Joy hand delivered and packaged as a beauty

Jenny O'Connell is CEO of the 'Joy, Luck' Club.

First of all she got a non rev seat from SEA-PDX the day before the busiest holiday of the year! Lucky doesn't describe it. NO ONE I know would even think of trying to do that, it just never, ever works. For mere mortals anyway, which Jenny clearly is not.

Then she came and hand delivered a big bundle of Joy to our holiday! We had the best Thanksgiving thanks to her energy, compassion and positive spirit. She is 2 years older than our son Matthew, but they could be twins. They both have an infectious energy about them. Jenny lives in San Francisco now, recently transplanted from Upstate NY, eldest daughter of Peter and Adele. You can see, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. They taught her well.

There were tears on Thanksgiving.
Nick has always carved the turkey and made the gravy and his beloved rutabegas.
I tried.
I failed.
I cried.

Nick couldn't eat dinner with us. The pain took control at the wrong time, and he had to go upstairs and rest.
So we took dinner to him later after the boys, Jenny and myself ate our dinner together.

We took a glass of sparkling cider (one of our traditions) and we each took a turn telling him something we are grateful for.
Like getting a ride to the Burnside bridge for skateboarding at 5AM Sundays,
getting a beloved guitar,
for sort of teaching Kimberley to cook, etc...
we were all in tears and relied on Lucas to add the laughter.
It was a sweet moment never to be forgotten.

Thanksgiving is about appreciating what we've been given and nothing ever compares to having good people love you.

Friday night Matthew, Jenny, Christian and I took MAX downtown Portland to see the tree lighting ceremony.
We sang all of the Christmas carols we could remember to the entire MAX train, Matthew, Christian and Jenny danced a jig while a man in kilt played bagpipes on the street corner, Matthew fell in love for a minute with a cute curly haired girl, Christian enjoyed Greek cuisine, and a German tourist fell in love with Jenny on the MAX ride home. He kept us laughing and shared a Schnubel! story.

Saturday before Jenny went home, the boys took her to see Multnomah Falls, Vista House and the beautiful Columbia River Gorge.

Thanks to our lovely Jenny for giving us the best Thanksgiving we've ever had!