Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is one of our favorite holidays, as it reminds us to take some time and give thanks to our God for all that He has done for us over the past year. Today's blog is just the tip of the iceberg of items that the McCarthy's are so thankful for.

1. We are thankful that Liesel's brother Craig, and his pregnant wife could spend 8 days with us. We had a wonderful time together, and were sad to see them leave!

2. I am so thankful to Liesel, who has chosen to stay at home and raise Nathan and Joshua. If anybody knows Nathan and Josh, you cannot deny what a wonderful job Liesel has done with our two boys!

3. I am also thankful for my two sons, who are beautiful and bring so much joy to Liesel and me! I love seeing their totally different personalities develop and their interactions with one another. Here is a perfect example of Josh's personality... He is the only 2 year old I know that voluntarily climbs INTO his crib....


4. We give thanks for our house which keeps us warm as the temperatures start their dismal decline to freezing and below. It affords us the privilege to host guests for weeks at a time.

5. We are also very thankful for technology which allows us to have face to face video conversations with our family in South Africa, Botswana, Germany and the United Kingdom.

6. I am thankful for the Christmas season, where we can focus on our Savior's birth and the precious gift that He has given us! This Saturday, as our family fun night, Liesel, Nathan and myself set up and decorated our Christmas tree. Hopefully the rest of the house's lights are put out tomorrow, so that the McCarthy family can contribute to the Christmas feeling in the neighborhood!

7. We are thankful for friends, who love and support us in so many different ways. Life in North East Ohio would be very lonely without you! For instance, my friend Jim took me to the Cleveland Browns football game this afternoon. The game was lackluster, sitting in the stands was flipping freezing, but the company was great!

Happy 2nd Birthday Josh!

A friend of mine coined the phrase, "It's going to be the Fall of Festivities!" The McCarthy family has definitely adopted this, as it seems like there is something for us to celebrate every week. This weekend we had three reasons to celebrate!

Celebration #1
Liesel's brother and his wife arrived on Friday and will be staying with us through Thanksgiving, returning to England on Saturday! Nathan, of course, loves having his uncle and aunt around and is bonding with his unborn twin cousins already. Marne (his aunt) has been letting him feel the twins kicking. I think that there will be a special relationship between Nathan and his new cousins, once they are brought into the world!

Celebration #2
The timing was perfect. The day after Craig and Marne arrived, our local shopping center was having the official lighting of their Christmas lights. At 6:30pm, we bundled everyone into Liesel's 7-seater car, and headed to the shopping center. Parking there was definitely a challenge. After driving to the top of the the second parking garage, with no parkings in sight, Nathan and Liesel said a prayer, and as we came around the next corner, a car pulled out in front of us, giving us a premium parking spot! The crowds had gathered around the 30ft tall Christmas tree, and Nathan got the best seat in the house, when his 6'7" uncle lifted him on top of his shoulders! Shortly after arriving there, Santa arrived on the main stage and the countdown to the lighting began. As the lights came on, an impressive fireworks show followed, illuminating the crisp night air! It was magical! Before heading home, Craig bought us each a hot chocolate which was perfect to warm us up, as we admired the lights on the trees, and strung out above the streets.

See the local news clip covering the event below:


Celebration #3
On Sunday, November 21, our little Josh turned 2 years old! We are very blessed to again have family here to celebrate the birthday of one of our sons. After waking up, Josh was showered with a number of gifts, which both he, and Nathan, loved. One of his favorite presents was the collection of wild animals that his Gogo and Opa (grandparents) gave him. He was fascinated with the lions, tigers, giraffes, crocodiles, zebras, hippos and rhinos, and even took some of them to bed for his afternoon nap. Later that day, while everyone went for a walk around the neighborhood in this lovely spell of Fall weather with temperatures in the mid 60's (16C), I took the opportunity to put up the Christmas lights on the roof. Apparently most homeowners in Cleveland had the same idea, as we all know that the next time we see these kind of temperatures will be May 2011!
For dinner, Liesel cooked a delicious roast, and for dessert we brought out Josh's Elmo birthday cake! Happy Birthday Josh! Thanks for the past two years and we look forward to many more wonderful years with you!

It's better to give than receive!

