Hello there!

Hey family! Long time no talk! Sorry bout that. We're still hanging in here in Portland/Vancouver ... I've travelled this week and last week, but now won't be travelling until the week after Thanksgiving. And that's a cool trip ...

On December 3, I fly to Frankfurt for three days of meetings (Tues-Thurs) with an international team I'm a part of. On Wednesday the 6th, Pat leaves Portland and arrives in Frankfurt Thursday morning! My meetings end on Thursday and we are going to spend some time in some German cities for a few days, leaving Germany on Wednesday Dec. 12.

We're currently thinking about making Munich our base of operations, and plan to also visit Rothenburg and Nuremberg. This trip will be similar to our Thanksgiving trip last year to Austria - lots of snow, and lots of Christkindlmarkts - with all the rows and rows of Christmas tree ornaments.

This is the first time my work has sent me to Europe, and we have been ready to jump at the offer - if you can believe it, UL saves $1000 for me to stay over the Friday night. Yep - economy class tickets were ~$1700 coming home on Friday, and only ~$700 for me to stay over the weekend. Can't argue with that, can you? You don't want to know how much business class would have been. Now that I own my own budget, I don't much like to foot that bill.

We're leaving Tuesday next week to come home for Thanksgiving! We're really looking forward to being able to be home for a longer period of time surrounding the actual "event" of Thanksgiving ... we've been home so much this year, but distracted by the stir of the "event" and not coming early enough or staying long enough after to actually enjoy the time with family!

So in all, we are really looking forward to seeing all of you ... except for Andy, KK & Damon! Have fun in CA, all of you!!