It's been a while since I've posted something and on the eve of American Thanksgiving I thought it would be appropriate to say what we've been thankful for since moving here.

• We had a good time with Jay (Cam's sister )and Gail Black a Blue Norther in October. We picked them up in San Francisco after seeing our friend Robin Kalbfleisch finish the San Francisco marathon. How exciting was that!


• We have heat in our house and electric mattress covers that nicely warm the beds before we get in. The temperature has really cooled off and being here reminds us of our time in Egypt where it was warm outside during the day but cold inside and freezing at night. It's not as chilling but there are similarities.


• We continue to do lots of biking around Davis. Reuben is now biking with no hands just like a lot of the university students do. We're thankful he's not talking on a cell phone at the same time. He's recently discovered a BMX park nearby and gets his thrills for speed, bumps and jumps there.


• My dad spent three weeks with us and was a most accommodating and easy-going house guest. We even got him on a bike as he was up for everything and anything. He really enjoyed being here and being around family and it was a very special time for our family to be with him.


• Our friends Tim and Joyce are coming to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with us. This is good because Thanksgiving is a REALLY big deal here and it feels good to report that we have plans!


• We're heading into orange season. The market now sells mandarins. The orange tree on our front lawn keeps turning brighter and we've enjoyed some of the early crop.


• Gabbi and Reuben seem to be doing well in a fairly competitive school system. They recently got their report cards and we had parent-teacher conferences where both teachers thought they were doing just fine. Whew.


• We have finally gotten ourselves set up and going with French tutoring. We had a late start and then had to switch tutors but we're in a routine now and hopefully Gabbi and Reuben will be able to keep up with the French immersion when they return to Canada.


• We're getting better sleeps at night as the wildlife seems to have changed a bit. No longer do the rats wake us up. We think they've moved on to a better life. Instead, it's squirrels that are playing with their nuts early in the morning. So is Cam, but that's not quite as noisy.


• We live in a really safe community. We often don't lock the house when we're out for a short stint. We see lots of runners at night with barely any reflective or lit gear on them. We've changed from shaking our heads at these crazy people to admiring how safe the traffic is around here.


• Cam is down to the last 10 days before his marathon. I was able to be his camel for two of his long 32k runs. We look forward to seeing him cross the finish line in downtown Sacramento on December 6.


• We have a family doctor here and we think we have medical insurance. That's something we're still working on (several hours a day for the past three months - Cam has said if he hears anyone else criticize the Canadian system he's going to send them to the hospital). After this experience, I don't think we'll ever take the Canadian system for granted again. The US is a mess in this department.


• We love the palm trees, nice warm late fall and early winter days, short drives to great local destinations - Napa, Tahoe, San Francisco to mention a few.

Yes we've had our struggles, but please don't feel too sorry for us here in paradise. We're thankful .