Thanksgiving

The First Thanksgiving, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris.

I hope that you don't find this post until Friday and that you were able to spend Thanksgiving with your family and or friends.

As a child (I know, back in the Dark Ages) I always thought Thanksgiving a strange holiday. It seemed to be all about eating a huge meal. I was not really interested in the "main course", turkey didn't taste as good as chicken and no where close to ham. I was much more interested in Grandmas rules of "you can eat all the bread and butter pickles and rolls with jelly you want at my house". I made full use of that. I can't open a jar of bread and butter pickles to this day without thinking of my grandmother and I guess that's the point of this. When I was young I didn't understand Thanksgiving, the only thing really good about it was that we were out of school and that the real holiday, Christmas, was coming soon. For my family to gather, it meant that someone had to drive about 20 miles and that was it. We had other relatives but they were half way across the country and we only saw them on Summer vacation. I'm older now and I have, believe it or not, grown a little wiser and I guess you would call it sentimental. (some of you would argue that sedimentary would be more appropriate) I now live clear across the country from that Thanksgiving table and even if I were there, a good portion of the other seats would be empty. So my words of advice to you on this day are:

listen to the stories of your uncle that you have heard at least ten times before, someday you will want to remember.

Give your parents and grandparents a hug, it will help them make it through the year far more than you can imagine.

Thank the people that matter in your life.

With todays economy, be thankful that you have what you have, it could be a lot worse.

Eat lots of Bread and Butter Pickles and dinner rolls with lots of butter and jelly. Maybe add a helping or two or three of that green bean mushroom soup with the fried onions on top casserole.

Always root against Notre Dame, no matter how sorry you feel about the terrible season they are having. Unless they are playing either Florida or BYU, then you will have to make your own ethical decision as to which is the lesser of two evils.

And for tomorrow, when I hope you actually read this since you were all busy doing the above yesterday on Thanksgiving:

Don't forget to take advantage of the Extra Credit option by posting to the blog!

Read what others have posted!

Develop your snow shoveling muscles so you will be ready to work on my driveway.

Butter up your parents so you can go on the Digital Landscape Photography Class/Trip to Hawaii next year after Christmas.

Be prepared to crank, the semester is almost over.

Last but certainly not least.

Know that I deeply appreciate each and every one of you. (Well, the jury is still out on Robert). I chose to teach because it is what I love to do. The reason that I love to do it has everything to do with you. You make my life fun. There are lots of places that I could make a lot more money but they wouldn't be any where near as much fun. Thanks for your smiles, Thanks for trying, thanks for showing up when you really don't feel like it, but most of all, thanks for being a part of my life. You are the ones I will tell my Nieces and Nephews stories about at thanksgiving. Trust me, I've got some good ones.

Happy Thanksgiving