Happy Thanksgiving

Foods have been cooked, baked, roasted.... and we had a nice Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon.  The house is all decorated for Christmas and if our guest was surprised by the Santa’s and nutcrackers near his turkey dinner, he did not let on.

The big Christmas tree is sitting in a bucket of water, waiting to be brought into the house this weekend. It isn’t officially Christmas until the big tree sings.  We brought the tree home yesterday, thinking we could keep it dry in the garage because we are supposed to get rain tomorrow and Saturday. But we have heard those forecasts before.  With each passing year, the selection of real trees gets less and less. I cast my vote every year for an artificial tree, but my husband won't hear of it. He says he needs a live tree for his vintage Christmas lights. I never resist telling him that once a tree is cut, it is no longer living... it dies a slow death in our dining room.

The book club at the school is going along well this term. I have fourth graders who love to read, and they are very well behaved. The book club for the neighborhood children is also still going... and those kids were happy that it didn’t end in September, which had been the plan. Two book clubs every week, two different groups of students.... and it could not be better.

After not having parties last year, we are resuming our party-hosting with an Open House Christmas Party in December.  The neighbors all seem to be thrilled, but this is and will be bittersweet for me. I will forever remember why I could not host a party last year.

No matter what ‘they’ tell you, time does not heal all wounds.  Time just lets the wounds slide further beneath the surface so you can continue to breathe in and out as each day passes.

Happy Thanksgiving to the Little Red Hen.

November....

...and I have taken down the Halloween decorations. Actually, I packed them away the day after I did a small Halloween party for my book club kids who live down the road.  We didn’t have a Halloween party this year, and we don’t get Trick or Treaters out here, so I saw no sense in leaving the pumpkins and black cats and witches sitting around the house. Back into the storage closet they went....

And out came the Christmas decorations. I have arranged all the Santas and angels and elves and reindeer and table-top trees.... all that’s left to do is the silver aluminum tree. Every room of this house has a Christmas explosion in it... all the way up to the third floor library.

Tomorrow is Monday, so my book club kids will be here in the afternoon. When they left here last Monday, they were wearing their Halloween costumes and this house was happily spooky. They will walk into a Christmas wonderland tomorrow. The looks on their faces will be my reward.... those kids are so joyful.

We met a very nice couple at the Farmers’ Market last week, and today we took our dog Savannah to meet their dog Milo. Our dog is a Great Pyrenees/Border Collie mix; theirs is pure Great Pyrenees. Both dogs have similar issues with trusting strange people and strange places. Well, you would not have guessed that this afternoon. Within five minutes, the dogs were comfortable together, and Savannah didn’t seem to have a problem being in a new yard with new people and a dog she had never seen before. We all walked around their property, then sat on their porch, then went into their house... and Savannah was on her best behavior. I was so proud of Savannah... she had a wonderful afternoon and I could have just cried happy tears for her. We all agreed to get the dogs together again, at our house next time.