Giving Thanks.....

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

We awakened on Sunday morning to a broadcast of Joel Osteen's sermon. I find his sermons entertaining, interesting, and motivational. One of the key points that he discussed this morning was "being grateful is the key to a happy life." In a nutshell, it is the conscious choice to be an optimist....the glass if half full view as opposed to the glass is half empty view. I thought it was appropriate to mention his sermon because it ties in well with the Thankgiving holiday time.

We made the trip from our home town to Huntsville, AL, on Wednesday evening. Jeff and I both worked on Wednesday. We had a special treat at my employer's facility on Wednesday. We had a guest speaker; Captain (retired) Bill Robinson who is one of the two longest held enlisted Prisoners of War (POWs) during the Vietnam War. His daughter and son-in-law, Cyndi and Larry, are good friends of mine. And, he agreed to be a guest speaker at my office to tell of his experiences in Vietnam while he was in town to visit with Cyndi for Thanksgiving. One of the things that you notice in his presence is what a genuinely happy person he is. I asked him, how was it that he spent almost 10 years of his life as a P.O.W. but seemed no worse for the wear mentally or emotionally? He said he didn't believe in living in the past. Despite the number of years he was held as a prisoner, he sums up his stay in a 3-day period: the day he arrived in Vietnam, the day he was shot down and captured, and the day he was released. His example is yet another reminder of choosing to be happy even when life has dealt you a bad hand. He endured so much...more than most of us will ever encounter. To him, and to all Veterans that have served before me, I am and remain eternally grateful for their sacrifices. All gave some....some gave all. Bill is also an RV owner. Cyndi and Larry are now proud owners of a new pop-up camper. I hope to plan a trip for all of us some time soon.

We did not use the RV for our trip to Huntsville and instead took advantage of enjoying a home that's not on wheels and stayed with Gail and Harold. Rachel and Anna were happy that we were staying at Grandma & Papa's house. I think one of their favorite things was having a full-sized bathtub to soak in instead of the shower in our RV.

Rachel and Anna had Thanksgiving celebrations at school last week. Rachel dressed as a pilgrim one day and an indian on another day. Anna dressed as an indian for her Thanksgiving snack time. We had our family Thanksgiving Day meal on the day of Thanksgiving. As usual, Gail cooked more food than we could eat--turkey, dressing, gravy, cranberry relish, green beans, creamed corn, and mashed potatoes. Everything was delicious. And, we were all stuffed after the meal. But, no matter how much we eat, there is always room for dessert. The tough part was deciding what we wanted...red velvet cake, pumpkin pie, peanut butter fudge or pecan pie.

After we were all stuffed, it was time to put up the Christmas tree. The children have an interesting way of hanging ornaments. After they were done, we decided that this Christmas tree was a "boy" tree by the way they hung the ornaments at the bottom.
Next up on the list, making gingerbread houses and gingerbread cookies. We made two houses....one to leave with Gail & Harold and one to bring back with us to the RV. If we weren't so busy traveling in December, I would love to make a custom gingerbread house and design an RV to decorate. I may have to create a mold for one or sell them pre-made. There's got to be an untapped market out there for that.

Gail and Harold require some foundation work to be done on their home. This is a common issue in their neighborhood as of late due to the type of soil these homes were built on. Jeff, never being the one to pass up an opportunity to find humor in everything, decided to spend the weekend adjusting each hanging picture in her home to enhance the settlement issues. She hasn't noticed this yet but I'm sure she will after we leave. :-) Jeff, as he walked around the house, would break out in fits of hysterical laughter...he loves nothing more than causing mischief.

On Friday, Jeff and I braved the stores to get some Christmas shopping done. We plan to spend Christmas in Huntsville this year so we figured we'd get the shopping done and leave it here so we wouldn't have to transport things back here in December. We made two stops...Walmart and Toys R Us. On the way to Toys R Us, we passed a highway exit loop where I noticed several tents located underneath an overpass. Jeff told me that it was a "tent city," which appears to be an area that some homeless people live. We live in an RV by choice. We've even met people who live in their vehicle or tent by choice. But, that is quite different than someone who has no other option. It was a stark reminder of just how blessed we are. As Joel Osteen said, "if you have a bad day at work, don't dwell on it....instead, be grateful that you have a job."

I have been somewhat disenfranchised with the commercialization of Christmas. It seems too often that people forget the "reason for the season." After passing the tent city and watching people pile tons of stuff in their carts, I have to wonder how many truly remember what means most at Christmas. I can't remember very many toys that I received as a child. But, what I do remember is my Mom and Grandma making the Italian cookies every year. I remember going to mass on Christmas Eve and getting to open one gift when we got home. It is the family traditions and taking the time to spend with the people you love that is what makes the holiday time special. And, the most costly thing that it will require of us is simply to spend our time.

We returned home with a few packages and called our shopping excursion complete. Later in the day we visited Southerland Station in Huntsville. This is a toy store that has a vast collection of toy trains and accessories. Rachel and Anna love watching the trains. While there, I overhead a woman tell her husband "I wish we had a lot of money." They were trying to figure out how they could purchase a train set for their son but then they went into a discussion about where they would put it once they had it. Such is the typical story....we want more stuff that we can't afford and then we need a place to put the stuff. So we get a bigger house to put the stuff in and after a while the stuff overtakes us. We've been there. I don't want to go back to that.

