Oh snap!

 After getting home from a whirlwind 17 days of travel in Portugal and Spain, we realized, "Oh, Thanksgiving is in just a couple days." Jet lag from nearly 20 hours in transient, and washing all the dirty clothes, catching up with all the daily stuff you do when you are home normally, the day has been a little busy and still sleepy. The pilot of our airline announced as we landed in Phoenix, "Welcome to Phoenix, the current temperature is 75 degrees and the current time is 6:45 PM, so now you can enjoy the same evening for the second time." All of us sleepyheads had to thing for a second, oh yeah, we left Europe 7 or 8 hours before. Ah-h-h!

A Mosque that was built in the 1400s and then the Catholic church took it over and built a cathedral in the center of the 250,000 square foot Mosque.

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays of the year. Getting together with family and friends to break bread and over eating (like we haven't already done that on our trip), is a blessing in itself. But that is really why I love Thanksgiving. Nancy and I have been very blessed to go to SO many countries, talk to the native people and hear what their lives are like, eat with them, sing and dance with them, immerse our lives into theirs and learn their cultures, trying to understand them deeply. This trip was no different. And yes, the be able to do these trips is a great blessing in itself.

But our blessings does not stop there. We both are thankful for all of our family members, great friends, our past jobs and the people we worked with and enjoyed. All the great times and sad times we had with them. Life has been VERY good to us both.

With anyone, there are always ups and downs in your life. Some remember just the downs, we think of the ups, and look around to see what we have. Not just 'things' like houses, cars and money, but family and friends and relationships. That is what we ALL should be thankful for. 

All that we have means nothing if you don't have friends, family and relationships in your life. One of the best gifts I had when we got home was a big sloppy lick from our curly haired dog, so glad to see us. We were SO glad to see him too, just like our bed.

So on Thanksgiving Day, say thank you for all you have, not what you want, WHAT YOU HAVE. After you think about all you have, you may feel pretty blessed too.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, share your love, take care and stay safe. God bless.

                             More photos of our trip posted later after I get them sorted.