Sigh! A week of sunshine and temperatures in the 60s (upper teens C) has bade us farewell! We were blessed with a number of days that were way above average for this time of year, and of course we made the most of them! Unfortunately, the weather reports for this week are indicating that we will be back in line with the averages expected for mid-November.

On Friday night, we invited some good friends over for dinner. The food, as usual, was delicious (made by Liesel), and the fellowship was sweet. After dinner, Nathan introduced Ron to his Lego Star Wars game on the Wii, which soon had them totally engrossed in their light saber waving mission. After Nathan and Joshua had gone to bed, we hauled out the card game, Phase 10. By 10:30, we had laughed so much and had so much fun, that we had only played up to Phase 8! It was then that we finally quit the game, and declared Ron the winner!

Saturday was a quieter day with Nathan going to a birthday party, Liesel heading to some shops, and I cleaned out the garage with my handy leaf-blower! The evening continued the relaxed theme, as Liesel and I caught up on some of our favorite TV shows.

Sunday was noticeably cooler. Liesel had her Nursery duty routine and I took the boys to the early service. That evening, after a delicious roast for dinner, we sat down with Nathan and talked to him about our Christmas donation plans. Earlier in the week, Liesel received a catalog from World Vision with various ways to support less fortunate people. What we like about the idea, is that our donations can bring direct relief to needy families, mostly in Africa. The catalog shows you how you can buy livestock, fish, seeds, trees, water purifiers, school books, sports equipment, medicines and even mosquito nets! After telling Nathan our plans, he asked Liesel to read some of the stories that accompanied some of the pictures. After hearing how these gifts will impact others lives, we asked him what items we should purchase for these people. He gave it a lot of thought and chose the water purification fund, some medications, fruit trees and mosquito nets! We were so proud of the thought that Nathan put into this decision! We pray that this may plant the seed of giving in Nathan's heart as he grows up.

An evening with the Choir

It seems that Mother Nature, didn't want us to take warm Fall days for granted, so she issued a few threats! Friday night into Saturday had potential to throw a huge white blanket over our neighborhoods. Watching the news on Friday night, they showed how a couple of inches of snow had already fallen in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland, so I was prepared to get my snow shovel down on Saturday morning. But thankfully (to Liesel and myself, not so for Nathan), the clouds laden with snow did not venture across to the western side of Cleveland!

Saturday was another productive day for us. Liesel was up at 6am as she had offered to drop some good friends of ours at the airport at 7am. Unfortunately, the boys didn't take the opportunity to sleep in, and we were all awake at 6:20am, which in many religions is considered a sin....

Once Liesel got back and we were all dressed - we headed to a local home improvement store. Liesel wanted to buy some bulbs to plant before the Winter arrives, and I needed some stuff to patch a few holes in our walls that were left behind by Hurricane Joshua. Once home, I got down to the business of patching, sanding, and repainting, while Liesel cleaned the house.

That evening, Liesel and I were invited to our friends. They were hosting a house concert. Two members of a well known Christian band, the Choir, were performing "unplugged" in our friend's living room. Liesel couldn't join me, as our regular babysitter was unavailable, so I went solo. To be honest, I didn't really want to go, but now I am so glad I did. The concert was amazing, and these guys are so talented! The other attribute that I loved about the evening, is that these guys were so down to earth, talking to us about their music, and giving us insight to their lives. Also, we were able to speak to them one on one, around some delicious food and got to know them better. Their music was absolutely fantastic, especially that it was just an acoustic guitar and some drums, music in it's most basic form! I now know what I will be spending some of my iTunes gift cards on!


Then came Sunday, and we all theoretically got an extra hour's sleep since Daylight Savings Time came to an end and we all had to turn our clocks back one hour. Amazingly, we were all ready on time for Church, and we headed to the early service. That afternoon, Nathan and I watched TV while Liesel and Josh had some shut eye. Once they were up, Liesel and Nathan headed outside to plant the bulbs that we purchased the day before. Josh and I soon followed, although Josh refused to don any footwear and went running around outside barefoot, through puddles and mud in 50 degree (10C) weather. The sun was shining and it was a good time to be outside, although I would recommend wearing shoes.....

Soon it was time for Liesel to prepare dinner, so the boys and I stayed outside a bit longer while I tried my Leaf blower/vacuum on the thousands of leaves that are scattered all over the yard. Shortly thereafter, we were treated to a delicious beef stew. Great food for the Fall!