I’m grateful for a kind and loving God.
I’m grateful for a loving husband, and wonderful children.
I’m grateful for being blessed with a tough and huge family.
I’m grateful for friends, here and far.
I’m grateful for those who fight on behalf of freedom.
I’m grateful for the strife and discord that serves to teach me to be humble and accepting.
And I’m grateful for the cyber friendships I have made blogging in this little place.
I hope and pray that y’all have a memorable Thanksgiving holiday.
I am a traditional gal. I am an Aggie, which doubles down on the whole traditions thing. But at Casa de Aggie, it isn’t just good enough to have traditions. One must also observe historical accuracy while celebrating a tradition.
Little One: Are we having turkey for Thanksgiving this year?
Me: Is this a trick question?
Little One: Well, the original Thanksgiving didn’t have a turkey dinner.
Me: True…. Are you saying that you would prefer fish and lobster and squash and corn and beans to the turkey dinner??
Little One: No, just the lobster.
Me: Fat chance, kiddo.
Little One: It was worth a shot.
It never fails to amaze me how wily they can be. It’s a full time job just to keep ahead in the game 😉
Middle of November, and guess what? I have barely made a dent in holiday plans.
It happens every year. I make plans, lists, calls, plans, more plans, and come November, all of the plans have been changed so often that no one knows where we are going, what we are doing, who we are visiting, and more importantly why we are screaming.
Ok, the family knows why I’m screaming. They manage to tune it out, though.
So, due to miscommunication, we will be staying home for Thanksgiving. That means shopping for turkey, trimmings, and the like.
Lucky for moi, I have all that stuff down now.
I just hope that the week goes by quickly. No telling how much Skyrim music I can take while basting the roast 😀
Today we celebrate Veteran’s Day.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. –John 15:35
The most prominent debt we owe, is the gratitude we owe them.
Yes, my friends! It’s FEST TIME AGAIN!!
First we had the Wein & Sangerfest, then the Gruene Music and Wine Fest, then it was Oktoberfest, and now comes WURSTFEST!!!
You’ll notice this fest is technically number four. Well, there are two more planned at the end of the year, including the Weihnachtsmarkt. And I haven’t included the fests that are celebrated on the north side of the area. Hopefully they will have some souvenir glassware available. I would hate to be a *cough* bad example to the kids.
They should just call it “Liverfest”. It would save them a ton of money on advertising 😉
Never underestimate Hubby on Halloween.
This year, our kids dressed up and went trolling up and down the neighborhood, while Hubby and I stayed behind. In the years past, we had a block party in order to “streamline” the Trick-or-Treaters into one area to make things easier on the parents, but this year was called off due to several neighbors moving away. So, we sat outside so that the kids wouldn’t be ringing the doorbell and driving the dogs crazy.
Normally, the evening would have entailed me exclaiming over the costumes and Hubby going off with the kids. Not this time. This time he was adding to the conversations.
Hubby: You know, we can go get the other snake and place it in the candy basket and let the kids pick through.
Me: Uh, NO!
Hubby: Oh, c’mon! It would be fun!
Me: You’re insane.
And then there were the costumes…. Hubby is not one to *ahem* gloss over anything.
Me: (pointing out a woman dressed as a so-called Little Bo Peep in stockings and high heels) I would NEVER be outside dressed like that!
Hubby: What’s wrong with it?
Me: Obviously nothing from your point of view.
Hubby: She’s sure Peeping out of it.
And the kids dressed like zombies got two pieces of candy, for obvious reasons.
Zombie Kid: TRICK OR TREAT!!
Hubby: Hey! A zombie! You’re lucky I left my shotgun inside.
Zombie Kid: Huh?
Hubby: Practice for the Zombie Apocalypse, you know?
Me: HERE’S SOME CANDY HAVE A GOODNIGHT!!!!
I think next year I’ll put him in charge, and videotape the whole thing. It’s the only way people will believe me 😉
I have been making and revising the Christmas List™. This year it has been a bit more frustrating than before. You see, there have been changes to the List of which I have recently become aware. Nothing big, like new family members. I am aware of those changes! No, just little things, like color preferences, new style preferences, new hobby interests, etc.
Still, it’s not a big inconvenience, just a mild one. At least gift certificates and money are always failsafe. Come to think of it, so is food.
But I just can’t be trusted with purchasing chocolate. The stress of the season would force me to take advantage of that. Well, just having it around would force me to take advantage of that. Ok, “force” is not the right word. STOP JUDGING ME!!!!
Just for that, I’m going out to get another bag of Halloween candy. It helps with the stress 😀
It’s that time of year again. Pretty soon, little ghouls and princesses will be coming around to get their fix of sugar, and after that, little family members will be coming around for turkey and pie, and after that….
It doesn’t bear thinking about right now.
I tend to do most of my creative stuff during the fall. I admit I like to dress up in costumes to greet the unsuspecting innocents trick-or-treaters. I am never scary intentionally. Notice the use of the word, “intentionally”. It matters. This year, I was toying with the idea of doing a Steampunk costume. I do own *ahem* some of the accoutrements needed, not to mention I can fashion out a wicked set of goggles in a snap, plus I’m pretty handy with glue and needles.
Costume by La Licorne Ailee via Deviantart
And as totally cool as that would be, I am more than 100% sure that most of the kids wouldn’t even know what my costume represents. I could always fall back on the ever-reliable Roman toga, but then I run the risk of kids yelling “ANIMAL HOUSE!!!”, when they should NOT know about that at their age. It’s a quandary. Oh well…never too late to start planning, right?
Time to rummage through the fixtures at Home Depot™ 😀
It was a great week, and wonderful to get away from the dry heat here to the humid heat there!
The first day we just unwound, enjoying the views and the sound of the water below. As y’all know, the second day we went bowling, and it was a blast, especially witnessing my failings at it. That evening we decided to try fishing from the balcony.
Seriously, how can one pass that up, right??? But unfortunately most of the fish were scared off due to the high traffic on the lake, so nothing bit. But Hubby is never discouraged. We got out to the store and get chicken livers for bait. Apparently, catfish really like that stuff. Continue reading
Today we celebrate our country’s independence from Great Britain. It was a Shot Heard ‘Round the World.
Growing up in Puerto Rico, I was taught about Christopher Columbus, but not about Benjamin Franklin. I was taught about Juan Ponce de Leon, but not about Patrick Henry. I came to live in Texas in the summer of 1976, during the Bicentennial celebrations. I asked my dad why everything was red, white, and blue, and he told me it was a very important year. We were celebrating 200 years of being a country.
He said “WE”. That is when I realized that although I was Puerto Rican, I was an American. And as I grew older, and learned about the sacrifices men made in order to break free from tyranny, I began to see this place with new eyes. So often a revolution will simply remove one bad government and replace it with another just as bad (and don’t get me started on the French Revolution!). But the American Revolution was different. It didn’t seek to substitute a government. It sought to establish a government based on principles that had been lost by centuries of neglect. The people had been lost to power, and it was time to return that power to the people.
I’m no Constitutional scholar by any stretch, and this is simply my opinion. But it seems to me that of late, the people are losing the power over the government. I can’t really articulate it well. All I know is this:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Our Founding Fathers wrote this on the Declaration of Independence. And they meant it. The question is if the time comes, will we mean it, too?
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