Christmas Kitties

It's not a Christmas tree, it's a lighted cat bed...

Giving Thanks

Have you received this info via e-mail lately?

• If you woke up this morning with more health than illness ... you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
• If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation ... you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
• If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death ... you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
• If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep ... you are richer than 75% of this world.
• If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace ... you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
• If your parents are still alive and still married ... you are very rare, even in the US and Canada.
• If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than over two billion people in the world that cannot read at all.
  

It's posted all over the Internet on sites like Interesting Facts to Keep Life in Perspective. These sites also give statistics based on the idea that if a village of 100 represented the world population x% would Asian, x% would be Christian, etc. The idea, apparently, is to make people who live in first world counties realize how good they've got it and to feel thankful (and possibly guilty) about it.

I thought the numbers looked questionable, so I looked this data on the Urban Legends Reference Page, which confirmed my hunch that the data isn't quite right.

Even so, Thanksgiving is a time for remember all the blessings we take for granted, like those listed above. I am thankful for these things. I thank God every day that I live in the United States of America, and I pray for our soldiers who are fighting for the freedom of people who have never known the blessings and freedom we take for granted.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Step into Christmas

Since Halloween, I've been ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I love the holidays! I love the music, the lights, the decorations, the food, the happy memories, buying and wrapping presents, the anticipation, the holiday TV specials and movies -- I love it all.

Some people find the cold, short winter days depressing but that doesn't bother me until after the holidays. For now, the dark just sets off the glow of warm, inviting indoor lights and the happy glow of outdoor holiday lights. What could look more cheerful or inviting?

Maybe I need the holidays more than usual this year. Since July, we've lost five friends or acquaintances and one family member. I feel like I've been living at the funeral home. I'm trying to keep my chin up, and I hope my pretty Christmas lights will cheer me up, as they always have. All the boxes are in the living room, just waiting for me to decorate. I usually wait until after Thanksgiving, but this year I might not be able to wait that long. Like the song says, I need a little Christmas right this very minute.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving, full of happy memories, especially those who have recently lost a loved one. I know that the first year of holidays without that loved one can be awful. If you need a little holiday cheer, stop by and look at my pretty Christmas lights!

T is for Chicken

Since I'm not a parent, I usually don't tell cute kids stories, but this one is so good I had to share!

My dear friend Denise has a three-year-old, Joshua, who just started preschool. Last week they must have been learning letters because he came home with a paper cut-out of a turkey. Stamped on the back were a bunch of T's. He proudly handed it to her and said, "Look, Mommy. T is for chicken!"

I think Denise needs to send this to Reader's Digest, don't you? How could they not publish it?

Apostrophe Proselytizing

The other day my husband and I drove past a house that had a sign in the front yard which said:

Drywall Repair's
and
Odd Job's
Call 555-5555

Just typing that incorrectly nearly killed me! It's a good thing my husband was driving because I would have been tempted to stop and fix the sign, or, at the very least, to tell the owner that he was damaging his credibility by showing that he didn't know the difference between a plural and a possessive. I mean, I'm not hiring someone who can't tell the difference between "repair's" and "repairs," are you? It would only take me a few minutes to explain it, but that would be rude and obnoxious, wouldn't it, sort of apostrophe proselytizing? It's probably better not to say anything, but I can hardly stand seeing such a simple error go uncorrected.

I might have to sneak back some night with a can of white spray paint so I can fix that sign...

Thanks, Rosa

Dear Rosa,

I know you weren't the first black woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus, but you are the one who became the face of the civil rights movement. Thank you, brave lady.

Because of you I have never known a USA where white and black people could not sit together or eat together. I have never seen separate black and white restrooms or drinking fountains, and opposition to interracial marriage is only a faint memory to me.

I know the sexes and races still aren't totally equal, but maybe someday we will all really be judged by our character and not the color of our skin, as Dr. King dreamed. Thanks for starting the ball rolling. Rest in peace, Rosa.