What I'm Thankful For

It's crazy how this year has almost come to an end. Only a little over one month until 2023 is history and the start of 2024. The holidays always seem like a blur to me now that I'm older but I have come to realize over the years that next to Christmas, Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday. Part of it is the food, but the majority of it revolves around the many blessings I have and seem to take for granted. The day helps me to get grounded and remember just how blessed I am. Family, friends, my health, a home, a great job are the top five on my list but I'm also thankful that I was able to watch a guy grow into a great player on my favorite team. Not only did I appreciate all the things he did on the diamond but also his involvement with the community off the field. To me, he just seemed like a very classy guy and I'm going to miss seeing him in a Reds uniform. With that being said, I'm thankful that I was able to complete my Joey Votto Rookie Album project this year. I've also decided to start one more small Joey Votto project, a 2011 Topps Chrome Votto Rainbow. There's 13 different parallel variations in 2011 Topps Chrome but I'm not chasing three of those (Red, Gold Canary Diamond, and Superfractor) since I think it'll be next to impossible to track those cards down and I don't want to pay an arm and a leg for those. If the Red ever comes up for a reasonable price then I'll consider it. For now, the ten variations I'm chasing are: Base, Refractor, X-Fractor, Orange Refractor, Purple Refractor, Atomic Refractor, Blue Refractor, Black Refractor, Sepia Refractor, and the Gold Refractor. So far I've acquired six of the ten and two (Purple and Orange) will be easy pickups for me. That just leaves the Black and Gold to track down. I think it'll look nice to display in one of these 10 card frame displays from Amazon once I complete it. If you're curious about seeing what cards I have so far, you can view the page here or over in the navigation menu titled: 2011 Topps Chrome Votto Rainbow. I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!