Happy Thanksgiving!

--Here's one of my precious reasons for thanksgiving. I've got almost as many little grandbaby blessings to count as I do fingers. Nine beautiful blessings.

--I knew I wanted to get married and have children when I was fourteen. I remember thinking about what I wanted to do in life one morning on the school bus and of course, I knew I wanted to write. No, I think I knew I would write. Whether successfully remained to be seen, but I knew I would write. But I was also very sure I wanted a family. I wanted to have children and then when those children married, I hoped for grandchildren.

-And boy, were my hopes realized! I know a lot of grandmothers and grandfathers and most all of them consider those precious grandkids a good enough reason to accept adding a few years on and seeing those gray hairs and feeling those aches and pains. Especially after a bout of grandbaby sitting. You've heard the saying you're only as old as you feel. Well, while the grandkids are there, us grandmoms feel young enough to run and chase and play, but when they go home then the years start tapping us on the shoulder and reminding us we're not twenty something anymore.

--All the kids are supposed to be here on Friday for our round of Thanksgiving. They haven't all been here at the same time since last Christmas. That's the problem with being spread out over several states. So I'll be cooking and getting ready tomorrow while most people are sitting down to enjoy what they've been cooking and getting ready today. I have done a few things. The turkey is thawing in the fridge. I wrote out my menu. I went to the grocery - again.

--Let me give you some advice. Don't go to the grocery on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Trust me, everybody else and his Uncle Joe and Aunt Sally are already there and they're not leaving much room for you. Or me. Luckily we didn't have any major shopping cart jams in the cake mix aisle. At least not while I was there. I did knock over a pretty display stack of boxes of chocolate covered cherries. I think they were trying to jump in my cart to come home with me. But I managed to stack them up like a two year old playing with blocks and make my escape. At least it wasn't bottles of turkey gravy. Now all I've got to do is turn those groceries into the traditional Thanksgiving dishes. I'm happy with some old timey dressing and cranberry sauce. Along with a piece of pecan pie or maybe cherry pie. And rolls. You got to have rolls. And sweet potatoes. And corn pudding. And .... Oh well, you get the idea. Maybe I should lock the scales in a closet somewhere and throw away the key until after Christmas.

--Christmas - I'm trying not to panic when I hear that word. Christmas is a season to be enjoyed. It's a time to rejoice and see friends. So what if there are a zillion things to do to get ready and so what if a certain somebody has to be ready the week before Christmas. But I don't like to do Christmas - not even Christmas-got-to-get-everything-done panic until after Thanksgiving. Give me a couple of days. Then we'll see what can be accomplished in panic mode.

--One bit of writing news. I got the Baker Books summer catalogue today. The Seeker was featured on a two page spread and on the back cover. Hope it looks good enough that bookstore people will want to put it on their shelves. And readers will want to take it home. That is one thing I love to do at Christmas. I love shopping for books for everybody on my list. I could spend all my shopping time in bookstores and be very happy.

--Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving with blessings smiling at you from all around the table. Enjoy.

Raegan Elizabeth Discovers America!

That new grandbaby is here and she's a petite sweetheart at five pounds ten ounces and seventeen and a half inches. Both Mom and Raegan Elizabeth are doing well and big sisters and brother are proud and happy. Grammy and Pa haven't gotten to hold her yet. We were there last night soon after the birth but she needed to rest. We'll get our chance soon. There's something about holding those little babies for the first time. They are always so tiny, so precious.

Grandchildren are a blessing awarded to those of us who have a bigger birthday number than we could have ever imagined possible back when we were the young people having the babies to make our parents grannies and granddads. Grandkids are worth the wait. And even better you know what a blessing and treasure your own children are receiving as they hold that newborn baby full of promise and love.

Perhaps that's the best gift of all - knowing the gift your son or daughter has been given. Grandparents just stand on the sidelines and cheer while offering a special brand of pure love that has few conditions. And when they shine that love down on the little ones, it reflects back to them so that a grandma doesn't mind reading that same book for the fiftieth time. That glow of pure love makes a granddad just smile when the fishing hook gets tangled up in a tree branch - again. We've been around the block a few times. We know nobody is perfect. We're not. Our children aren't. And even though we claim our grandchildren are, we really know better and that they'll make mistakes the same as the rest of us. But we also know we're going to love them right through those mistakes while we keep them in our prayers.

So I was happy to welcome another grandbaby into my life last night. Here's a couple of quotes that I think will make most grandparents nod in agreement.

"It's funny that those things your kids did that got on your nerves seem so cute when your grandchildren do them." ...Anonymous

“Our grandchildren accept us for ourselves, without rebuke or effort to change us, as no one in our entire lives has ever done, not our parents, siblings, spouses, friends - and hardly ever our own grown children.” .. Ruth Goode

Hope you grandparents out there are remembering fun times you've had with your grandbabies and those of you who are too young for to be grannies and granddaddies yet will be remembering special times with your own grandparents and that you're smiling.


In writing news, the panel I'm on at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest in Bowling Green has been changed. I'm now doing the Historical Fiction panel with Leisha Kelly, Kathleen Kent, and Ashley Crownover at 10 a.m. Hope if you're in the area, you'll come by and say hello. The Book Fest is always a great event with a variety of writers. You know, some big, some small, some old, some young, but all of us putting words on paper and hoping somebody wants to read those words.