Happy Belated Thanksgiving! 22-28

Here are a few more thanksgivings! Now I can get back to sporadic quick-taking.

Days 22 through 28 of Thanksgiving:

--- 22 ---

I am thankful for my great hosts for Thanksgiving week! The Cooks (not the cooks) fed me, watched Tommy Boy with me, learned to play Muggins, got me hooked on the first season of Dr. Who, started my car for me, and a zillion other little things.

--- 23 ---

I am thankful for fruit "butter" which contains so much sugar that it seems to never go bad. Several years ago I attended the Portsmouth candlelight stroll. One of the tour guides explained that sugar and salt were the main natural preservatives back before widespread refrigeration.

--- 24 ---

I am thankful for the celebration of Advent. Now my preparations for Christmas involve more than just a quest for material possessions that can give my loved ones lasting happiness. Advent emphasizes the need to seek my own lasting happiness, and not through acquiring material things. This year I'm giving up Dunkin' Donuts, since I've been developing a bit of an addiction. Every year I eagerly anticipate a quiet and prayerful Advent and then face the harsh reality of a season that provides far less time for quiet reflection and far more sources of stress and distraction (note that I did not give up caffeine this year). Every year I end up merely trying to endure the season without sinning any more gravely than usual. But it certainly gives me a yearning for the peace that only God can give. That is definitely NOT the same as the peace the world gives.

--- 25 ---

I am thankful for the cheap Tom's canvas shoe knockoffs at Five Below for--get this--$5!!! I got a pair of pink sparkly and another in solid black and they fit great. So I'm finally throwing away the holey black flats that have seen me through two AGU fall meetings. Allison will miss them.

--- 26 ---

I am thankful for Silver Moon 2, a Baltimore diner which hopefully will not go out of business. The owners make sure that FrC eats every once in a while.

--- 27 ---

I am thankful for my mom and everything she has done for my brother and our family. And now she has a blog about her spiritual journey!

--- 28 ---

I am thankful for museums! According to a museum I visited on an elementary school field trip, we grew up in the Slate Valley region of Vermont, although I never knew it had that name. I knew that people would get drunk and go swimming in the slate quarries and that sometimes people would throw junk cars and other garbage into them. In the year 1891, three hundred quarrymen were recruited from Wales. A Welsh Presbyterian church was erected in my hometown in 1901 and I've been told it is the last functioning Welsh Presbyterian church in the United States. However, I don't  know if that's actually true. A Pearle Vision eye doctor, whose name is also Jones, once told me that Wales is the country with the most castles per land area. Also unverified. And I'm not sure how people feel about Wales being called a country. The picture shows the prize winning children's choir from Christmas Eisteddfod 1904. What the heck is an Eisteddfod??