Li'l Isla Bean
The Once-in-a-While
Daily News
1 Happy almost Thanksgiving.
2 I thought that perhaps it had already come and gone.
3 Things barely occurred to me until we got Coley and Matt all set up in their new home, which is about a quarter-of-a
mile from our house.
4 We spent most of this past weekend getting them over there. On Sunday night, we had the first of hopefully many more parties over there.
5 We had an In-n-Out feast which included both Li'l Jack AND Rocky, the Wonder Dog.
6 Had a bunch of fun, but the real holiday season began when we came back over to our place and popped in the neo-classic Christmas movie Elf. I pulled myself into place in my beat-up La-Z-Boy chair which I have affectionately deemed Le Luge, and got ready to have a few laughs.
launched the holiday season.
8 I'm not sure why. It may have been the soundtrack, which simply ran the show. It may have been Will Ferrell finally not being Will Ferrell to me, or it may have been my finally accepting Ed Asner as a real Santa.
9 I opened my mind to those deep concepts, overlooked any nonsense, and jumped into all the trimmings and trappings of a nonsense Christmas movie.
10 And I chuckled.
11 There's an enormous difference between laughing, and chuckling, you know.
12 I like chuckling because it is cuter. Maren is beginning to say, "So cute!" about nearly everything, but she says it, and the room breaks into smiles.
13 Isla's job is to look pretty. She does a darned good job of it. Here:
"She SO cute!"---Maren, of her sister
Isla, above.
14 Ain't it the truth.
15 <sigh>
16 Tomorrow is Thanksgiving.
17 I'm still off in another universe.
18 Too much going on, and I suddenly turn around and Thanksgiving has lifted my wallet.
19 There are worse things.
20 Thanksgiving Eve. My Thanksgiving resolution was to learn all the lyrics to Moana.
21 I missed the boat on that one.
22 I love Maui's flow. It's no mystery that the voice busting that rhyme is The Rock. The formula, as they say, works.
23 But Thanksgiving Eve. Been writing this since Sunday, which rolled right into Monday night.
24 Monday night pumped me up.
25 We did a lot of house-hopping, but we finally landed at Matt and Coley's.
26 They were all unloading boxes, cleaning the dust off stuff, and getting things into the right rooms. They even staged a few things, which was fun.
27 To help out, I hooked up my laptop so that they could watch a DVD. They popped on Christmas Vacation. That movie knocked me out.
Don't do it!
28 Literally. I collapsed in the afternoon and slept through the entire thing. Pretty sure I didn't miss anything because we probably watched that one about three times last year.
29 AnywayZ...
30 Juggling so much stuff.
31 It seems that everyone is juggling too much stuff this year.
32 Must be something in the air.
Li'l Maren. So cute!
33 Might be Jack Frost nipping at our collective noses.
Li'l Jack, the Builder.
34 Or it might just be real life trying constantly to get each one of us into a vice-grip.
35 Be thankful.
36 I know that sounds shallow. I know that the REAL Thanksgiving is shameful.
37 I never quite know how to handle that one, so I won't.
38 But when I see my own family moving within a few blocks of each other, and all of the little backaches, knee-aches, headaches, and butt-aches creaking through all of us, I guess I'm just thankful to be alive.
39 These are the good ol' days, make no mistake. I KNOW a lot of people are going through a lot of pain and stress. But there are still these nice moments that assure all of us that there is something bigger out there.
40 The other night when all the babies were here, I looked up from Le Luge and saw rainbows coming from a sort of crystal hummingbird feeder in the yard. They magically appeared and proceeded to dance around the fireplace.
41 They danced and laughed in perfect rhythm with the noises of the children, and I smiled. The babies, in the meantime, were squealing with delight, knocking one another down, and sharing the miracle of a newly discovered dead beetle.
42 They had to. And I had to smile.
43 Because like it or not, the hootin' and hollerin' holla' days are here!
44 We all deal with it differently. I'm aware of that.
45 Maybe it is because I've seen a lot of people going through pain this year. Maybe it is because the White House insists on saber-rattling and idiocy. Or maybe it is because we all know deep down that we have to cherish our children, and on and on.
46 So.
47 Find someone, and lift a glass. Even if you are lifting a glass to the mirror. You earned it.
48 I think it is a year really to give thanks, and to celebrate our very survival.
49 That spirit lives in all of us.
50 Embrace it.
51 These can be the good ol' days, if you open your heart.
52 Gottago.
53 See you again.
54 Have a GREAT Thanksgiving, and then get ready for more.
55 And, as always...
56 Live life.
57 Love life.
52 Peace.
~H~
fin.
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