Happy Thanksgiving!

This long weekend (up here in Canada) is Thanksgiving. We have ours quite a bit earlier than our neighbours to the south, on account of the fact that November is more or less fully winter, so there's not much harvest goodness left to be enjoyed by then.

I can't even remember the last Thanksgiving I spent home with my family, most definitely it was before I moved to Alberta, and probably it was the fall of 2009. In the years since then, I have spent it with either with my lab-family, my new Brantford family or drinking in Vegas with my cousin and friends!

A very non-traditional thanksgiving in 2010.

If I was home with my family, we'd have celebrated at our house yesterday, with copious amounts of food and drink, watching the dogs run around in the piles of fall leaves in the yard, and amid the hum of 30 or so people talking at once.

My mom may have made rum cakes.

My dad may have taken people flying.

I would for sure spend some quality time with this old guy!

I am so incredibly thankful for the wonderful family I have at home, for all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and growing number of plus ones! I wish I didn't have to miss out sharing this holiday with you all, year after year.

But since moving to Calgary, I have a whole pile of new things to be thankful for.

Being a stone's throw away from views like this one.

Having a family of guys like this one.

Doing my graduate studies at a school like this one. (source)

And spending my days with a guy like this one.

Thanks to all the family, friends, colleagues, mentors and students who have made the past couple years out here in Calgary such an amazing time of my life. You've made this city feel like home, and I can't imagine being anywhere else.