Cocoa Joy is thankful for her family, food, long walks in the woods, and her trainers at Dog School 101. (Actually, I’m the one who is grateful for Sandy and Xalina!)

PJ is thankful for sleep.

And Chipley is thankful for . . .

COWS!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I love the fact that I can tell Cocoa Joy to sit and stay, and she does it even when a bratty squirrel is playing nearby.

Almost every Sunday morning, I think about my friends at First Baptist Atlanta. I remember how they would comment about the photos on Cocoa’s blog. Reba especially likes to see ones of the dogs. So, it was only natural to think of her when I took this photograph yesterday morning. Cocoa’s looking out the windows in the sunroom scanning the land behind the house for stray cats, visiting deer, or whatever else is outside these days.

Wow! Yesterday I had an opportunity to see my cousins on my Dad’s side of the family for the first time in years. We were once scattered from north to south. Rosalyn lived in Jacksonville, Florida with her family; and Debbie (Madden) and her family were in Miami; and Georgia grew up in Ohio. I was the only one who lived in Georgia, but we had connections through loving aunts and uncles, who made sure we reconnected from time-to-time, especially in the summer. Family truly does matter, and I’m grateful we were together again even for a short amount of time.

We even had an opportunity to recreate the photo (below) that was taken at Aunt Sally’s home in Palmetto, Georgia, when we were very young. Debbie and Carl, thank you again and again for hosting our family’s reunion yesterday! Your lake house is absolutely lovely!

The four cousins: Georgia, Debbie, Angie, and Rosalyn.

Until yesterday, I did not realize just how much into fall we really are. Does that make sense? Can time really slip away that quickly? I absolutely love living where I do because I can hop in the car and drive a few miles north and end up standing beside a beautiful mountain stream like the one in this photo.

Dogs so much apart of the venture these days. Mary Erna brought her pack and Chip, looking very fore longed, tried to ignored all of us.

And only Evan could get Cocoa to hang out long enough to have her photo taken. She was so worried about where everyone was. Had the others in our group left her? Was she missing something good? Was she in the back of the pack? If so, she certainly needed to catch up!