Finally, some color in the leaves! True, it's a paltry autumn compared to most other places I've lived, but it's nice to look up and see a patch of red on the occasional tree...

So this is the week that the girls and I work on seating charts for Thanksgiving Dinner. We have a slightly-larger-than-usual group this year but we still want it to be a special, sit-down experience for each one who's with us. So since we don't have the optimum floor plan for eating with large groups, it takes some planning ahead and careful use of the available space. Happily, I have kids who excel at this sort of thing :-)

I was able to visit with my mother this week. Her Parkinson's, along with her very fragile bones and all the meds she must take for both conditions, have left her in a state that makes me sad to see. This visit she was confused about CJ, my companion for this trip, thinking she was Aubrey even after I told her several times. She knew me, but asked me the same things over and over...I'm tearing up as I write this, as it was a painful realization that disease is taking its toll and usually only goes in one direction.

Well FINALLY I made the decision on a new printer this week and get to ditch the Dell. We've had it three years and it's never worked right, and we've probably spent fifteen times as much money on the ink for it as we did on the original purchase. The new printer is a Canon PIXMA MX860 Wireless All-In-One Photo Printer and I'll let you know if it ends up being any better than our old one.

And because this news will get out anyway, I'll confess that I took some of my spending money this week and bought myself a Kindle. I've been very curious about this gadget, wondering if I would really use it. After playing with it, loading my NASB Bible and a couple other books on it, I have already become attached. No, it will never completely replace books for me, but it lets me travel with a lot more reading material than I can fit in my luggage, and it also means I can enjoy a lot of books without having to find shelf space for them.

Looks like we'll forgo our usual day-after-Thanksgiving trip to choose a live Christmas tree. The Papa and I will be leaving for Hawaii early on Friday morning, and we've also decided that it will be better for our sweet asthmatic grandson if we don't bring a fresh tree in the house. So I'm on the lookout for a really nice, TALL artificial tree. The Papa says that this time it's gonna be pre-lit.

I'll be loading Going Rogue on my Kindle.

Happy birthday to Joshua, who is T E N today!

Labels: Books, Family, Good Stuff, Grandkids, Holidays, Technology