Thanksgiving Day is a uniquely American holiday. It is a celebration of the success of a colony in the new world. The interesting thing about it is that the colony’s survival was due to the relationships they built with the natives of the land they were taking over. The colonists invited the natives to join them in a meal to celebrate that with the joint effort, they had all benefited from working together.
Today, we use this day to gather around a table and eat a ton of delicious food with our family members. In modern times, Friendsgiving has become popular. With so much division in families and the empowerment of people to remove toxic individuals from their lives — whether they are blood related or otherwise — many have come to use Thanksgiving Day as a chance to gather round and eat with friends instead.
However you choose to celebrate it, this time of year, and this holiday in particular, asks us to take a moment and look at our lives with gratitude. It seeks to shift our perspective from what we lack or haven’t yet accomplished, to what we have and what we have already done. It is a wonderful opportunity to take stock in your life and see all the things that are going well, count your blessings, and perhaps bring to the forefront of your mind the things that are good. Putting aside for at least a day all the things that are wrong in the world, your relationships, in your life, this day asks us to search for that which is good, that which is working, and to be grateful for it.
In many ways, Thanksgiving is a moment for us to pause and breath. We gather together with those who are our ‘family’. Some may be blood related, and others maybe the people who have joined us on our life’s trajectory. Whatever the case, we have at least one day to stop and be happy in the midst of the mad rush of go, go, go, our society imposes on us.
As we move past this day and into the hectic time of the winter holiday season, don’t forget to take those things you noted were good about your life with you. Don’t leave the gratitude behind. Let’s keep looking at what is working well, examine and fix what isn’t, but always be mindful of the blessings we have. Oh, and don’t forget to build relationships. Blood or otherwise, we are social animals and now more than ever we must find our tribe and support each other.
Well, we finally are on holiday. I rather like the school calendar CyFair has more than the one we used in Alief. We let out for the winter break on Thursday but we don’t return to work until Monday, January 8th. It’s nice having those days post New Year’s to get things done rather than extra days during the hectic pre-Christmas time.
The one bad thing about the calendar is that we don’t get a day of work before the kids arrive. January 8 is the first day back for everyone. So there’s no time to be in our rooms and prepare. The school will be open on Friday January 5th and I will go early and do a morning of cleaning out the old and being ready for the new.
Plus, now that I have a better handle on the time I need for school work, I can plan the time allotments for Inklings, Houston Writers Guild, and my own writing time much more realistically. It has been hit or miss with that this semester and it has added stress as I toggle from one thing to another in a disjointed manner. I hope to start 2024 with a more streamlined agenda — you guys remember my post about how I do my time allotments, right?
This will be our final blog post for the year. Ellen, Rachel and I will be back the first week in January. Hope everyone’s holidays are full of love and laughter. See you in 2024!
For those of you who are aware of my proclivity for all things spooky, I know you did not expect the winter holidays to come and go without a greeting from the skeletons. This is their favorite Holiday outfit, especially because it confuses those who are expecting to see some jolly old elf clad in red. It’s a beautiful day here in Houston and these two are enjoying the fresh air and sunshine while laughing about the reactions they receive from those mere mortals that walk past.
My niece, Becca, sent me this wonderful pillow that pretty much sums up my life. I believe she got it in Salem, Ma. Is it possible that spookiness runs in my family? Can you find it in my 
Every year around this time, I pay close attention during my shopping trips, looking for my first sighting of Halloween decorations. Of course, I would always purchase something to add to my already busy collection. My personal rule is that once Halloween decorations hit the store shelves, then summer is all but over, and it is time to decorate with my favorite witches and skeletons. This usually happens around the month of September.
Now it is the last of August and turning into September. The situation gets worse. The last time I went shopping, I not only found more Halloween decorations (which I didn’t mind, because I can always use more!) I also found a display of Christmas decorations. Please let me repeat this, because this is newsworthy and worth repeating. In 
Happy Holidays one and all! My skeleton friends wanted to get in on some Holiday action, so you can see what they look like when they start getting festive! I, personally, stopped celebrating the actual holiday of Christmas years ago, but my friends here never want to pass up an opportunity to say “Hello” to all of you nice blog readers. Actually, I used to have an annual tradition in December. Once all of the office parties were completed, I took vacation for the rest of the year. I would always go to my favorite Austin Resort where children were not permitted, there were wonderful walking trails and a spectacular spa complete with a hot tub. I did that for at least 10 or 12 years. Unfortunately, the spa I used to go to does not exist anymore. Some hotel chain bought it up, added more rooms, a second pool, and cut down a lot of trees. It became a part of the luxury division for this particular chain. Oh, and with all of the so called updates, the prices went up significantly as well.
I have another end of the year tradition in the form of getting my eyes checked and every two years I treat myself to a new pair of glasses. Actually I have three pairs of glasses which include everyday glasses, computer glasses and sunglasses. Sometimes it makes me feel old having so many pairs, but then again, I didn’t use to spend hours a day on the computer. I even use the computer for medical appointments now. Unless you plan on taking my blood, there really is no reason to see you face-to-face. With the pandemic still going strong all around the country, I prefer these techno doctor visits.
To be perfectly honest, I really don’t know much about St. Patrick’s Day. I don’t know who St. Patrick is or why any of us should care about him. I know there is a holiday that involves the color green and Leprechauns and a bunch of wee folk. In my youth I must admit I drank my share of green beer, but that was really a long time ago. Now I am just as happy to put green whipped cream on some alcohol free Irish Coffee. Yes, my life is now just about that dull. However, I have skeletons that live in my house who enjoy dressing up for all of the holidays. It started out that they would just dress up for Halloween. To be honest, that is still their favorite holiday. However, over time we have branched out to other holidays such as Thanksgiving, Hanukkah/Christmas, Valentine’s Day and now St. Patrick’s Day.
After St. Patrick’s Day, there really aren’t any good holidays for dress up. Summertime is too much about swimming. So the skeletons will rest up until fall. As soon as Labor Day arrives, we’ll start planning for the Halloween extravaganza! Who am I kidding. We have already started planning. I can’t wait until the fall arrives.
Happy New Year all you dear readers! With Covid still at the top of all news cycles, I actually do have some good news to begin with for my first blog of 2022. You may remember that at the beginning of the pandemic in March of 2020, I had a piece of collage art work that was accepted for exhibition at Rice University. I was thrilled. I was delighted. When everything shut down, I was devastated, disappointed, and forlorn. There was a virtual reception of the art, but there was no public showing.
What’s the rush you ask? This premature display of hearts and flowers is all ready beginning to crop up. It’s just as if Cupid was hiding behind Santa’s sleigh holding on to his bow and arrow just waiting to jump out and start working his love magic. Good grief. By the time Valentine’s Day actually gets here, I am going to be quite sick of all the red and pink decorations. At least I haven’t seen any goofy decorations popping up in my neighborhood.
Contemplating this conundrum and planning my future meeting, I went to the Arboretum to receive some solace from nature; including trees, squirrels, and turtles. I found that solace, but also found a path where apparently the armadillos had enjoyed a dance party the night before. Obviously they hide out during the day to rest up after all of their raucous partying.
