Count down to caught up...
in 5, 4, 3...
I just couldn't keep up. It must be the loss of daylight hours. Almost every day I have lots of thoughts I want to share, but by nightfall, which now is before dinner time, I'm tired and ready to curl up with a book.
November was all about baking. Lots and lots of pumpkin baking (it's Jon's favorite) and a few other things as well, like chili, and cranberry salad, and mulled cider.
November has also been about Greece. Ancient, Dark, Classical, Athenian, you name it. We started with the Minoans on Crete, moved on to the Mycenaeans on the peninsula, and from there it was a Trojan War fest, with Rosemary Sutcliff and Michael Wood. Myths and Mus and philosophers, oh my. Only this week did we make it into the Athenian Age and start looking at the great philosophers and the emergence of Greek Tragedy. We also started learning Greek. Why not? It's hard to tell who loves the topic more, and we're having a great time as usual.
The final days of football, the final days of sunny warm weather...that's November. And Thanksgiving, of course. We're sensitive to the issue of Thanksgiving in our house. I don't think there is a simple answer to the meaning of the holiday. In addition to the parade and plenty of football, this year we also watched a couple of videos from the History Channel that traced the true history of the holiday—Converted harvest festival? Commemoration of a group of uptight religious founders? Noxious remembrance of a kindness gone wrong in the end?
But the safe thing about the holiday is its connection to the harvest home celebration, the celebration of family and the warmth of good times and good food.
We headed north this year, braving traffic and some obscene weather conditions to celebrate with extended family, some of whom is relatively new to us, and regardless of football outcomes, we had a great time. And plenty—plenty—of good food. Plus we found that Black Friday shopping in a small town is actually enjoyable.
Place card crafts
Computer programming
Mourning football
Tug-of-war
Local eating
Local shopping
Local brewery
Wild weather
Beautiful snow (plus a squirrel) 
Which brings me to today, which doesn't feel like today. Not if today is after Thanksgiving, already several days into the supposed Christmas season. With Thanksgiving being early this year, and us being out of town, our usual Christmas vim and vigor has yet to arrive, so I am declaring next weekend the first weekend of Christmas in our home. In the mean time, it's back to the Greek and the Greeks, and a few other fun things on the burner.
family, holidays, traditions
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