We hope this edition of our newsletter finds you having had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
ABOUT OUR THANKSGIVING. As we have done before we combined efforts with Pauline, Mom and Aunt Mar to put together our Thanksgiving meal. We ate around noon at Pauline's house. Aunt Mar's first cousin, Mildred Pryor, and her grandson, Wesson, drove here from Lebanon to eat with us. We had ham (no turkey after last week), squash dressing, green bean casserole, corn and rice casserole, sweet potato casserole, and other side dishes. Dessert included brownies and peanut butter pie and I think there was a pineapple pudding no one touched. After eating and visiting for a bit we went home but were too full to do anything but nap. We went back to Pauline's for a supper of leftovers. It was a really nice day.
JENNA'S ESSAY. Our schools were closed for Thanksgiving on Wednesday so when Jenna came home from school on Tuesday she began working on a self assigned essay. Here is what she has written so far:
By a 1 st gredr [grader] Jenna Swann
I am thankful for my fuemle [family] and my bruths [brothers] and my frems [friends] and God and Jesus and my Skchool and my home my Mom and my dad I am thankful for flawrs [flowers] and I am thankful for clothes I am thankful for pichs [pictures]
MORE ON MOM'S KNEE. Mom is getting life back to normal. She has parked the crutches and walker and returned to work. I really can't tell that she limps but she says her knee hurts her a whole lot. I guess she has decided to grin and bear it until the pain gets too bad for that plan of action.
AUNT HELEN. The last time I reported on Aunt Helen was back in the spring. You'll remember that she is the one with all the knee problems. She has been been living at her home by herself (her son and his family who live next door check on her a lot) and she has been doing pretty well for her until this week. She got up some time early Sunday morning to use the bathroom and fell. The doctors think she blacked out. Her right wrist is broken in two places, there is a gash in her forehead that required stitches, and possibly an injury to her backbone (they aren't sure if that was from a previous injury). And with all the bruises she looks like someone beat her up. Since she couldn't get up or reach the phone she lay in the floor for several hours until someone came in and found her. She has spent her Thanksgiving in the hospital.
I think Bro. Bill was right when he said the Biblical character Job has nothing on Aunt Helen. She has had a tough row to hoe the last three years. In spite of all that she tries her best to keep a positive attitude. I really admire her for that.
We went to see her on Friday. When we got there Vicki stopped and read a sign to the kids about being quiet. At first the kids were not allowed to go to her room so while I was visiting Vicki kept them in a waiting room. They were being good until Jenna decided to tickle Ben. That was when Vicki pointed out another sign to them and said, "Do you know what that sign says?" (It had the word "NOISE" inside a circle with a slash through it.) Ben looked up at the sign and then turned to Vicki. With fear and concern in his voice he said, "No tickling?"
CHRISTMAS IS COMING. Since it is Thanksgiving weekend we have begun dragging out the Christmas decorations. The tree is up and festive knick knacks are beginning to appear around the house. We'll work on the outdoor nativity scene this week.
CHOIR PERFORMANCES. Last night the preschool, children's and youth choirs performed at church. Ben's group didn't really sing but they waved flags of different colors to a song that explained the meanings of the Christmas colors. Jenna's choir sang two songs. All the kids did a really good job.
One of the funniest parts of the evening was a skit the some of the youth put on that was a spoof of the old Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer claymation movie. What made it so much more humorous was that they wrote the script themselves.
FUNNY MATH. We had hamburgers for supper tonight. Ben ate his potato chips and said he was done. That's when we said he would have to eat four bites of his hamburger before he could get up. After eating his first bite he held his hand up to me (with all fingers up) and said, "Look Dad. I ate one bite (here he used his other hand to fold his thumb down) and now I have three...." The look on his face was hysterical as he realized that his words weren't agreeing with his fingers. He just couldn't figure out why.
Joe
