Blends With Savanna Grasses

Thanksgiving was a doozy this year. We went down to Kelly's brother's house and met her dad and step-mom, plus her brother, sister-in-law, and all three of their kids. Kelly and I have a lot going on emotionally and relationship-wise, but we did the best we could and, in the end, it turned out to be a pretty good day.

The girls stayed at their aunt's house and Dylan spent the night with a friend. Kell and I returned home and went to bed early. On the following day, I performed one of my annual Christmas season traditions - early morning shopping for bargains. I found a few good deals at Staples and the crowds weren't too terrible. Plus, the Staples crew had a great system that made it a trample-free, riot-free morning. So I made my mind up that I could go back to Staples next year. But most other places, Wal-Mart in particular, are in the category of "No f--king way".

Later that night, we did another post-Thanksgiving tradition. We decorated the Christmas tree. We've got lots of beautiful ornaments for the tree, but I thought I'd show a pic of one that's really special (grin).

I'm not sure if I did enough thanking this week. But there are so many things I have to be thankful for. I just don't know where to begin.

- I'm thankful for Kelly.
- I'm thankful for friends who truly care.
- I'm beyond thankful and incredibly blessed by my son and three daughters. Each of them are better than a season of the year and just as distinct.
- I'm thankful for good health especially because I haven't always had it.

Today was an especially beautiful fall day. It was about 60 degrees and partly sunny. And there's nothing as relaxing and enjoyable to me as working in the yard, especially with the kids playing nearby. Some people relax with a good book, others use a fly rod, and some folks like to watch a game. But for me, there's nothing so soothing as working with brown of the earth and the green of the plants.

With our new yard so full of big hardwood trees, I had ample opportunity to work in the yard and have the kids out playing. Leaf raking! I have great memories of Dylan and Emily jumping into huge piles of leaves back at our house on Bonnabrook. And I knew that it was my duty as a dad to provide the same kind of wonderful memories for Anna Lynn and Katie Jo in the new place. They had a ball jumping in the huge piles of leaves and flinging them around. I just had to smile, set the rake aside, and snap a few picks.


The bad news is that our new yard is so frickin' huge that I'll have to do some more raking tomorrow. But, as long as the weather holds out, it'll be just as grand.

And just to make sure the day is packed, we'll also probably hang a rope or a tire swing and finish up with doing our outside Christmas decorations.

Now there's another area I could go on a long rant about - outside Christmas decorations. We're only going to put some Christmas lights around the windows on the front of the house. But have you seen these people who literally fill up every square inch of their yards with Christmas stuff? I'm talkin' Christmas lights around every external feature of the house, lighting nets over the bushes, lighted wire reindeers, inflatable lighted snowmen, inflated lighted Santas, nativity scenes, and on and on. What gives?!? It's not a competition people and the points don't count in the afterlife!

Oh well, it's late and I'm tired. Rest well, friends...

-ZM