I hope everyone had as wonderful of a Thanksgiving as I did. My holiday adventure began on Tuesday. I was NOT feeling very well, was very tired and missing my purse, wallet, keys, iPod and half of my brain apparently. Thankfully angels surrounded the faithful XTerra and we made it safely to North Carolina to celebrate Turkey Day with my family. My parents recently moved into their dream home, a gargantuan log cabin perched high above the Pisgah National Forest. No joke. Here’s the view from my bedroom window. Be jealous.

Thanksgiving began on Wednesday. My mother cooked ALL day for dinner to be gobbled up in just 15 minutes. There was a rant at the table over cell phones and texting that escalated into a wrestling match and my dad throwing my Treo across the living room at the Christmas tree. Thankfully, no cell phones were harmed in the making of this blog. We ended the evening with our ritual game of Hand and Foot, an ultra long card game that you must use 19 decks of cards to play. Dad suggested we play strip poker which is still causing me indigestion. Cough… Cough….

The actual day of Thanksgiving couldn’t have been more perfect. Just after noon, I cracked open Twilight, uncorked a bottle of vino and climbed into the hot tub with my mom and sister. Nothing like a spectacular mountain view, a wine buzz and fantasies of vampires to feel all thankful inside!

On a more serious note, I didn’t have much of a choice but to zone out yesterday. I woke up feeling more alone than I have in many months. It’s been six months almost to the day of Robert’s death and there was no way that I was going to make it through the day without feeling the sting of him not being here. We all felt it. When we went around the family circle naming off the things we were thankful for, my kids chimed in at the same time and said “My Dad” as if on cue. Mom even omitted the making of a household staple, hash brown casserole, because it was my husband’s favorite. No joke, he ate the WHOLE casserole last Christmas. Thanksgiving will never be the same without him, so why celebrate it the same? I spent hours in the hot tub. Robert understands. J

In less than ten hours I finished Twilight and began my search for a copy of the sequel. Not a bad book at all, might I add.

Today, my best friends in all of Nashville are headed this way and I’m sure many more adventures will be had before we journey home on Sunday. I don’t really have anything overly important to say, just wanted you to know that I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Please drop me a line, I’d love to hear all about it!

Much love…. eL.

There’s an old saying “You can catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”  I’m not sure if that’s true or not in the literal sense, seeing as how I used vinegar once to trap a whole mess of fruit flies, but that is neither here nor there.  The little quip is often stated in reference to being kind to people rather than being a jerk to get them to like you or do what it is that you want them to do.  Seems like a “well duh” concept right?  However, I’m utterly astounded by how often this is not the way people behave.

I hate “venting” blogs, so I will NOT make this about spewing my frustration out on my readers, but I have had my share of vinegar lately and guess what folks?  The saying is CORRECT.

Let’s use the example of dinnertime in our home.  My son treats dinner like I treat breakfast; he just doesn’t have time for it.  There is too much playing and movie watching to do before bath and bedtime for him to be bothered with a family meal.  While I’m not an advocate for force-feeding non-hungry people, my son is actually hungry.  Like clockwork, moments after I’ve put all the food away and cleaned the dishes THEN he wants to eat.    

At the end of the day I usually have a pretty short fuse with my kids and I tend to get very loud and abrupt with them.  To get my boy to eat with the family, I’ve tried yelling, time out, restriction from TV and toys and putting him to bed without dinner.  My temper tantrums over it NEVER end well.  I always just wind up angry and frustrated over vegetables and poultry and that’s just stupid. 

Post-Halloween I’ve started a different approach. 

“Will, if you finish all of your green beans and chicken, Mommy will give you one piece of candy.”  It works (almost) every time. 

Before anyone gets up in arms over me rewarding eating healthy with eating junk… don’t miss the point of the narration:  I got what I wanted by sweetening the deal.

The moral of the story is… if you want me to like you, behave likeably.  If you want me to talk to you, don’t say things that make me want to throw my beloved cell phone into the street.  If you want me to think you are not crazy, stop acting like you are.

And if you can’t serve up some honey, don’t be surprised when I just buzz off.