Celebrating - November 27, 2015

This is the Celebrating the Small Things blog hop, run by Lexa Cain and her two wonderful co-hosts L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits.

Thanksgiving was yesterday.  I spent it with my mother, enjoyed a nice meal at the 'clubhouse' (it's at a senior living condo community) and last night watched a whole lot of cooking shows including 'Chopped'.

('Chopped' involves giving people a basketful of impossible ingredients - stale cheese biscuits, raspberry jam, wild boar meat, homemade pickles and leftover tomato soup - and telling them to make an entree or an appetizer or whatever in 30 minutes)

Around 10PM I put together ham and cheese sandwiches and we watched TV.  It was a very enjoyable evening.

So I'm celebrating:

A day where we actually sit down and look at what we have to be thankful for.
Television (I don't watch it at home, but it's fun with Mom)
Getting some editing done on my WIP, which is coming out in April, God willing.
A beautiful moon last night
Panettone in the toaster this morning.
Thrift-shopping later today (lots of fun, actually!)

And...What are you celebrating?  

A Bouquet (Celebrations Blog Hop, November 19, 2015)

This is the Celebrating the Small Things blog hop, run by Lexa Cain and her two wonderful co-hosts L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Tonja Drecker @ Kidbits.

Today I am celebrating two things.

First, if anyone has been following this, my mother is home, considerably improved, and talking about moving closer to her family.  She's one of those elders who made the cross-over from being a respected parent to a good friend.

Several grownups that I knew as a child did that.  Friends' parents who became friends in themselves, as valued as their children, my friends.  Sometimes more so.  I remember once being asked to speak at the funeral of one.   Delightful man, full of wisdom and goodness and humor, who lived to a lovely, ripe age.  I had never delivered a eulogy before.  


And a bouquet:

...this week, checking my website, which is getting an overhaul, I happened to stumble across this comment from a reader, aged 80, who had read my Egyptian series  The Memphis Cycle:

I enjoyed reading your books. They make historical names come alive. I had been to Egypt and seen the Pyramids. I was even fortunate to see the mummy of the boy king &and all the artifacts. It made me wonder how come such a well developed and great civilization came to an unknown end. How come they disappeared from the face of earth? I was always curious to know about them.Your books made me feel that they had a very similar life to ours. Thanks for writing these books.I do hope you will continue with Memphis Cycle. with regards (name)

What a lovely thing to read!  I am smiling as I write this.  ...And that is why I write.  

I hope you all have wonderful weeks!


And...What are you celebrating?  

Veterans Day, 2015

        Happy Veterans Day to all who served, giving their time, and often their health and their lives, in the service of their countries. 

        Veterans Day always makes me remember something that happened when I was a Docent at the Civil War Museum in Philadelphia.  It was an interesting place, originally started by an association of retired Union Army officers, who donated their collections of memorabilia, much of it legendary. As they died off, the house in which they met was established as the museum. 

        People often came to look up relatives or ancestors (I found two of mine, and it was like meeting old friends) and research for theses or novels (as did I).   

        I enjoyed the time, and the collections themselves had interesting stories, some of them sad, some of them very amusing.

        I remember one afternoon, though, when I paused to speak with another docent.  He was laughing at something that had just happened. 

        “Oh, someone came in and wanted to look up his great-grandfather or someone.  Said he’d served in the Union Navy!  He wanted to know about the fellow, find the name of his ship.” 

        “Did you find him?” I asked, remembering how hard it had been to find Josef Myers of Ohio, my great-great grandfather. 

        “I certainly did.”  The other was laughing.  “Yeah, I found him!  Hah!  He spent the entire war assigned to a ship that stayed in Philadelphia.” 

        I frowned, but said nothing more.  I did mention it to my father, who had served as a naval officer in World War II, Korea and Vietnam.  Dad, bless him, summarized things in his usual pithy fashion. 

        “He thought that was laughable?” Dad said.  “I bet he never served.  Listen: that man went where he was sent and did what he had to do.  He had no say in whether they were fighting other ships or enforcing the blockade.  For all he knew he might have been sent into battle at any moment.  He was a veteran, with no reason to hang his head and feel foolish.  I hope that fellow was proud of his grandfather, no matter what that idiot said!”

Ah, Dad!  I still miss you.  Happy Veterans Day to all who served.