Busy time....

I like busy time.... My Dad always said,  "the more you have to do, the more you get done".... Pretty simple premise, I guess. The weather has come through and given us a few consecutive warmer, sunny days. Today the garage will get cleaned, the carved pumpkins thrown out for the deer, the dead flowers moved to the trash, and any miscellaneous Halloween decor back to the basement.  Josh is in the H.U.T. finishing up some last details- trim on the ceiling tiles and the flood light "decor" in the downstairs bath.  We need a few brackets hung in the garage to tidy up the rakes, shovels and brooms.
Bailee's birthday breakfast will be Sunday morning followed by Toy Story 3 featured in the H.U.T for the kids and those adults who haven't seen it. The guys may head out to sight in their guns.  The turkey shoot was preempted by the birthday but Papa is keeping his chin up and doing what's right.
Jeff will arrive on Wednesday when we'll celebrate Bailee's actual birthday # 4. Boy, those 4 years went fast!  The next day we're all off to Walden Place to celebrate an early Thanksgiving dinner with Grandma and all the WP families.  Will be a rude awakening for Jeff as he hasn't seen Gram in a few months.  We're just hoping she knows him....Hunting season (shotgun-deer) begins on the 20th.  This is when I hold my breath till I see the whites of their eyes (red for Lee) @ suppertime. Heather arrives on Wednesday the 24th.  Off to Jon and Lisa's for Turkey Day dinner with the family including some reminiscing, some football and a few naps!!  Black Friday will not see me in any stores... I'm done... with the exception of stockings and Santa fills those anyway ;-).  Friday night we'll celebrate Jeff's birthday in the Man Cave with some beer, some poker and some vittles.....Sat (his real 32nd birthday) we'll recuperate and Sunday they'll be motoring back to N.C.  Monday will bring jury duty for Lee..... this could be a life altering adventure...................for the lawyers and judge...I'm not sure how many times they'll like hearing "What", "Excuse me", "Could you repeat that", "did you say Nigger or Trigger?" before they let the deaf man go home..   So, all in all, the next 3 weeks will be busy and fun and should introduce some interesting and memorable stories to our repertoire... Stay tuned!

Stories=History

Originally Armistice Day, commemorating the signing of the agreement that ended World War I at 11:00 A.M., November 11, 1918, this federal holiday was changed to Veterans Day in 1954. At that time, it became a day to honor all the men and women who have served in the armed forces of the United States.  Consider spending some time on-line learning more about our nation's veterans. The Great War Society has developed a Web site devoted to World War I educational materials. The World War II Memorial celebrates the victory of "the greatest generation" with a design that uses moving water to harmonize with its natural surroundings. Visit the Korean War Veterans Memorial online; this moving memorial, dedicated in 1995, is the latest addition to the National Mall in Washington, D.C. See a registry of all the names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington. Learn more about the military men and women who are on duty today.

I hadn't had any knowledge of the armed services through my family until I journeyed to Florida a few years ago to settle my Grandma's estate. In her belongings ,was a written journal accompanied by a photo album of my Grandpa's tour of duty during WWI. Along with his medals, was his infantry helmet "sporting" a rather large dent. His accounting of that day gave me a new and proud insight into war- its soldiers, its casualties and its heroes..Thanks Gramp..till then I never knew!

Traditions=Stories

Boy is it ever tough to try and hang on to tradition.  With so many transitions in life, we really have to work at hanging on to at least some of them.  Monkey wrenches get thrown in the way like family living out of town, divorce and death and tinier ones like no more chimney, in-laws and less time.  I've tried to pass down as many traditions to my kids and Bailee as I can. Most of those traditions came from the Hatfield side of our family as the Hewitt side wasn't quite that "fuzzy!"  My Grandma Hewitt, however; always had games for us to play on holidays like button button, who's got the button. Grandma Iva did likewise....guess the number, Bingo and coloring contests. Christmas dinner at Grandma Hewitt's always ended with dishes of melon-balled raspberry sherbet. Grandma Hatfield's always began with prayer, a tradition we continue today at the Thanksgiving tables at Jon and Lisa's. Growing up, we always waited at the top of the stairs for Christmas morning so Mom and Dad could set up all the picture equipment at the bottom.  Blinding floodlights would greet us as the stair door opened. I still have those lights!  All of our gifts were wrapped..even those from Santa...and I guess I never even realized or cared that it was the same paper.  We always had spaghetti Mom had prepared ahead of time.  It was easy and allowed us more "opening time."  A later tradition started by my niece after a trip to England was the fun of poppers, little cardboard tubes filled with a paper hat, a prize and a fortune. We'd all pull the ends of our poppers and wear the stupid crowns throughout dinner.Now, there are no crowns, no dinner, no family. On the flip side...and thankfully there is one, my kids had popcorn balls, Easter (paint) buckets,birthday goodie bags, and the joy of winning a holiday prize. It made no difference if it was a wrapped box of tissue or a brand new toothbrush. 
It's not so easy to get together now. The next generations have miles to travel,  in-laws to share, babies to pack up, more places to be and less time to be there. So, the biggest traditions we need to keep alive are the memories.  Every holiday invokes a memory of Christmases past and opens an opportunity for new stories to make their way as traditions.  Soon Thanksgiving will be here, the day will start with hunting for the guys and the Macy's parade for me....Bailee will be off to Daddy's...sniff, sniff :-(  We'll gather at Chestnut Ridge, we'll pray, we'll eat, we'll laugh..( sounds like a movie).and eat some more................and lots of the stories will be told! 

