Thanksgiving Thanks

     Thanksgiving is this Thursday and we have a lot to be thankful for.  
     We have a new grandson, John Paul Giorgis, who was just born on Saturday in Maryland. He is grandchild number 4.  Lorelei Elizabeth Thomas, in Pennsylvania, was born 2 days before my birthday in August. Then we have the Elys, Aiden, age 2, and Hallie, age 5, who are lucky enough to live only 3 miles from us. We are thankful for 4 healthy grandchildren.
     Our restaurant, Treasure Coast Hot Dogs, opened October 19. It was a lot of work to get it opened and business is still too slow to pay the bills, but we are slowly getting more customers and the response from people who have eaten with us has been very favorable. It is a great home town restaurant where people on a fast food budget can enjoy a meal with their family in a pleasant atmosphere that even features live music at certain times. We are thankful to have our own restaurant and continue to pray for its success.
     The weather in Florida is beautiful now! We do have seasons, but not as pronounced as in the north. Our weather now reminds me of summer in Buffalo. High temps in the low 80's and in the 60's at night. We use the A/C some days, but we don't need it 24/7 like we did in the summer. Our summer electric bills were not as bad as I expected- no wheres near as high as heating costs in winter in the north. I have fresh tomatoes now- our growing season is September to May. I don't know if my tomato plants will last that long, but we will see. The sand hill cranes and ibis that wander our neighborhood and the cormorants that fly overhead continue to delight us. We are thankful to live in such a beautiful place where we were able to buy a beautiful home at a reasonable price.
     Ruth & Jimmi & Lorelei fly in on Wednesday. Thursday we will drive down to my sister Cindi's home in Fort Lauderdale for Thanksgiving dinner. The Elys will be in Ocala with Brian's family.  On Saturday we will cook turkey and have Thanksgiving again with Ruth and Marie and 3 grandchildren. John Paul is not ready to travel yet, so his other grandparents from Pennsylvania will get to enjoy him on Thanksgiving. We are looking forward to traveling to Maryland and Pennsylvania the last week in December for a joint Baptism for Lorelei and John Paul on January 2. Our family friend, Father Jeff Rott will baptize the 2 babies.