Thanksgiving thoughts to the team

I'm sitting in a coffee shop early on Thanksgiving morning in the small university town of Chico, Ca. In an hour I'll rejoin 45+ members of my extended family in a 4 bedroom house for our annual gathering of the clan for fun and food. It's always a fun couple of days that makes the 12 hour drive totally worth it. We basically camp in and around this home for three days while we move through the traditions we have developed over the last 25 years. We all came in last night for a dinner of soup and great wines each chose to share. Today is our version of a family football game that has nearly every year resulted in an injury worthy of a hospital visit or at least attention from one of the nurses in the family. Then on to the feast of roast beast. Later tonight we'll do a Christmas gift exchange that gets crazy. Tomorrow we'll spend half the day playing on a paint ball course that is a blast! Literally. Then we'll see one of the new movies that came out for the holiday season. In between the traditional events life happens. The conversations, the catching up, the older mentoring the younger about life and the drama that inevitably appears at some point between family members.
This tradition runs deep in the culture of our family. I wouldn't miss it for the world. My family wouldn't let me if I wanted to. Why? It's fun but deeper than that it's a way we keep the family together. Yeah, we meet together at other times during the year for weddings and funerals but this particular gathering is different. It's a celebration based on thankfulness. It's a celebration of life. We're celebrating the birth of 3 kids this year, 2 weddings and remembering the life of Grandma Sutliff. Families are living things in themselves. A community that grows and cares for itself but is not without its drama and weird characters. I'm thankful for each of them and for being part of this family.

So there you have it. A look into my life today.

My thoughts are turning to SimpleSignal and the community of the 23 odd characters we've collected over the past few years :) I'm thankful for every one of you. Like my family we've added some new members and lost a couple this year. But we survived. As a matter of fact we thrived! Okay, I admit It's been a tough year but we've won some awards, made huge strides in our technology , survived a near meltdown, worked through our drama and personal issues and come through the year as a stronger team. We are more valuable to our customers and our shareholders. We've been tested by fire and found the gold. For that I am profoundly thankful.

In some sense we've become a family at SimpleSignal. Thanks for choosing to be part of it. Monday we'll come back together and finish the year with our best December ever. We have deals waiting to be provisioned, new features like call swap, video and faxing ready to sell, great opportunities in the pipeline and a team that is ready to launch aggressively into 2009. For that I am unbelievably thankful. I am thankful for your supportive spouses and family members that have allowed you to risk being part of a start-up. Most of all I am thankful to God for His faithful provision and protection. It's been a journey of faith for me and each of you have been a blessing.

Have a fun day with your friends and family.