Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We hope you all had a fantastic day with family and friends.  I am sorry I posted this a couple days late.  We have had visitors and friends over and both of us had a late night work schedule and have tried to catch up with sleep.

I had a wild night at work on Thanksgiving.  We actually had a younger man (43 years old) brought in by squad, found unresponsive and not breathing by his wife.  He ended up dying on Thanksgiving.  It really brings into perspective the really important things in life and it makes it easier to let the small things go.

Next time I want to holler at the kids, when the situation is silly and insignificant, I am just going to hug and kiss them and be thankful that I am alive to do so.  That man left behind a very sweet ten year old daughter that will never get another hug or kiss from her father. 

I deal with stuff like that a lot but not on Thanksgiving.  I guess God just wanted to remind me what to be thankful for.  I am so very Thankful to have have friends and family like all of you! 

So enough sad stuff.....Thanksgiving was fun.  YaYa and Papou were here (Jim and Carolyn---Derek's Mom and Step Dad).  And they watched the kids while we were at work.  They also decorated the house for us in beautiful Christmas lights and decorations!  Yay!  The kids love it!  Derek is going to finish hanging a few lights on the garage.  I joked with Carolyn that we will be able to see the house from outer space!  It was funny to hear her and Jim out there giggling as they were buried under three billion lights.  They kept losing pieces and tangling stuff and they would bicker and giggle like a pair of love struck teenagers!  It was great.  We were all laughing so hard at them by the end of the trip.

I keep telling Jim he can take Ally home.  He is so in love with the dog.  I think he likes Ally more than all of us!  He also came with a ton of dog goodies! I don't remember and goodies for me?

We had a huge dinner that we will be eating for the next couple weeks to come.  I have less than a month of school left so that is fantastic besides the great amount of projects that I have to do!  The kids are doing great and the only regret I have is that this year I didn't take a lot of pictures for Thanksgiving.  I forgot to plug the batteries in!  OOOPS! 

I hope you all have a great holiday season and may you truly be blessed with the greatest in life!

Love Always--Derek, Nikki, Skyler, Brett, and Ayden