Happy belated Thanksgiving to everyone. We have been hoping the weather out west didn't hamper anyone's travels for the FeLLin celebration. I flew to Louisville on the Monday before and rode back to St. Louis with Scott and Brayden. I had a wonderful time with the grandchildren who are very solitious to their old granny. I'm very outdated about TV - like Sponge Bob Squarepants, PS2, Spiderman, etc. Whatever happened to Romper Room and Sesame Street? I used to know all the characters and songs.

We had Scott, Brayden, Chris, Shelly, Mark, Andrew, Shirley's nephew Michael and his fiance Leslie, Rose, Shirley and me for dinner. Mother used to say that Rose should spend as much time learning to cook as she spent learning calculus. I'm happy to report that these days she does. She's discovered which one is of use in the long run, something Margaret Ann and I learned 50 years ago.

This is an historic occasion. Scott turns 40 on Wednesday. He, Mark Goldman, and Mike Lynch, all three long-term friends since before Kindergarten, celebrated their 40's at a party on Friday. Pete wanted to know if anyone had to call the cops, but these young men approaching middle age have calmed down a lot. Of course, the three old ladies were not invited, but were called upon to babysit Brayden--a whole lot more fun for them. One of our thanks at Thanksgiving was that we were not invited.

We missed Jalen this year. He stayed in Louisville to be with his mother and grandmothers. We are very much looking forward to seeing him for an extended time during the Christmas school break.

The Abbott Clan had their big family Thanksgiving get-together at Sabrina's. Today Sabrina had a shower for her step-daughter, Lauren, who is expecting a son on December 16. