Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
    go into his courts with praise.
    Give thanks to him and praise his name.
 For the Lord is good.
    His unfailing love continues forever,
    and his faithfulness continues to each generation.

Psalm 100:4-5

Thursday, even though we are very much grateful for the many blessings that define our life, we didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving; but, instead, spent the day on the road, heading to Florida to meet with two of Rebekah’s brothers.

It has been a longstanding tradition for the Alexanders to get together on Friday instead of Thursday. We first started in response to some scheduling conflicts, and the practice has continued even as the initial reasons are now less pressing. Plus, as we found out Thursday on I-95, driving without all that traffic on the road is a serendipitous bonus.

Max jumped in Rebekah’s Rav-4 early on, just to make sure we didn’t forget him. As if we could! He was, of course, as good as gold all day.

We even found – and I hesitate to say this out loud – that the roadwork in South Carolina seems to be progressing fairly well!

When we arrived in Jacksonville, Jesse and Heather invited Max to skip the hotel in favor of their house to see if he could get along with their extremely frisky pup, Sampson. Sampson was wonderfully welcoming and all tails were wagging. The two cousin dogs enjoyed a great evening together.

It is good to be here, with Jesse and Heather and Sampson. Today’s Thanksgiving feast will involve another twenty or more family and friends. So I imagine there will be stories to tell… and – tomorrow – some new ones to share too.

Peace and gratitude – DEREK