Add Yourself to the Second Generation Map

I made a group map for us http://www.frappr.com/ferreira

I just discovered a cool web site that allows you to create your own maps. You can put whatever you want on the map. Including favoriate spots, descriptions, photos etc. I included a point where I was born in Portugal. Feel free to add any other cool places or spots. Maybe we can see where everyone has been? Tina has travelled quite a bit :-) I wonder where she is right now? Seeya!

The Power of the Internet

My cousin, aunt and uncle living in Brazil have been enjoying the Second Generation Blog. They sent along a picture of my grandmother and grandfather on my father's side. The picture is a combination of 2 separate photos, one of my grandmother and one of grandfather and his first wife. Paulo my cousin took the picture when he was visiting Portugal. The picture of my grandfather is most likely 80 years old. The picture is very special because I had never seen a picture of my grandfather. My grandfather died when my father was three months old. So I think my father may not have even seen this picture before. If we hadn't had the internet to stay in touch and share our photo's we may have never gotten to see this picture. Muito obrigado primo Paulo , tio Manuel e tia de mandar-me a fotographia do avo.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today is a holiday to be thankfull. Thankfull for our family, friends and really everyone who walks the earth. Each person's contributions to their work and their life is responsible for making everyone's day to day life a little bit easier. If you look back a 100 or 250 years ago, we realize how fortunate we are. Thanksgiving was a day created by some of the first American immigrants (Pilgrims) to celebrate what they had; which wasn't much compared to now adays. Thanksgiving is an American holiday but it really is a day that could be celebrated throughout the world. My father faced some incredible challenges when he first arrived in the US, not having any money or knowing how to speak the language. He didn't have any family or many friends to lean on to get started. The pilgrims had similar challenges except there weren't any jobs, homes, stores, electricity or anything. There was just woods and native Americans. What ever they needed, they had to produce or plant themselves. Thanks to the native Americans and their hardwork they survived and made a new home in this country.

We are fortunate to live near Plymouth Ma, which is where the Pilgrims first settled. Last year we visited Plimouth Plantations which is a recreated authenic Pilgrim village. It has replica Pilgrim homes, gardens and even community members that act out the lives of Pilgrims and native Americans. They have an authentic dialect and you can interact with them and ask questions to see what it was like to have live back then. I will be including a photo montage from a visit we made there last year. It is about 9 meg so don't check it out if you have limited bandwith internet connection. Plymouth Plantations

I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving and regardless of where you are in the world, take a moment to think about how thankfull all of us should be for what we have. We had a wonderful day at Kristin and Dan's house they made a wonderfull dinner. Although it isn't a family value, taking a picture of the dinner table at family gatherings is a Portuguese family tradition. I have include a picture below of the marvelous Turkey that Dan cooked. Turkey is the traditional meal that is eaten on Thanksgiving for those folks in Brasil, Portugal and Canada.



Tony sent me some pictures of the thanksgiving celebration at Tia Cila's and Tio Telmo's house. Looks like Tio Agusto was hungry :) I missed you guys. Happy thanksgiving to all!

Primos em Brasil!

Ola primos, Tio e Tia! I recieved a very nice letter from my cousin Paulo in Brasil. He and his family are doing well. He sent a nice picture of his daughters. Here is Camila & Rafaela. They are studying english in school. I wish I could visit Brasil. I have been trying to convince my company to send me to Brazil to visit some of our customers there. But I haven't had any luck so far.

Lunch at Avo's

We went down to Avo's house for lunch today. While we were there Tio Manuel from Brasil called. It was nice to hear from Tio Manuel! He said that they received the email about the blog. Here are some pictures that Avo gave me from this past year's festa da Santa Eufemia. There are also some pictures of my dad with Tio Manuel and Tio Delfim in Portugal. The picture at the bottom is Vis Avo with her sister who lives behind the capela.

Tio espero que voce gosta das fotografias que eu trouce da casa dos meus pais hoje. Foram tirades esta ano na festa da Santa Eufemia e tambem quando voce foi a Portugal. Um grande abraco da nossa familia para voces todos!

Where Are You Celebrating Thanksgiving?

Those folks in Canada, Brazil and Portugal miss out on a special holiday. Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving represents the begining of the holiday season and another year coming to its conclusion. Of course it also represents a time to stop and consider all the things we should be thankful for. We are very thankful for our family, friends and health. The holidays are pretty special to me because it is a consistent time in the year when our family gets together. Besides all the bonus get togethers from all the recent weddings we have had the last few years.

