The Family At The Groaning Board

We gathered with family for Thanksgiving today. Thanksgiving is more than just a meal, of course, but the meal is certainly a part of the day. We did take a more traditional family picture, with everyone in nice, neat lines, but I thought I’d post this one, showing us ready to being the meal. I won’t bother to list everything we ate, but suffice it to say, there was plenty. We are truly blessed. But more than the food, of course, it was wonderful to be with family.

Cathy with Operation Christmas Child Boxes

Operation Christmas Child is one of Cathy’s favorite things of the season. We aren’t terribly good at planning way ahead but in this, she does a pretty good job. She shops at back-to-school time for pencils and crayons. Sometimes as early as January or February she will see something and say, “Operation Christmas Child” as she buys it.

A couple years we loaded boxes into our van from the school, filling the back of the van with the seats removed, delivering them to a local collection point. She is going to an OCC facility this week to volunteer. I can’t say exactly what she will do, because she hasn’t done that before. We’ve helped at a collection point but this will be the next step along the process.

This picture is of Cathy (obviously) with her two boxes for the year, as she dropped them off at Redland Baptist Church.

Cathy With a Colander

It was recently Cathy’s birthday and we had arranged to meet our friend (and Cathy’s friend since high school) Jean for dinner. Because she was coming from Virginia and because there was heavy traffic on the beltway (heavier than normal, even), we met a little later than we might ordinarily have done. Before meeting her, we took a small load of things to donate to Attic Treasures, the rummage sale at the Washington Christian Academy Christmas Bazaar, which is tomorrow (November 22). It’s a fundraiser for the senior class and is pretty well organized for a rummage sale.

We looked around at other things that had been given and sat chatting for a while on some nice, vintage, (and pink) motel chairs. Then Cathy decided she’s buy this colander to plant sedums in. Naturally I took her picture wearing it as a hat (or helmet, perhaps). I didn’t buy anything but the next day (tomorrow, at the sale itself) I bought three books.

Cathy and Jean

From the school we drove to Rockville and met Jean at Ruby Tuesday in Federal Plaza. We got there ahead of her (because the traffic on the beltway was worse than expected) and I did a quick shop at Trader Joe’s while Cathy bought a few things to fill out her Operation Christmas Child boxes. Then we had a delightful time with Jean. Because we live so far apart (and yet so close) we don’t see her anywhere near often enough. Naturally we stayed at our table much longer than we normally do, but we had missed the busy time and there were empty tables, no one was waiting for us to leave so they could eat. After we left, I took a couple pictures of Cathy and Jean outside in the cold.

Henry, Cathy, Brian, Lisa, Goldie, and Kippen

We had a treat yesterday and today. I got a call from our good friends, Brian and Lisa, who were driving from Georgia to Massachusetts and wanted to stop in to see us and spend the night. Brian came to our youth group with me, since I couldn’t very well get out of that at such short notice (I was teaching). Then we stayed up late talking. This picture was taken about four minutes after midnight, so it counts as a picture for today (I did take other pictures today but you don’t care). We were trying to get both dogs to look at the camera on its tripod but, as you can see, only had limited success.