It was wonderful to reconnect after so many years...it's been over ten years since we've seen each other, and it seems like a lifetime since I lived with his family in a quaint Danish countryside home. As I expected though, we reconnected immediately, and it was so nice to get to know Naira.


Naira with Kieran and Makenna

Lots of tickling!
And nibling too!

Kieran and Makenna wearing their favorite Danish clothes from Smaafolk (Tusind Tak Susanne!)

To cap off a fantastic visit, Kieran showed us his dance moves on their last night here. I know I'm biased, but I have to say that his dance moves have gotten more impressive since his class began two months ago :-)


I ran out of space on my camera, so this is the finale:

It was only too bad that I totally ran out of space for Kieran's last blues song, he was squinting his eyes and sagging his shoulders like a natural. He was so serious that it was hard to not laugh. Niels and Naira were duelly impressed... ;-) Once he was all tuckered out, Niels read to Kieran from some of the new Swedish books they brought him. We also got some treats for our upcoming julfest...Tusind Tak!!

Det var en rigtig hyggeligt besoege!

Halloween x2

It felt like Halloween lasted for days this year, and in fact on Monday, November 2nd, Kieran woke up and asked "Is it still Halloween Mommy?" Halloween with two kids is certainly more fun than one. Even though a week has now past, I've finally got a moment to post my favorite photos and video clips. Part of the reason Halloween seemed to last for ages is because we celebrated on Friday at "school." Makenna was a fairy and Kieran a superhero (after wanting to be a red door, ghost, and scarecrow.)





Kieran has his dance classes on Fridays; here's a cute clip of him and his friends dancing as ghosts...Kieran is the one saying ooooh the loudest the whole time. Parents were asked to participate as much as possible, so since it was my day off, I spent the morning with the kids...in a purple wig...Kier doesn't know that it's me behind the camera :-)


The fun was just beginning though, as we carved our home grown jack-o-lanterns. The big one fell down both sets of steps as Kevin scolded Kiki for eating the pumpkin guts. Thankfully, I managed to carve a small design on the other side...we also still had a second small pumpkin left to carve, so Kieran wasn't quite as devastated.



The day was capped off when my host brother, Niels and his Swedish girlfriend began their visit. The power went out briefly (for the third time that day!) right before they arrived, so we had a very "hyggeligt" candlelit dinner of homemade tomato soup. Then we headed out to trick or treat around the neighborhood. It was fun to show them the neighborhood and catch up between houses. This year Kieran was able to make a 3 block route, and got enough lout that we are just finishing it up!