Dad, Thanks For Your Service - Week of Nov. 11th

“No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks.” ~James Allen

Veteran's Day was observed on Monday.

The holiday got its start as “Armistice Day” back in 1919, after President Woodrow Wilson set aside the day to acknowledge those who served in World War I.

In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a decree establishing Nov. 11 as Veterans Day, expanding the recognition to include veterans of all wars- and it's been commemorated ever since.

Cameron nominated his dad to be at the high school assembly Monday morning. As a former Marine, Chris previously served in the military for four years.  He and Jane met when he was still in the service.  Cam and his mom are so proud of Chris and Cam was very happy he could take time away from work for the short celebration of all active and former military personnel.

Friday evening, Ms. Amanda and Cam had some hang out time while Chris and Jane enjoyed a date night.  After lunch on Saturday, the Weatherford crew headed north to visit cousins and extended family in town from Canada.  Cameron was excited to see his littlest baby cousin again.  He took a turn holding the nearly month old boy.

It was a lively afternoon and also relaxing.  While our chicken pot pie dinner cooked, we prepared a salad and Sheri made her scrumptious homemade pavlova adorned with fresh fruit.  She also whipped up a batch of homemade chocolate pudding.  It was the first time our family had tried Sheri's pavlova and all of the hype was warranted.  Somehow, we all managed to snap a group pic of the entire crew.  The younger cousins were so proud to show off their skillset of helping their cousin Cameron perform all safety checks after he entered the van for our return trip.

On Sunday, Cam helped his dad pack up for a two-day work trip to Ohio. Chris was driving there and got on the road right before lunch.  Jane and her son decided it would be a good afternoon to visit Oma and bring her a surprise. We made certain Cam's grandma was going to be home since her social calendar is always full.

Cam's grandma had recently gone through family ornaments and retained some favorites.  We knew that the tabletop tree we had given her a couple of years ago was much too small.  After a quick search on Amazon, we had found a nice pre-lit 4ft artificial tree.  

Cam was able to transport the tree on the back of his chair.  Oma was delighted with our Christmas tree surprise and we proceeded to decorate right away!  Jane's mom had recently even found a family tree skirt that was ideal for her new tree.  Cam and Jane were very happy with the final results.  Oma joked that she felt like she should have an open house to show off her holiday decorations.

On the drive back to Grand Rapids, Cameron and his mom felt just a little bit like Santa Claus and even deemed themselves jolly with the outcome of their efforts!

 Camology Quotes:

*this week's quote is not by Cam himself, but he did want to share a funny story about one of his cousins*

Living in an area surrounded by trees has its benefits, but the amount of leaves needing to be raked is not really one of them.  When Chris was in the backyard with leaf blowing duty, Cam and Jane were making a quick video to send to their little cousins.  These cousins actually live right in the heart of the city out East. In our video, we talked about how Chris was outside and that our family needed help to rake our yard.  After sending our video, the mom cousin responded that her "city girls" asked the following question after seeing the video sent by Cam and his mom:

"But why would we want to help break their yard?!"