I found the folder that had the pictures from my mom's last visit out here.  It was only three months ago that she passed away and only five months ago that her church sent her out here as chronicled here Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6, and Day 7.  Many of you were "with" me at the time and will remember it.  Those are links to the entries of when they visited, in case you're interested.  (I put them in because sometimes Blogdrive can be a little convoluted to maneuver if you are trying to find something specific.)

I updated the Gallery with the pix from when they were here and some new ones of Douglas's 6 Month birthday.  I think he is as smart as his cousin Savannah, but in different ways.  He is also very athletic, pulling himself up on furniture and walking around it and crawling at 90 MPH.  He will be 8 months old at the end of this month.  He is already quite the charmer,too, let me tell you.

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Here is a reprint of last year's Thanksgiving entry which I rather liked.  Vote in the poll on whether the name should be changed or not.

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Givethanksing Day

The problem with pet peeves is that they are so hard to take care of.  You think they're under control and not going to cause any more trouble; you've stroked them and talked soothingly to them and explained things to them, but they wind up being as ornery as Carter's old tomcat, Smaj (A link from Carter's old blog about the passing away of the old fart).  Some peeves are greatly exacerbated by different triggers while others are always there.  My trigger got pulled and buttons pressed when I went to several major websites and saw the same moniker, "Turkey Day is coming!"

I don't know who the turkeys are that write this drivel, but it needs to stop.  For one thing, it is aesthetically unappealing to me.  Not only have all the major retailers almost completely bypassed the holiday, going directly from Halloween (starting in August) to Mammon and Filthy Lucre's great Holy Day, Christmas, which used to be short for Christ's Mass, not a former mass, such as X Mass.  Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas and celebrate it heartily, but it is crassly commercialized.  Back to aesthetics, I think that the words "Thanksgiving Day" are much more graceful than "Turkey Day."  There is also something special about looking at retail displays that depict the Pilgrims and Indians feasting together.  True, generally speaking, they are often not very historically correct, but they do show the religious and spiritual nature of both groups.

Before you go taking me to task on the fact that the Indians were not Christians and all of that, I am far ahead of you.  It is for this very reason that this Holiday, more than most, should be respected and revered.  You see, if you are a preacher of diversity, then Thanksgiving Day should be your Holiday of choice.  Everyone should have someone or something that they look up to and give thanks to.  Everyone should be thankful.  Even if you have had a bad year, and I have had a couple of those in my time, there are still things that you have to be thankful for.  Some years you may really have to think hard, but if you try to enumerate the various blessings you have, they will come to even the most pessimistic and hard-hearted.  The fact that you are reading this blog means that you can at least have some sort of communication with the outside world.  I am thankful and a little humbled that you have chosen to spend a few minutes reading what I have to say.

It doesn't matter what religion you are, either, even if your religion is atheism, which requires faith, also.  You must believe in Darwin as there is no way to use the scientific method to prove or disprove his theories.  You cannot set up an experiment that will duplicate the moment of Creation or the Big Bang, you can only hypothesize.  But even you, my atheist and agnostic friends, should be thankful, even if you're thankful that you are not as stupid as me to believe in God.  Who are atheists thankful to?  I guess to their intellect, I don't know.  Maybe they can just appreciate things in life.

I do.  I appreciate a lot of things.  I have received many blessings from the Lord over the last year and of course he does so many things for us that we don't have any idea about as well.  There are so many times we don't have a clue about what he's done for us or how he's protected us and taken care of us.

We in the U.S.A. need to remember this as well.  There is a reason our founding fathers made "In God We Trust" our motto beside that it looked cool and would tick off the ACLU.  (If you don't think ticking off the ACLU would have given pleasure to a large number of our founding fathers you don't know them very well.)  Americans are so truly blessed with material goods as well as freedom; these blessings abound everywhere in such great quantity that sometimes it is easy to take it for granted.  Our poorest citizens have more than many in other places and even our bums and beggars are treated well.

This is a day which has come to be equated with feasting and celebrating, football and napping, but let's not forget that we need to give thanks on this day as well.  I plan to point this out to managers of retail establishments.  Complaining to the clerk does no good and only creates ill-will, but whenever I see banners proclaiming "Turkey Day" instead of "Thanksgiving Day" I will bring it up.  Will it do any good?  I don't know, but it will make me feel better.

Now, if you want to change the name of the holiday, I agree with the little Jewish girl named "Stick" in the comic strip "Pre-Teena" two years ago, whose idea was to change it to "Givethanksing Day" because that is a more accurate name.

Oh, and while I am giving my peeves some air, as soon as Givethanksing Day is over I plan to say "Merry Christmas" to everybody I see!

Remember, the Good Book says, "Therefore I will give thanks unto thee, O LORD, among the heathen, and I will sing praises unto thy name."