Our Family Blog: November 22

This was a short week due to the Thanksgiving Holiday on Thursday. Thanksgiving is a true American holiday when families get together and cook a traditional feast with lots of turkey, apple pies and watching football on TV. The only exercise most people get this day is exercising their stomachs!

Dad went to an EMU Accounting Alumni reception at the Marriott in Livonia where one of his professors was honored for her service. Dad run into former coworker Chris Jorah from Deloitte, the IAS department is in disarray since they lost the huge General Motors engagement, many former coworkers were let go! Hard to believe it has been six years since Dad left Deloitte!

Kostas had his school picture retaken on Tuesday, we can’t wait to see his new ones.

On Thanksgiving day we drove to Adrian to Chrystal’s home where we had Chrystal’s and Mick’s families join us for a great home cooked Turkey feast. Here is Chrystal and Mick:

Kids of course had a blast playing with each other. As it is becoming a tradition over the last several years, when we leave Adrian we make a short stop back home before we drive over to May’s house where we have Turkey Round II!! After that we all had trouble staying awake from the overtime our stomachs worked!!

Mom has the day after Thanksgiving off. Just like last year, Mom and May strategized how they will attack the malls early Friday morning. The day after Thanksgiving it is traditionally THE busiest shopping day of the year with most stores having some super sales VERY early in the morning to get the mad crowds out to them. Mom and May mostly shopped at Office Max where they bought several items for free (after rebates) and then went over to Briarwood to Sears. There was an article in the Ann Arbor News how these people live for the “thrill of the kill”, finding that super bargain. Of course just the thought of waking up so early and lining up among other “sick” people makes Dad have nightmares!! J

On Friday night we had Simon, Maggie, KC & Louis and their daughters Winnie and Annie over for a nice dinner.

Kostas had his first Birthday party with his classmates, Rex, Shaun, Kyle, Deshawn and neighbors Louis and Justin and (former neighbor) Joey. Sophia had a blast playing and trying to keep up with eight boys bigger than her! Needless to say all boys had a super time playing from around 1.30 pm to 5 pm, the house was more like a war zone. Kostas really enjoyed being the center of attention today.

Two very good blogs Dad has been reading are: Informed Comment , by Ann Arbor's own Professor Juan Cole, with great commentary about the Middle East by someone who really knows what is happening there. Another nice blog is Baghdad Burning , by a very nice Iraqi lady which gives a flavor of what the ordinary Iraqis think of what is going on...Good sources to be informed and not rely on the mainstream media.

And, on a shameless self promotion, our own family blog has now been listed in the Arbor Blogs directory!

=============================PIC ALERT!!!============================================
Below you see many pictures from Barb Birringer's Retirement party on November 13 (please see corresponding blog entry for details).

Current and former students: