SUDDENLY SOUTHERN
Jan 7 06
Being in the South an entire year now has let us experience most of the holidays here. Labor Day felt displaced, coming almost 2 weeks after school had already started. But a long weekend is always welcome, even if it didn't feel like the closure it means back in MN. September was very HOT here, even by local standards. I think they keep telling me this to stop me from packing my bags and heading north. "This is SO unusual to be this hot so late in the year!" uh huh, sure.
Thanksgiving was spent with our friends, the Mercers, at their house. Other friends from Raleigh joined us there. My friend Debbie did the main cooking, and we showed up bearing more food, more wine, and more ammo. (This IS the South.) The shooting started after our fabulous dinner, and even when the ground was covered with slain skeet (you can all sleep better now, knowing what a huge gap we put in the dangerous skeet population), the fun was not quite over.
Tony (on his cell phone to a friend): Hey. You stay on the phone, but go stand outside. I'm going to shoot my rifle. We'll stay on the line and you tell me when you hear it outside at your house. I'm gonna count the seconds. Ready? OK, here I go.
BANG!!
Tony: Start counting. 1... 2... (hear it yet?) 3... 4... Was that it?? Did you hear it?? HE HEARD IT!! How far did I get counting?
You get the idea. Thanksgiving isn't just a holiday about gratitude for the year's blessings, or about good food and good company. It's also about science experiments and the speed of sound, and guns. (Oh yeah, we're grateful for cell phones, too.)
When I think about it, I'm surprised at how easily we've adapted to some of the new things in our lives. Last summer I was really looking forward to going back to our former church in Glencoe. I missed the familiarity of the liturgy and the pastor and the service, and the comfortable feeling of being somewhere that you've been for years and years. I was disappointed to see that the liturgy had changed. Instead of being able to go through the service by memory, I was scrambling to keep up between the bulletin, two hymnals and the Now Is the Feast book. I guess they were trying out something new for the summer. It made me sad, though. I wonder if they've gone back to the old liturgy now. I really did enjoy seeing familiar faces, though - and it was still comforting to be back in my old church again. I still miss many things about it.
Later, though, I realized what had been nagging at me both Sundays we'd made the trip to Glencoe for church. I hadn't been hugged! At the church we attend now, you don't make it 15 feet in the door without being hugged by several people who are genuinely happy to see you. It's a wonderful feeling, and hugs are very addicting! Just thinking about it now makes me smile to myself, and I'm really looking forward to being there again this Sunday after we've been absent a few weeks in a row because of our holiday travels and company. It's different than what I've been used to, but it's wonderful in its own way. It's amazing how strong the pull is, and I know it's the feeling God intended for us when we think of church.'
On New Year's Eve we entertained at our house. It was 55 degrees that day, and we were able to spend much of the afternoon and evening outside in the back yard with a bonfire and fireworks. Lots of food and beverages, and lots of fun! Some of our guests spent the night in our spare bedroom (kids' game room with an airbed) and our guest house out back (the pop-up camper with a working heater), and some hung around for a turkey dinner on Sunday and to watch the Carolina Panthers kick some butt. (So sorry about your Vikings, by the way. There's always next year! I'd make a joke about orgies on boats, but the Panthers have their own cheerleaders in bathrooms issues... ) Any day now, there'll be pictures posted of that party!
College basketball is in full swing, and I'm once again trying to catch the UNC Tarheels games. (If you don't think basketball season qualifies as a holiday, you weren't here when the Tarheels won the championship last year!!) I'm not sure if I'm any more knowledgeable this year than I was last year, but we have a saying in our family: What we lack in talent, we make up for in enthusiasm!! GO TARHEELS!!
Max 's party plans have changed for the remainder of the season. He had just gotten off to an awesome re-entry into the world of martial arts, and had just started enjoying his new Boy Scout troop. His Scout troop camps out over night once a month, and he had already gone along in December, with another one scheduled for the end of January. Martial arts tournaments start in February. However, his desire to fully experience, once again, winter in Minnesota led him to the ski slopes in Mankato while we were back there for Christmas. A little difficulty stopping on a steeper part of the slope, a 180 turn, a snowboard edge that caught and made him tumble backwards a couple of times, and an arm that didn't follow along for the final tumble... left him with a humerus that was broken in two. His mechanical cast has to stay on for a total of at least 8 weeks, and I think it's safe to say that the novelty of showing it off to his friends back in North Carolina has been overshadowed by the daily frustrations of having only one good arm, and the nightly annoyance of having to sleep in the recliner in the family room.
And yet, he's already looking at ski hills wistfully, and looking forward to hitting the slopes again next winter. His mother isn't nearly so recovered yet! However, since Max is unable to use his right arm to write for a while, and needs me to do his "writing" for homework assignments, I AM getting re-educated in accelerated 6 th grade math! Go ahead, ask me what a reciprocal is!! Just don't wait too long to ask me - it isn't likely to stick in my head for very long...
