Giving Thanks

For Thanksgiving this year the whole family gathered at my parents house in Allen. My Aunt Susan and my Grandmother braved the heavy traffic to join us. We also had a house full of dogs - Bichons, actually. My parents have two, Amy and Eric have two, and my Grandmother brought her Bichon/Poodle mix. It was quite a circus. The company was great and the food as just as good. We had turkey, ham, sweet potatos, rolls, green bean casserole, and my Grandmother's famous homemade dressing and gravy. Everyone wants the recipe, but every year she says she just "wings it" and ends up tweaking it a bit. Next year I'm going to stand over her and write everything down as she does it! It's not fair to keep these things a secret! :)

I always love the conversations that our family has around any table. There are always hilarious stories told that leave us in tears - even if we've heard them 100 times. My favorite are the ones about the stupid things my dad and his brother did as kids. I think we would have talked for hours if we werent all so tired from the large meal.

The boys definitely put away alot of food! I think Eric even skipped breakfast to save room for extra turkey. I only remember Frank going back for seconds, but I easily could have been distracted.











As you can see, my mom already has all of her Christmas decorations out for the year. Saying that Christmas is a big deal to her would be an understatement. I think she has at least 4 full sized decorated trees. She also works at a store that sells Christmas stuff year round. Every year Christmas bleeds into Thanksgiving a little bit because it's our tradition to put together a Christmas puzzle during Thanksgiving week.
We dont do anything special with them, we just enjoy puzzles. Frank is still learning to like puzzles. Dont be fooled by the excited look on his face here. This is actually the only time he participated in the effort. The rest of the time he was either focused on a football game, taking a nap, or eating dessert. For some reason we decided that we had to have the puzzle finished within that hour, so we worked hard and got it done. Unfortunately, by the end we realized that one of our pieces had been eaten by one of the dogs. I think it's probably in the backyard by now. ha.


Eric got creative and covered it with a cup for the picture. I'd say it turned out pretty well. We may need to get another one out before Christmas.

Maggie and Alex also had alot to be thankful for. They both got new toys that we call thier "bobos". They are SO cute running around with them. Maggie squeaks hers constantly and Alex just likes to protect his. Once Maggie has squeaked hers enough she will go after Alex's bobo. At that point we either have to put them up, or Frank will throw Maggie's bobo for her so wont think that she is missing out.

Obviously I cant end this post with mentioning the awesome Aggie/t.u. game last Friday. Ags beat the always-overrated team from Austin (again) 38-30 (and it wasn't nearly that close). WHOOP!

Aggie 100

On October 26th, my dad was honored as a member of the Aggie 100 for 2007. The yearly awards are given to nominated business owners who have maintained the highest overall growth rate over the last three years as compared to other nominees. My Aunt Susan read about the Aggie 100, and insisted that my dad be nominated. Between her and Frank, they were able to get my dad to fill out all the necessary paperwork to complete the process. It's a very prestigious award, and I'm so proud of my dad for winning a spot in the Aggie 100. On top of competing for growth in sales, each nominee must meet certain requirements. The company must have been in business for a minimum of 5 years with verifiable revenues of at least $100,000 in 2004. My dad came in 94th place with a compounded annual growth rate of 31.65% for his company Speech Privacy Systems. He works so hard, and he loves what he does. The whole family was so proud to see him awarded for his efforts.


Here are all the award recipients before the ceremony being posed for their group photo. My dad is on the top row, 6th from the left.
After the group photo, he came to join the rest of the family who had just showed up. We were snapping away like papparazi. The guy behind my dad thinks he must be be famous. :)
Mom and dad posing together.
The award ceremony was held in The Zone at Kyle Field. It was a very fancy venue that was meant to impress. Each table had very nice centerpieces that we took home, and we were also greeted by the most stuck up "salad" I've even seen in my life (see below). No one really ate much of it. There were over 650 people in attendance.


Congratulations, dad! We are all very proud of you! WHOOP!