Thanksgiving Eve

We woke up at five o'clock this morning as ear-splitting thunder shook the house and rain came pouring down. When the lightning started, I came downstairs to the kitchen to check on Savannah. Our once-lost-but-found-her-way-home puppy has always been sensitive to loud noises, and I wanted to make sure she wasn't down here shivering in her bed. Savannah seemed to be fine,  no shaking and no shivering, but as soon as she heard me come down the back stairs into the kitchen she left her bed and walked over to sit down next to me. When my husband came down the stairs minutes later, Savannah placed herself in the middle of us... guess she figured that two safeguards was better than one.

So we've been up since 5:00 this morning, and the rainy day has turned sunny and clear. Tomorrow the weather should be pretty as well. Always nicer to have good weather on a holiday, especially when you have friends driving to your house for dinner.  This will be Savannah's second Thanksgiving, and I'm hoping she'll make herself comfortable in the dining room with us, rather than staying in her bed in the breakfast room till everyone leaves.

I've been busy these past couple of weeks getting ready for Christmas. I usually wrap Christmas gifts during the sweltering days of August, but I wasn't in a holiday mood that month, which resulted in a wrapping and packing frenzy after Halloween was over. We have family and friends in other states so most of the wrapped gifts have to be boxed up for mailing as well. Everything got done, and gifts for my cousins have already been mailed. I'm holding back the packages for the younger cousins, but they'll be taken to the post office before the end of the month.

This morning's country-surprise was a parade of cattle walking up our road. One bull, two cows, and two calves... out for a morning stroll at 7:30.  I happened to look out the kitchen window and saw them walking towards our driveway. Had it not been for that huge bull, I would have gone out there and shooed them back down the road, but the size of the bull was just too intimidating. My husband was upstairs so I let him know about the parade and he got the air-horn and ran outside. By positioning himself in front of the cows and blasting the air-horn, he got them to turn around and go back down the road. A few more blasts of the air-horn got them to keep moving towards the bottom of our hill. The owner of the cattle was in his truck at the base of the hill and he was able to get the bull and the cows to turn left and get back to their own pasture.

I've been reading stories about the protest marches going on since the election, and just this morning I read articles saying that electors in different states have gotten death threats because their state "turned red for Trump."  Very nice.  And Hillary had called Trump supporters "deplorable"?!  The protesters and the death threats are a disgrace.  Grow up and get over it. Period.

With that in mind... there was a picture posted on Facebook recently, showing young 20-something protesters blocking traffic and destroying public property because they were offended and displeased by the outcome of the presidential election. The caption under the photograph said "This is what happens when every kid gets a trophy."

Well, I hope the protesting comes to a halt for Thanksgiving... everyone should be thankful that we live in this country where the Chicago Cubs have won a World Series, and a non-politician who owes favors to no one will soon be in the White House.