in a word or two

"God doesn't have grandchildren. He has children."  George Grant

" If the church of Jesus Christ does not become central to the life of growing cities
than the cities will become mere geographies of no singular place."  Thomas Chalmers

"The wider a man's knowledge becomes , the deeper should be his humility;
for the more he knows the more he sees of what remains unknown. 
The wider the diameter of light, the larger the circumference of darkness." 

~~Thomas Chalmers 

Opens Friday here

still November

I am so thankful it is still November.
We will flip the calendar next weekend , followed by  Handel's Messiah the next weekend. 
Emma and her Dad are singing in it for two performances.

Until then, the sun shines brightly here in the South.
Dry and cold at night.

Until then, hoping to get a chunk of ANNA KARENINA read to see the movie if it 
ever graces our theaters here in Charlotte. 

Until then, reading THE HOBBIT again. ( with my students) Movie comes out
in 3 weeks. 

Until then, don't think I will read Les Miserables before Christmas. How about you?
Aren't you excited for these wonderful films during the holidays?!

traditions

 Traditions to the table:

One daughter in law's  grandmother is in the hospital. Pneumonia.
Her grandmother's  tradition (for over 25 years) is to give Christmas ornaments to every grandchild.  

Tradition is  my mother's stuffing which is just Pepperidge Farms package recipe.

This year I made one recipe to stuff the turkey and another homemade.
Both were delicious. Thanksgiving is not Thanksgiving without it!

We moved Thanksgiving to late afternoon because one son ( above with ornaments) went to in laws for lunch.  Therefore, we could sit in jammies watching the Macy's Day Parade 
and start the rolls rising. It was quite a lovely day.

#1 son always has Thanksgiving tomorrow with his in-laws.

Apples to Apples ~ favorite game before Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving. 

The unguessed blessings of our being here,
The warp and weft that no one can unravel.

So I give thanks for our deep coinherence
Inwoven in the web of Gods own grace

( Malcolm Guite's lines from sonnet below)

Thanksgiving Sonnets

Two from over the Atlantic to where English has an accent we love to hear:

You will see that we have both been influenced by the ideas and language of CS Lewis’s fellow inkling Charles Williams.

Malcom Guite

and 
his poet friend

Holly Ordway

Day before Thanksgiving

No pants in that pile of laundry that came home last night!
He has pants here ~ thankfully.

Baking a paper bag apple pie while listening to this wonderful 
sermon by George Grant on the end of Phillipians.
Really good to soak into and lift your eyes to Christ as we celebrate with 
family Thanksgiving: 

Living as If People Matter

Home

College son is home. He sat in traffic for an hour when it should have taken
about 30 minutes. Everyone must be going home. 

Laundry going.
He said " I just brought my laundry instead of packing.  Figured it was easier!"