Thanksgiving

I hope those of you reading this have had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We have so much for which to be thankful. This time I have several family tales to tell, and I am truly grateful to be able to share them. So, here we go!

SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS PARTY
It all started several weeks ago with me texting Vicki a link about the soon to be released movie Murder on the Orient Express and following that with, “Want to go out on a date?” This plan morphed into a Sunday School class outing a week ago Friday night (the 17th) which was really fun.

We all decided to meet at Sam’s Sports Grill at the Indian Lake shopping center in Hendersonville at 5:30, have dinner together, and then walk over to the theater to see the show. The problem was, this was the night the Christmas tree in the center of the plaza was going to be lit so parking was not easy. Still, the nine of us arrived at the appointed time and enjoyed our meal together. Then we walked over to the theater to buy our tickets. The problem was, one of the high schools in the area had assigned the book to read and the students could go see the movie for extra credit. The show was sold out.

Not to be outdone, Vicki got on her phone and bought tickets to the same movie over at the theater in Gallatin. The 15 minute trip to Gallatin wasn’t the issue so much as waiting in line to pick up our tickets when we got there (they don’t have a kiosk for this purpose) and we wound up getting seated (separately, of course) just as the movie started. We all enjoyed the show, though I think Vicki has gained legendary status for her driving.

LES MISERABLES
Some time ago we saw where Les Mis was coming to TPAC so we bought tickets. In a Facebook comment conversation Jenna found out Kenny and Lori were thinking about going so when she went to buy our tickets she picked up and additional seven for them. Our tickets were for the Sunday evening performance. We (the five of us) ate at a good little pizza place just down the street from the Maxwell House Hotel.

I will say the production was very well done and we all enjoyed the evening immensely. My only problem was that I knew nothing about the story going in. The only association I had with the story going in was the iconic picture of the little girl (Cossette) you see on Les Mis posters. I was very thankful when intermission came and I could say, “Would someone please tell me what’s going on here?” Jenna came to my rescue and I was able to enjoy the second act even more!

BEN’S VANITY
Getting out the door to see Les Mis wasn’t without a little drama. Ben and Nate both have identical school jackets that they got for running cross country, and Nate couldn’t find his when it was time to leave. He was understandably miffed because he clearly remembered wearing it to church and in the flag football game that followed and hanging it up on the hook in the back hall when he got home just a couple hours earlier. He wound up going upstairs and getting Ben’s old jacket from last year. Of course, he was grumbling about this as we got on the road and he was accusing everybody of moving it.

It was the next evening when Ben finally confessed to hiding Nate’s jacket. He knew he wanted to wear his school jacket, correctly predicted that Nate would want to wear his as well, and hid Nate’s jacket because he didn’t want Nate to match him. If those are the worst squabbles we ever have in our family I won’t complain. I’m still chuckling because the plan backfired when Nate wore Ben’s old jacket and matched him anyway.

COOLING PROBLEMS
Vicki and Jenna went grocery shopping for Thanksgiving Monday evening. It was when they got home and we were putting the groceries away that we noticed something amiss: the ice cream in the freezer drawer was soupy. As we felt other things in the drawer we could tell the unit was not cooling as it should so we moved everything from there to the freezer out in the shop.

Some refrigerators have separate cooling for the freezer and the fridge sides. This is not the case for our unit and it was evident the next morning that our fridge was not cooling either. I went to the used appliance store in Springfield hoping to find something dirt cheap to get us through until ours could be repaired, but they only had three units in stock for much more than I wanted to pay. I was leaving town when Vicki called and said she found someone in White House who had posted on Facebook that they had an old fridge they wanted to get rid of for free. So now we have a dusty old unit in the shop that saved about half our food from going bad.

Wednesday morning the appliance repair guy came by to look at our fridge, but the problem was beyond his ability to fix. He recommended someone else and estimated the repair would cost $600-$800. At this point Vicki and I decided to see if there were any early Black Friday sales we could take advantage of. We spent the whole afternoon shopping around half of Nashville and wound up buying a fridge at the Sears Appliance Outlet for a little over $800.

We stopped in White House on the way home to buy food to replace what had spoiled that we would need for Thanksgiving dinner. I was waiting for Vicki to come out of Walmart when Mom called to let me know she had fallen. I called the kids and told them to go help her.

A NEAR MISS
Mom had been getting her supper together when she lost her balance and fell. It must have been a controlled fall because nothing is broken, though it happened so fast she doesn’t remember much about it. The kids found her on the floor in the kitchen in front of the microwave. She was not complaining of pain so the kids got her up.

