It's the day after Black Friday, the day before Avent, AND it's Mark Twain's birthday.
He was born Nov. 30, 1835, in Hannibal, Missouri, same place where Willie left his wallet at the Mark Twain Memorial lighthouse 250 steps up from ground level when he was young boy back in the 1980s.
So, he and his dad got their exercise and walked 1,000 steps up and down that day.
Twain had thoughts about a lot of aspects of life, even some observations about this time of year.
The approach of Christmas brings harrassment and dread
to many excellent people.
They have to buy a cart-load of presents, and
they never know what to buy to hit the various tastes; they put in three
weeks of hard and anxious work, and when Christmas morning comes they
are so dissatisfied with the result, and so disappointed that they want
to sit down and cry.
Then they give thanks that Christmas comes but once
a year.
- Following the Equator
I don't know if everyone shares Twain's less than upbeat perspective on the Christmas season, but I think most folks will agree that quite often this holiday season can bring out the best of times and the worst of times.
There's a lot of stress involved but the season also offers numerous opportunities to spread joy, beauty, love, goodness and generosity.
If we can just keep things in moderation and perspective, we usually do okay.
Bill followed one of his post-Thanksgiving Day traditions yesterday. He walked out the door just past 8 a.m. and drove to North 40, where discounts abounded.
He also went to Home Depot and brought home the first official sign of Christmas for our home: beautiful poinsettias.
The plants offered a nice holiday touch and a good reason to do some tidying up.
The dogs and I also went to town fairly early. I knew I probably wouldn't be beating any rush at the grocery store on the day after Thanksgiving, so it was a good time to stock up on items for Christmas baking.
This year I made a list of ingredients needed for the reduced varieties of cookies to be baked.
It helped me with organization, but the overall purchase sure stung with my pocketbook.
Anywho, I'm ready to bake but will put that off today because we have other plans that don't involve the kitchen.
After my grocery store visit, I spent some time with my horses over at Roxane's. This crisp, dry weather makes it nice for doing some grooming and visiting the horses outdoors in their pasture.
Finally, we topped off the day, watching another very satisfying Gonzaga game with my sisters and Willie. Willie had come home on his own from his and Debbie's visit to Lewiston because of basketball practice.
So, we enjoyed turkey and the trimmings while cheering on the ZAGS.
We figure we're going to have to wean ourselves from this action-packed sports feast week. It has been a great one for college basketball fans.
Off in Ireland, Annie is spending her final full day today, hosting a geocaching event in Dublin. She'll fly home tomorrow.
And, so this portion of the long holiday season begins to wind down. We can take a breath and then go into overdrive aiming toward Christmas, and hopefully we can avoid the "dread and harassment" Twain mentions.
Happy Birthday, Mark Twain.
Happy Saturday.
Roxane was getting some loving when I went to visit the horses yesterday.
This is Kevin and Laurie's horse Siri. She lives at the Colburn ranch.
Some of Annie's photos from Dublin
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