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Yes! I am so excited.  We had Thanksgiving at our home this past year and cooked for 17 and it turned out wonderful.  My mom was out visiting from Ohio and thankfully she is a wonderful cook, and she helped me with EVERYTHING.  Actually, I would say she was ‘managing’ everything on her own and I was in assist mode.  Even so, I took the easy way out and ordered a “Turkey In The Bag” from Zanotto’s Downtown Market.  My brother in law Troy is co-owner of the store…just a little plug.  It was so good and so easy–I think all I did was unwrap the thing and plop it in the oven.  I guess all that hard labor my great grandmother used to do of getting up at 5 a.m. and cooking the bird all day has gone by the way side with the ease of a pre-cleaned, pre-seasoned, turkey. 

We enjoyed the visit with my mom a lot! We had lots of quality time with the boys and took a trip down to the Monterey Bay Aquarium this past Sunday.  My favorite part of the aquarium were the giant octupuses (is that the correct plural?!) and the jellyfish exhibit.  I thought Max was really going to like the area where you could touch the starfish and the anemones, but he really just enjoyed being free and exploring, dashing to and from anything that had buttons he could touch and things that he could play with.  There were times I felt like we didn’t stop to enjoy something at all–and some of the visit was a complete blur.  This was somewhat disappointing because in September I accompanied my son Tanner on a field trip to the aquarium.  It too, was a complete and utter blur as I chaperoned and was responsible for 5 eight year boys.  In fact, within 5 minutes of arriving I was in full panic mode as I lost all 5 of them in the first part of the museum–can’t remember the name, but it’s dark and they all took off like spiders and separated.  Talk about stressful! I did finally end up getting them back together in a matter of 15 minutes, and the other moms were experiencing the same issues.  I had no idea what I was in for….and I hope no one from the school reads this as they might ban me from future chaperoning of field trips.   Anyway, I felt like I didn’t get to really enjoy ANY of the exhibits at the aquarium that day and that’s why I suggested the whole family go back together this month.  WELP, I still don’t feel I’ve seen everything and I’ve gone twice in three months.

Things at Bugs and Butterflies are unbelievably busy.  Every holiday season I think I’ll have things completely under control and every holiday season I am completely and utterly swamped.  And I have have TONS of moms having babies!! So my turnaround times are a bit longer and I am currently booking sessions for January.  Actually….January is almost fully booked as of today.  I’ve had some great sessions and will be updating the web site in a couple of weeks.   A big warmhearted thank you to all of my clients over the past year–I am blessed to be able to have a career that brings me so much joy and happiness and help support my family at the same time.  I feel especially thankful that even though things are financially tighter these days for some of my families, they still understand and prioritize having beautiful images captured of their children.   THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.  In turn, I always give 110% to each family and do the best I can for each of you.

Today I had a great session with a family whose son is player on the San Jose Junior Sharks.  I think his mom said he has been playing since he was 20 months old.  Is that incredible or what?!