By the time we got there from White House Mom was sporting a small knot a couple of inches above her left ear and had several bandages on her right forearm where she was bleeding because her skin is so thin. She demonstrated that she is able to walk as she normally does so I am thankful we did not spend Thanksgiving in the hospital with her.

Since then she has not complained of being sore and has been healing as nicely as someone who bruises easily can heal.

I SHOULD HAVE SPENT THE $81
To get back to the fridge saga, I should have spent the $81 and let Sears deliver and install the new fridge next week. You’d think installing a new fridge should be as simple as hooking up the water line and plugging it in. This is not the case in a house built in 1908.

Our back door is too narrow for either fridge. We had thought we could simply remove the door handles and get the old fridge out and the new fridge in by the front door. No, we had to take the doors and hinges off the fridges to go that route. (The old story that this house is a bad buy because you can’t get a casket out the front door kept coming to mind.) This is no easy thing when the ice maker and dispenser is built into the fridge door. It took the five of us about four hours to make all this happen and we went to bed at 11:30 with the old fridge still in pieces on our front porch. Our new fridge is dispensing water and ice, but I think something in the waterline is restricting pressure because the ice cubes are small and the water flow is little better than a trickle.

IN SUMMARY
In spite of all these challenges we have had a wonderful Thanksgiving break. The weather has been clear and nice so the boys and I were able to chop all the leaves in both yards and store the mower away for the winter. Our Thanksgiving meal was very nice and we were able to have our traditional menu minus the sweet potato casserole and homemade desserts. We are still working on leftovers. And now the majority of our Christmas decorations are up and we are ready to celebrate the Advent season.

Joe

Falling Leaves

I really enjoy seeing the trees display their fall colors. I was wondering if we would have much color this year. Our trees usually peak the week before Halloween. This year they are about two weeks late. Be that as it may, our landscape has been transformed from green to a mix of yellow, orange, red, and brown and leaves are beginning to carpet the yard. I’m glad the clean up isn’t ongoing like mowing throughout the summer.

Speaking of being late, we didn’t have our first real frost until last week. Some days there’s a nip in the air. Others are still warm, which is why the trees have been late to turn.

October was a busy month for us. The boys’ last cross country meet were the regionals two Thursdays ago (the 26th). Nate finished his season by setting a new personal record of 21:54. Ben ran on a sprained ankle and finished the course with a time of 20:41. Ben had one day break and then basketball practice started up the following Monday. This will keep him busy after school through February at least. Their first game is next month.

On the social side of things Ben went to the high school dance back on the 21st. This was where he sprained his ankle. He met up with his friends for dinner in Nashville before the big event. When the dance was over they headed over to one friend’s house that is very close to school and danced some more. After that he went to spend the night with one of his buddies. Nate is more like his father in this regard and decided to skip out on the event.

The next Saturday Vicki, the boys, and I went to see the DA Theater Department’s performance of Peter and the Starcatcher. I have enjoyed all of the productions I’ve seen our school perform, but I think I enjoyed this best. The kids did a great job with the play, but I have also had enough of them in class or worked with them on tech support issues that I knew most of the students. That made it very fun for me to watch this time.

That same night Jenna and several of her friends from school went to Adams to see Spirit. Their play was outside and it was a cold night for an outdoor performance. They all stopped by the house for supper before heading to Adams.

I think Jenna is having a good semester at school. I know she stays busy. She’s always got a couple of papers that she’s working on for class when we talk to her. I know religion majors have to write a lot. She told Vicki that she was comparing assignments with a friend who is an English major and her friend was astounded at how much more Jenna has to write.

Mom is doing well. We sold her car last week. This was a hard decision for her, but the fact was it was never being used and we were facing some expensive repairs just to keep it running to sit in the garage. Now, at least, we can pull the van into the garage when we pick her up or drop her off. This shortens the distance to the house and will keep her out of the winter weather as it gets colder.

This is out of chronological order, but I think the highlight of the month was getting away over our fall break which was October 6-10. Don and Penny were kind enough to let us use their lake house again. We all needed some time to get away and rest and this fit the bill. There’s nothing really exciting to report about our trip. We visited a couple of antique malls and ate out several times. The rest of the time we just enjoyed each other by playing games and watching movies.

At any rate, that summarizes the last five weeks for us. It’s hard to believe that we have one more full week of classes before Thanksgiving break. Then we are on the downhill run to the end of the year.

Joe