Me on Thanksgiving last year in front of the Trevi fountain in Rome, as taken with my cameraphone. :-) I ended up eating Italian food with Joel! in Rome, since John was back in our hotel room sleeping off a bout of food poisoning that had had us in an Italian ER at 4 that morning. Now THERE'S a great way to begin Thanksgiving! :-) Nevertheless, it was a wonderful (and memorable!) day. :-)

For Thanksgiving 2008, I was in Washington, DC with John, housesitting for a friend from high school. That evening, we met up with another friend from high school for Ethiopian food. Excellent stuff. :-)

I'm thankful for my cameras -- my new awesome 50D, my old faithful XTi, and my ever-ready Droid. I love being able to capture things and look back on them, and I love it when my pictures turn out good. It still surprises me sometimes, actually. In about 2.5 years, I've gone from not knowing anything about photography to feeling like I'm missing an arm if I don't have at least one camera within arm's reach at all times. I'm also thankful that I have this blog to record the things and places in my life and be able to share them with others.

I'm thankful that I have Moose again. This picture was taken on one of the two best days in my life -- the day I got him back -- and it's never something I would have even dreamed would have happened, but I'm so so so thankful it did. I love that goofy horse. :-)

I'm thankful for my job. It drives me insane some days, but it's fun, it's never the same day twice, I'm given time in my day to come up with and work on my own random work-related projects when my work is done, and it gives me enough time off that I've been able to travel. I seriously don't think I could ask for a better job. :-) (But I wouldn't pass up a raise...) ;-)

I'm thankful for my family. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have a picture of all of us that's even remotely recent -- I'll try to remedy that later today. The best I can do right now is this picture of my mom and niece at our family reunion this past May. :-)

I'm thankful for living in a beautiful city. This is my neighborhood -- I love living downtown in the heart of things, and I love Sacramento -- flowers in the spring, nice hot summers, gorgeous fall color, and mild but still wintery winters. I'm so so thankful to be where I am.

I'm thankful I've been able to travel so much in the past two years. This picture was taken on a night train from Budapest to Krakow -- one of the highlights of my summer trip and one of the best days of my life. Even though there's really nothing special about a train ride, this was my first night train ride where I got an actual bed, and for me it kind of epitomized everything I'd wanted out of and hoped for with my trip ever since I started planning it when I was 16 years old. I spent the next couple hours after this picture was taken hanging my head out the train window and grinning, watching the scenery and the sunset. It was absolutely amazing.

Ok, I lied just a bit. The other things weren't in any particular order, but I saved the best for last. I'm thankful for John--my best friend, my travel partner, and one of the precious few people I can count on to always groan at my horrible puns but still love and respect me no matter how much they pain him. He's let me drag him all over the world on my myriad adventures and flights of fancy, and he keeps me grounded when those flights of fancy venture just a bit too close to the sun. In this picture, we were on top of Gellert Hill in Budapest this past summer--my favorite European city and my second-favorite city in the world. What's my favorite city? I'll give you a hint--I live there now, and I've never been happier to be where I am now, doing what I'm doing with my life, and sharing the journey with him.