Holiday's do seem to get a little more complicated as you get older. For example after you marry, you have to figure out if you go to the spouse's family house or your own. Or like some of the past year's holidays you simply say the celebration is at your own place. The approach that we take is to alternate where we go for Thanksgiving each year. This year we are going to Susan's sister's house to celebrate Thanksgiving. I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving where ever you may be celebrating it and I am sorry I couldn't be there. Send me some pictures and I will post them. Take care!

Montreal Anyone?

I was looking forward to sharing some great stories with you after spending this upcoming weekend in Montreal. We were planning a reunion trip with all my bachelor party friends to revisit the place where we spent a weekend celebrating my transition from bachelorhood to married life. Unfortunately one of my friends changed plans at the last minute because he thought we were switching the weekend we were going to another weekend. Why does it seem that it is always extremely difficult to find the time to get together with friends? I understand that there are family commitments. However given that the opportunities to get together with friends come so infrequently, you should do what you can to make it happen. I find that meeting with old friends helps you feel young again. It is fun to recall old times and experiences you have shared together, some you may have completely forgoten. Each friend contributes part of the story you have forgoten until it is whole again in your memory. Reflecting back on the past or seeing an old friend you haven't seen in many years reminds you of where you have been and how far you have come. It reminds you of how short life is but at the same time reassures you that your day to day worries are just that. Here today and replaced with others tomorrow. In the end you move forward in life regardless of the day to day worries. There is a guy at work that strives to fit in as many opportunities to enjoy life every day. I admire that. Each day you don't do something with, is a day you have lost. SO DO SOMETHING! A family value I have is "Strive to make each day count".

Ansel Adams

I actually look forward to rainy days on weekends because it means we don't have to paint the house. Yesterday avo and avo came up to help us paint the house. It was decent weather and we painted pretty much the entire front of the house with the first coat of primer. When we woke up this morning, we were hoping to get a final coat of paint one the house but it was drizzingly rain.

So for perhaps the first time ever living in the boston area, we decided to do a tourist activity. We took the kids to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was the first time we have been there. The kids enjoyed the first hour but then started to drag a bit. They especially liked the mummies, the artifacts from the ancient Egyptian times and the classic artists.

We also checked out a private collection of Ansel Adams photographs. There had to have been about 100 photos from him. My two favoriate shots were the Aspen (the birch trees) and Moon rising.




The most interesting outcome of the day was how my opinion of modern day photographers was slightly changed after seeing and learning about Ansel Adams photography. I always thought that a true photographer would take a picture unaltered and exhibit it in its unmodified state. Many photographers today utilize Photoshop and other photographic software products to manipulate their photos rather than letting their photographs speak for themselves.

There were some quotes from Ansel Adams saying that he felt his photograph negatives were a musical score and the prints the actual performance of the score. He used a variety of filters during the photographic process and special photo developing techniques to further manipulate the final result of the photograph. This even included the type of paper he used. If someone as well known and capable as Ansel Adams felt this not only acceptable but an important component of delivering the final product, I guess I can't hate Photoshop users too much.

Ansel was pretty consistent in his photography themes. Black and white, lots of natural landscapes of famous US Natiional Parks. An occassional abstract photo (he referred to them as extract) of things you would find in nature when the weather didn't permit him to shoot expansive landscapes. Initially he meeked out a meager living however got to see some of the most beautiful parts of nature in the United States. As he got more famous his negatives from earlier pictures became a way to make his living. When he announced that he was no longer going to print earlier photos it just caused a greater demand from his photographs. Non-commercial professional photographers are another type of artist that I have a great respect for. Making a living from taking and selling photographs directly to people is something that requires alot of talent and very hard work to achieve. I admire folks that can do what they enjoy most in life and in some cases even earn a healthy lively hood from it. I have a difficult time even identifying some anyone that I know that falls into that category. Do you? This shows you how rare it is.

After writing this I realized that I do know of 2 people, both of them Susan's cousins on the west coast. One is in a band and the other is working with the performing arts!

Trick Or Treat?

We took the kids out for trick or treating tonight. It was great weather for the kids to go out in their customs. This was perhaps one of the warmer Halloweens I can recall. The kids enjoyed it. They recieved a lot of candy and even some cool treats like glow sticks. Here is a picture of the kids in their costumes.



All I can remember from halloween growing up is some pretty crazy homemade costumes and shaving cream fights with my friends. Hope you all had a great Halloween.