Thanksgiving 2014

Thanksgiving week started off with the arrival of our dear friends Jim and Regina who live in Savannah, Georgia.  Albert our adopted son joined us as well.

This was us after a great dinner.

Followed by coffee and discussions.

Thanksgiving morning we were treated to having Isaiah, Adrian and Cameron over for their oreo cookies and milk.

 Around 1 pm it was off to Albert and Mary Alice' home where Albert displayed his carving skills. This was the beginning of a happy and fun day.

One of MA's and Albert's cousins made a vegetable turkey.

The food was incredible.

As you can see there was lots to eat.

MA is being serenaded by her cousin Simon,who has a magnificant voice and clearly made MA feel like a princess.

Other cousins showed their dancing skills.

Proud family and friends enjoyed the entertainment.

Then it was off to Dennis' place for another Thanksgiving get together and here Justin and his dad Jim prepare one of the 4 turkeys for the feast.

Boys will be boys when there is football on.

However, there is no rest for the cooks.

Dennis could still smile after such an early  start to the day.

Thanksgiving is a day where friends and family meet and enjoy good food and fellowship.

We thank our dear friends for inviting us into their lives on this special day.

Best wishes,

Beverley and Ross

Work and Fun in San Antonio

Since our last blog we have been rather busy with work , having friends and colleagues stay and generally enjoying ourselves.  Here we are on the way to a business meeting San Antonio style.  Butch is the boss, Annette is the Business Manager (Global), Albert in a pirate costume for Halloween and is a professor and Jim is the Director of International Operations for the company.  Well it was Halloween after all.

                     

Following this meeting we were off to Corpus Christie for a conference and here are the boys  enjoying a dinner at a great Corpus Christie restaurant.  The other Jim joined us on this occasion.

At the bar next door to the restaurant the only hand rolling cigar maker in Texas was busy at work.

In between working, there was the opportunity to have dinner on the Riverwalk.

It was the day of Halloween and the staff really got into the act.

As did many of the folks who were walking by.   Plenty of Kodak moments.

Then it was back to work and this what a working weekend looks like at our place.  Yes, things do go better with a beer and a wine.

Annette is also an excellent cook and can multitask very well.  So while she was doing the business plan she instructed the rest of us on dinner preparation.  Here is the group lemon delicious dessert.

We have also been fortunate to have support from Meredith who is an Australian and works for the same company.  She and  her family are currently living in DC for 3 years and flew down for a few days so that we could progress some work that we involved with.  It was great to finally meet as we have spoken over the phone for the last 3 years.   This the farewell snap with Soojin before she returned to DC where it is much colder than it is here.

Meredith stayed with us on her last night in SA and we all enjoyed the evening with Albert, Adrian and Cameron.

Work and fun is a good combination and keeps us on our toes.

Best wishes to all,

Beverley and Ross

Family Visit

Earlier this month Toni, Alyshia and Jenna (Ross's sister and nieces) came for a visit and fortunately the weather was starting to cool down and after some recent rain everything was fresh and green.  Here we are having breakfast on Sunday morning  out in the gazebo.  It is very rare to be able to sit outside as it is either too hot or too many mosquitoes.  This morning was just perfect.  Albert our dear friend who is part of our family joined us and there were lots of laughs all the way around. 

It was  great to be able to show the family the many sights here in San Antonio and Ross who is now an expert travel guide made sure that the girls got to see it all.

Many opportunities arose to introduce them to Texas foods such as the famous fish taco which Toni really enjoyed.

All of a sudden the time had flown and it was time to say farewell to our family so we ate a great Italian restaurant downtown and even got to meet the Chef.

The server shouted us this delicious dessert.

 Halloween is almost upon us so Adrian was getting a head start on how to make a Jack O' Lantern.

On the other hand Cameron decided to try a pumpkin seed.

No entry would be complete with a reference to food.

And yes, these are Texas shrimp.

Recently we were invited to the graduation ceremony of a friend called Jesse.  This gentleman had a dream to complete his GED ( high school diploma). So at 50 years of age that is what he has done.  Within a month or two he will also be a fully fledged plumber.  The papers he wrote about his dream and his life were very moving earning him high distinctions and the opportunity to tell his story to an audience of 1,000.   Well done Jesse we are all so proud of you.

We were so thrilled that Toni, Alyshia and Jenna came to visit and that they could experience some of the joy that we have had living in Texas which has been our second home for the last 20 years.

We are very blessed to have wonderful family and friends.

Best wishes to all.

Beverley and Ross

Out and About in San Antonio

Hi,its been a while since our last entry so we thought we would give you a flavour of our life here when we are not travelling.  Recently we have the opportunity to celebrate birthdays and important events with some of our friends here.  As you know Beverley works for Aspen Medical USA and have the pleasure of working with great colleagues.  Soojin Min, our finance director, recently celebrated her birthday so we all took her out to a birthday lunch.  This was her birthday cake.

This is happy Soojin enjoying her day.

Another member of staff is Shelby and this is her birthday cake.

Lynn and Ed we have know for 20 years and they joined us for Lynn's birthday.  We all met when we were posted to Fort Sam Houston.  Lynn and Ed were both in the US Nurse corps and on our frequent trips to San Antonio we have always meet for lunch or dinner and shared a drink or to.  They are wonderful people.

Back to Soojin who recently became a U.S citizen.  We were privileged to be invited to the ceremony and here is the photo of us all with a very new American.  The group consists of Soojin, her husband and daughter ( her son had a cold so was home with grand mother), Pat and us.  Following this we went out for a great lunch.

Recently HQ Australia sent Andrew (in the middle) over to travel with Butch (on the right ) to a conference in South America.  It was a good opportunity to get a photo of Wayne, our operations director, Butch (the boss) and  Andrew.  It was interesting to hear an Australian accent again.  Do we really sound like that?

You would have seen these guys before in earlier blogs.  Yes it is Albert and his precious boys Adrian and Cameron.  These kids are a whiz with Lego's and were proudly showing dad their handy work.

This is what it looks like.

This is really what it looks like.

This is more of their handy work.

Its now baseball season and Texas A&M is Albert and Mary Alice's alma marta.  One of the A&M players is a fellow by the name of  Johnny Manziel (Johnny Football) who is great on the field but tends to push the envelop a bit and gets into strife every now and then.  This is a helmet that he signed which he was not supposed to.  Albert is now the proud owner of this and it will be worth a fortune some time in the future.

We had to have a group photo with said helmet.

Both Adrian and Cameron play base ball and this is what an evening practice looks like.

No blog would be complete with out a photo of food.  This was an Asian meal at P.F.Changs.

The next big event on the calender will be Halloween.  The shops have all of their wares on sale even the Hardware stores (this is Lowes)

Even hanging from the ceiling.  It will be a scary event.

So until our next entry, stay happy and well.

Beverley  and Ross