January 1 - Thanksgiving Day

In leau of the traditional New Year's Resolutions the Fykes do a list of thankfulness for the last year. Last year was a crazy year in a more traditional sense so here is what we have:

2009

• Joshua's dad came to visit us in Nashville for the first time since we moved here
• We get to set our own work hours so while we don't have kids we can sleep until 8am every day
• Even when the numbers didn't add up, we still ended up with all the bills paid
• Some people are extremely generous when tipping pizza drivers
• We came out of our season of questioning and debating, consensus: Nashville feels like home
• We have some really awesome neighbors who will take care of our house and mail (sometimes without us even asking)
• We love to learn
• FYK Architecture expanded to FYK Group and now instead of producing videos Tiffany is pretty much rocking the real estate world
• One Word - Sukkah
• In a season of sadness we were not alone - friends drove for hours, family came and worked tirelessly and meals were brought - all of that lightened the load we are now carrying
• Joshua knows SOMETHING about horses

We celebrate Thanksgiving on January 1

While everyone else is making resolutions for 2009 I would rather us look back and be thankful for an amazing 2008. Even though last year was shaky at times, overall we are so blessed. And no matter what this next year holds you can find us here again on January 1 with our list of thankfulness.

2008

• We work at jobs we love
• Our commute is twelve stairs
• We can kiss our co-worker
• We got to see our TX family multiple times instead of the standard once a year
• We are a part of Fellowship Bible Church
• We were able to live out a dream we have been working towards for 5 years
• We get to live in a house with a laundry chute
• Through couchsurfing and travel we met people from 13 different countries
• We have food and clean water everyday
• Video iChat makes the world smaller
• Joshua's pupil is no longer doing addition using his fingers
• We have some amazing friends who know and still love us

Although our future is uncertain I look forward to what our abnormal 2009 looks like. Thank you internet for being a part of our journey this year. I have a feeling that next year will hold twists and turns for our family so I hope you stick around for the ride. We can't promise interesting but we can promise strange.

Happy New Year from Tiffany, Joshua and Austin.

Making Holiday Plans

So next week is Thanksgiving and Joshua and I are making our firm holiday plans. These plans don't involve any blood relatives or turkey. I know, crazy isn't it?

Two years ago we decided to claim Thanksgiving as our family holiday and we haven't looked back since. Most of our friends still make the trek home for this holiday but we try to celebrate with those who don't. Last year it was a little depressing because we were homeless and living in Heather's condo so we spent the morning with friends and then ate Baja Fresh on her couch while watching Gilmore Girls.

This year we have a kitchen and dishes and so our holiday plans will be a bit more exciting. We will still be attending our friend's Thanksgiving Miracle Breakfast and then we are going to do a baking afternoon/evening with any friends who are left in Nashville. But here is where you come in...what should we make? Joshua is crazy about cookies... got any good cookie recipes? or pies? I don't know, but I need help because I don't have many any baking recipes.

Also, if you are in Nashville and want to hang with us on Thanksgiving we would love to have you.