Thankful

It has been a very fast but most enjoyable few days.  How appropriate it is that we gather our families close for a holiday called Thanksgiving.

As we gathered around our Thanksgiving table and joined hands, I couldn't even get the words out.  Emotion overcame me as I thought of how incredibly blessed I am by the people around that table. 

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Blessings of the last week:

 -- Having Younger Son come home early in the week. I can't put into words how great it was to have him back at home for a few days.  To hear him stomping up the stairs and knocking around the house, having him hit me on the arm and give me a big bear hug -- all the things that make him the guy he is -- was pure joy. 

-- Running a 5K Thanksgiving morning with Daughter and Wife.  We didn't set any records but we had a lot of fun.  And of course by starting the day with exercise, we could give ourselves permission to eat whatever we wanted, all day long.

-- Seeing Older Son and DIL walk in the door Thanksgiving Day.  Hasn't even been that long but long enough.

--  Taking food to an inner city church Thanksgiving Day where they feed those who are hurting, down on their luck or whatever in their community.  The people in that church get what it means to love their neighbor. It was a privilege to help in a small way.

--  Seeing Daughter in the kitchen with Wife Thanksgiving Day, loving the preparation as much as her mom and adding her own special touch. 

--  Sitting on the sofa with Wife after everything quieted down and thinking about how blessed we are.

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There was, of course, football over the long weekend. LSU looks headed to the BCS National Championship Game, continuing the dominance of the Southeast Conference.
And this time it's even better (or worse, depending on how you look at it) as they will very likely face another SEC foe in the title game -- Alabama, who handily defeated our beloved Auburn Tigers in the annual Iron Bowl classic on Saturday. 

The discussions about the unfairness and inefficiencies of the BCS will reach fever pitch over the next couple of weeks but it's the system we have.  We have to live with it.

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Finally, I hope you'll indulge me as I toot the horns of two of my children and their respective blogs.  Younger Son aspires to be a sportswriter and recently started "The Whole Nine Yards" here where he will be pontificating on sports and other topics of interest to him. His wry wit comes through in every line.

Daughter continues to delight over at Delightfully Living and her most recent post brought tears to her dad's eyes. 

So just in case you don't get enough of my family here at my place, go see what these two young folks are writing about.