Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello my friends. I had planned to post earlier but my son was having his own computer "issues". He says his computer doesn't like a "driver" he added so he had to baby it for awhile and then fix the problem. It is finally working right, just in time for me to send out a hi' to everyone this evening. He is celebrating his birthday with some of his friends who are back in town for Thanksgiving.

We had a very nice albeit quiet Thanksgiving dinner as well as birthday celebration. I was up very early this morning to put the turkey in the oven (we like to have our big meal around lunch time). Stephanie called not long after that and asked me to put the phone to her brother's ear while she sang (loudly) Happy Birthday to You. He was not amused but she and I got quite the giggle from it. He went back to sleep for a few more hours. :)

While peeling potatoes, I sat in the Living Room and watched a Thanksgiving episode of The Beverly Hillbillies...no, really. I love the two episodes where they go to Hooterville for Thanksgiving and the other for Christmas. At the end of this one I was watching, they hold hands (they are at the hotel from Petticoat Junction) and Jed is asked to "say Grace" and he is thanking the Lord for the blessings He has given them. They don't make TV like that, anymore. (In the evenings, I basically just watch NCIS now, perhaps 24 when it finally starts.)

I'm amazed at how many people have found Coffee Tea Books and Me lately. As I've mentioned before, I don't have a counter (I watch it too often and it distracts me). I know I have a lot of "friends" and I am thankful today for each one of you. It usually looks a tad bit different... as in more pictures and such... and I usually post more. Hopefully, I'll have my computer back soon.

Tomorrow I'll begin decorating the house for Christmas. I'll start with putting up the small artificial tree (a long cry from the days when I had a big artificial tree in the Family Room and a big "real" tree in the formal Living Room of our BIG house). I'm very happy with my small-ish house in the forest, though. I was just sharing with a woman yesterday how we came to this house (the story is in Laying My Issac Down in the Favorites on the side bar).

So... this will also be the season of new traditions and I'm very excited to see how the vintage ornaments look. The only thing I've done so far is to put my "winter" red plaid place mats on the dining table when I took off the off white linen tablecloth to put in the laundry (sigh... spots of gravy soaking before laundering it tomorrow).

My husband is reading two magazines I had purchased at a garage sale this last Spring. They are from 1961 (hmmm... called Young Homemaker or something like that) and he's going down memory lane. Although a woman's magazine, it takes him back to his teen years. I started doing the math and realized these young homemakers would be nearing their 50th anniversary in a few years! Tempus does fugit...

After finishing the Joel Rosenberg books, I have seen him interviewed each day on Kay Arthur's show (this week). They really were fun books to read, his writing getting better with each one. I know my husband liked the last one a lot (The Copper Scroll) but my favorite was The Ezekiel Option. Kay Arthur stated that she rarely does anything on her show other than straight Bible teaching but others had encouraged her to read The Ezekiel Option and a couple of her good friends highly recommended Rosenberg as a person.

In his interview, he said he always wondered what the geo-political scenario would look like when certain Bible prophecies were coming true (in this case, the alliance of Russia and Iran coming against Israel). I remember reading the first few Last Behind books and thinking they were uh... interesting... but not exactly the way I would see such a scenario. I find Rosenberg's books to be much more realistic. Perhaps that is why I couldn't put them down!

Has anyone read the new Jan Karon book, yet? I can't wait to read it. I may have to use all of my December allowance and buy it. Unfortunately, I'm not using it much for Starbucks since they raised their prices again, I just can't justify more than one delicious latte' a month! I'm off now to make some hot chocolate and add some Chocolate Mint Truffle to it (International Delight Coffee Creamer)... yum. We had some snow this morning and it put me in the hot chocolate mood! :)

Once again, I hope you are having a very blessed Thanksgiving my friends. Life isn't perfect (this past year so many have experienced a loss... death of a loved one, death of a dear pet like my Storm Girl, divorce, miscarriage, illness, a child moved away, a parent had to go to a nursing home, etc.).

There is only One who is a rock, a true foundation, the Alpha and Omega, the never changing Lord, Yeshua, Messiah... Jesus. He takes hold of all that is broken and puts it together to form a masterpiece of beauty. How can we be anything but thankful, even if we don't see all that is Beautiful, yet. We will... He promised.