We visited Across the Pond after Southerland Station. Across the Pond is a store that has a huge selection of plants, planters, and water features, including fish and ponds, and a store full of garden and wildlife items. They also have a wildlife/nature area with streams and plants and a koi pond where the kids can feed the fish. The star of the koi pond is Wanda, a 6-year old koi who will eat from your hand. Actually, she doesn't really eat from your hand...she's so spoiled that she comes to the top and opens her mouth and awaits for people to place the food in her mouth. This fish will even let you pet her. The store has so many beautiful pond and garden ideas. This is the same business that contributes the large rock boulders with water spouts in them for the Waterworks each summer at the Botanical Gardens. Rachel and Anna have visited this event the past two summers and they love playing in the water. It was the first time we had visited their store and it was worth the trip. It did not cost us anything...just our time.

Friday evening we went to the Santa's Christmas Village which is the Constitution Village decorated for the holidays. The houses from the 1900's Constitution Village are transformed each Christmas season into a unique Christmas village. It is reminiscent of Christmases of long ago when things were simpler and gifts were homemade. Children can decorate and eat gingerbread cookies, make an ornament, write a letter to Santa, visit Santa & Mrs. Claus in their home, listen to carolers, and see real reindeer. They even have fake snow machines to add to the enjoyment. We have visited this place each year and the girls love it. Last year, Rachel was on T.V. as the nightly news crew was there at the opening and she happened to be the child on Santa's lap when they were filming. We met our friends at the Christmas village: Pete & Gabrielle and their daughters, Lia & Krista. It was great to see them as always and we hoped to visit with them at their home on Saturday. We are incredibly blessed in that we have wonderful friends. I had neglected to mention that our friend Rheann and her family stopped in and visited a few weekends ago on their way back home to Wisconsin. And, last week, a good friend gave me a rose. It was from a rose bush that I had in a planter. I did not have a place to keep it with our RV after I sold our house so I bequeathed the rose bush in the planter to Debbie. There was one last rose on the bush for the season and Debbie said it was so perfect that she wanted to give it to me. I had the rose on my desk all week and got tons of compliments on it. AS people passed my office, the would stop in and smell the rose and look at it. Little did Debbie know that the single rose would brighten so many people's day. It just goes to show you that when we share good things, good things do return our way too!

Now...back to our Huntsville visit--Gail purchased tickets for all of us to see Cirque Dream Jungles Fantasy at the Huntsville Civic Center on Saturday. It was an interesting production including contortionists and aerialists. Anna tolerated the first half but was done with it after intermission. Rachel enjoyed the entire show. After the play, Jeff told Gail, "thank you for the culture. Now, we'll return back to our trailer." :-)
Actually, we do enjoy the theater but don't go as often as we'd like. The last time we went was to see The Phantom of the Opera at the Fox Theater in Atlanta, GA.

After the play, we went to Pete & Gabrielle's house for the evening. We were fortunate in that we were able to see our friend's Clarence, Kelly and their two sons, C.J. and Andrew, who had stopped in on their way back home to Virginia. The house was buzzing with the activity of the children and the family dog, "Dash." Dash had decided to be romantic with one of the children earlier in the evening so he had to be separated from them the rest of the evening. Jeff and I were entertained with stories of Dash. One of his favorite snacks includes socks. I am happy to report that at the end of the evening, we had not contributed to his habit. :-)
We shared some birthday cake as Pete's 39th birthday was the next day. My, how time has flown by. It seems like just yesterday when we were all students at Auburn together.
Intermixed with the joy of reuniting with old friends was some sad news. During the visit, Gabrielle shared with me that her Grandma (which I know as "Maw-Maw") has been recently diagnosed with Alzheimers. It was heartbreaking for me to hear this news. Gabrille and I practically grew up together and "Maw-Maw" has been in my life for a long time. She is genuinely one of the "good people" and it's always sad to hear that anyone will suffer but it's especially hard when you hear its someone like her that loves her family so much and who enjoys life so much. It wasn't that long ago when she painstakingly took care of her own husband when he had alzheimers. It is so hard to imagine such a kindhearted and lively woman falling prey to such a horrible illness...especially losing her husband of many years to the very same illness. Yet one more reminder, that if we have our health---both mental and physical---we truly are wealthy beyond all measure. I was reflecting this morning and trying to figure out what Joel would say is the thing to be grateful for in this case and one thing stood out in my mind. Maw Maw is lucky in many ways...she has a loving family who will ensure that her needs are taken care of. Unfortunately, many elderly citizens in our society aren't so lucky.

We are heading home today after a wonderful visit with family and friends. This will be a short work week for us as we will once again be on the road on Friday. This time in our RV. But, I'll wait to share our destination location at a later time. I wanted to end this post with sharing a message that Joel Osteen tried to hammer home this morning in his sermon....don't wait for Thanksgiving to be thankful for the many blessings in your life. Be grateful for the little things and don't wait until Valentines Day to show the special people in your life how much you love them.