Happy Thanksgiving

We’re not cooking tomorrow. We’re not cleaning house tomorrow. We’re not travelling to a relative’s house tomorrow. And we’re not carrying a bean/broccoli/spinach/asparagus/chicken/cheese/crackers on top casserole to anybody’s house. Not because we don’t believe in Thanksgiving, or want to be grumpy or hermitish. Rather, we are in Asheville, NC, at the Renaissance Hotel. My wife, three daughters, son, mother and father are all with me. We arrived this afternoon and are staying until Friday. We’re going to eat the Thanksgiving buffet at the hotel. At $22 per person, I think I will actually save money over buying two grocery carts of Lord-Knows-What at Publix to prepare the sacred gobbler and trimmings. Never done this kind of thing before, and may not do it again. But this year, we just wanted to rest and let someone else do all the work. Oh, and count our blessings.

We have a lot to be thankful for. First of all, it is my mother’s birthday tomorrow. She has had a very rough year physically, having been in the hospital several times with a major kidney stone issue. Thankfully, the stone has been rolled away (o.k., blasted and lasered away, but it sounds more miraculous to use a Gospel analogy). So while we are eating Thomas Jefferson’s nomination for the national bird, singing “Eat, we thankful people eat….fill our stomachs with harvest cornbread”, we will also sing “Happy Birthday, Mawmaw.”

I am also thankful for our children. Hannah, our oldest, is in the Ph.D. program at the Medical University of South Carolina….studying to be a Pharmacologist. Last week she presented a poster (which I am told is a major big deal) at a Cancer Conference in Washington D.C. Marissa, our second, is a junior at the College of Charleston in Elementary Education. She took her Praxis test a couple of weeks ago and passed with flying colors. This is a test she has to pass in South Carolina in order to teach, and by passing it now, she qualifies for additional financial aid! Yahoo!!! Ansley, our third, will graduate from High School in January. This is one semester early. She was in the High School Drama Department’s production of “Dearly Departed” last week. She was soooo funny, playing a pregnant mother expecting her eighth child. She was really good! Will, our fourth and final, is twelve years old and in the sixth grade. He is very smart (and knows it, which is a bad combination!), and is a giant among boys. I am almost six feet tall, and he is almost as tall as me. He is in Boy Scouts, active in church, and plays the drums in the middle school band. His first Christmas parade as a member of the band is in one week.

And I would be remiss if I didn’t say how thankful I am of my wife. Julie has been my partner in this romantic comedy we call marriage for 28 years now. She celebrated her 50th birthday in October (I married a MUCH older woman…I don’t turn 50 until January!) She is the children’s coordinator at our church, and works at it non-stop. In fact, she is sitting on the hotel bed right now working on some “stuff”. Kid-Link, which she oversees, is a ministry to Kindergarten through fifth graders. On any given Sunday evening, she has between 40 and 60 kids. And in the midst of this, she still helps with homework, does most of the housework (hey…..I do SOME), cooks, counsels our older children, and looks after me.

I could mention so many other things I am thankful for, but I will end with this. I am also thankful that this football season is about over. I have no idea what will happen in the Iron Bowl on Saturday, but this I know. I will be a Tiger before kickoff, a Tiger during the game, and a Tiger after the final whistle blows. And when that whistle blows, I will be thankful that I can say, “Only 9 months until football season!”

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

WJLaneSR