My Thanksgiving

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving! I did. There was a fire, a gingerbread house contest, and a game of capture-the-flag on a golf course in the dark.

We went to my aunt's house about five minutes from mine. I mentioned the gingerbread houses that were so important to my sister. We had another contest with them, but this time, the little kids were involved and their attention spans for anything but Batman Tag are pretty non-existant. Michael (7) stayed in there for a while, though. He was on our team.

While we were outside being oblivious, my cousin's toilet caught on fire. No, I'm not making that up. There was a candle on top of it next to a fake flower. The flower caught on fire, fell and completely melted the toilet seat. The whole thing was melted off and black. The wall was all singed. I didn't see the fire, but I heard it was almost two feet high. Of all things to catch on fire on Thanksgiving, it ends up being the thing filled with water.

My aunt lives on a golf course, so we went out and played football after the golfers dispersed. It was actually fun. I used to hate it in middle school, I mean really hate it. Now that I'm not forced to learn all the rules and play it for a grade, it's not as stupid as I used to think. The first time I played in fifth grade, I asked this girl in my class how to play. She said (exact quote), "When the ball comes toward you, you run like hell that way." That's how I played football for four years.

I just realized yesterday that it's called a "down" when you drop the ball. I always thought a down was one quarter of the playing field (four downs). It makes so much more sense thinking of it like an out in baseball. Anyway, I scored a touchdown!

Then we played capture the flag in the sand pits in the dark. Our flags were the sand pit rakes, and I knew someone was going to get hurt. Like they say, it's all fun and games until the 7-year-old gets whacked in the jaw. He was fine, maybe bruised today, but I was too far away to see clearly and his piercing shreik made me think it was something worse, like the pronged side in his eye.

Happy Christmastime! I know the whole thing about Christmas starting after Thanksgiving is all commercial, but that doesn't mean I have to love it any less. We put up decorations today. I love Christmas.

"May your days be merry and bright,"
Juliana