Turning Back

I hate (a strong word) turning back the clocks.  I know those that have to get up very early enjoy the daylight but I hate (there it is again) having it get dark at 4:30.  Why, that's right in the middle of Ellen and I'm getting groggy already.  I haven't even thought about supper and it's practically time for bed!  I've never liked turning back much of anything. It seems like such a negative concept. I don't even think turning back time would be a good idea.  Those prior years have made us who we are today.. like it or not.  There might be a couple of things I would have done differently like finish college and acquire a educated skill... Although, I'm not a dummy and garnered a lot of knowledge through life and experiences. When I start a project, I like to see it through to completion and hate to give up and turn back... (although I DID start a wallpaper project yesterday and quit when I realized we had numbered the mural pieces incorrectly last year).  When we're lost during travel, we don't turn back (OK maybe once in Jerome's maiden voyage) and start over....we just plug along and find the right path.  If I haven't picked up my current book in awhile, I must admit that I do "turn back" a few pages and regroup.  I think that might just be an old age thing.  Now that I actually put these turn backs on paper, I guess maybe I turn back more than I realize.  I do know for a fact that the ones I enjoy the most are turning back the pages of a photo album  and turning back the sheets!! We don't get a lot of "do overs" in life so I guess the harmless turn backs aren't really so bad!

Will Rogers.................

If we lived in the west, today we'd be celebrating Will Roger's Day. So many famous quips and humorous looks at life have been attributed to this insightful man in our history.
This holiday is celebrated in Oklahoma to honor the trick-roping cowboy and all-around entertainer, who was born in that state in 1879. He thoughtfully poked fun at all aspects of Americana. One of my favorite and most fitting for this time of year is:

“I don't make jokes. I just watch government and report the facts.”. 

I think I'd enjoy celebrating Will Rogers Day a whole lot more than Martin Luther King Day :-)

 

–Will Rogers (1879–1935)

House cleaning

Well, it looks as though our "House" cleaning project was a success.  Ms. Pelosi will be taking a back seat beginning in January.  No more expensive plane rides back and forth to California for her....coach..coming up!!
I like Chuck Todd's (NBC) "take" on the results.  The House can now try and correct a few wrongs...if they fail, they can still blame it on the Democratic Senate and our illustrious President..(who isn't so much liking the change moniker after last night).  We had no starling changes locally but we do have a Cuomo back as Governor... I'm so hoping it works out better for us than the era of Mario and certainly the blind leadership of Paterson.  I was NOT a proponent of Paladino and my (our) options were few.  Now on to the voting procedure... What a flippin' crock of sh--. So much for saving money, making it easier and going green.  Paper paper everywhere, a HUGE lack of privacy, the candidates' party affiliation was typed so small that it was barely readable and filling in little circle was not all that easy...for some.  The older machines were paid for, easier to operate, and accommodated larger print.....

OK enough complaining..... The H.U.T. is very near completion.  A bit of ceiling trim, a valance and it's Premiere Night.  I see a red carpet event on the horizon.

Butterfly collecting.....

Another Halloween is in the books and another costume win! It was a busy day as our trick or treater was at her Daddy's for a couple hours in the afternoon as Snow White and then morphed into a butterfly in transit to Moravia's parade and costume judging.  They pulled out another prize, this year third place in the most original category.  As you can see, her Mom was the net who had caught the most beautiful butterfly!  After the contest, we made our way to all the Aunts... Kelly,Wendy, Lisa and Kim. Aunt Kyle had delivered her goodie bag for B earlier in the day! What a lucky girl!!!  Bailee's favorite part of the night was flying in the snow at Uncle Zoot's.  We returned to Grandma's for some supper and a bath and the tired butterfly was asleep before she hit the bridge!
Now, out with the ghosts and goblins and in with the pilgrims and turkeys.  The tree may be going up soon with sunflowers and leaf garlands. The theater seating arrives this afternoon and we have just one more project, the decorative ceiling tiles, to finish and we're ready to "head to the movies".  Our first showing will be Toy Story 3 for Miss B and RED for the old people.....

It's a new month and time to ready ourselves for the holidays and birthdays!!!!  Let the celebrations begin!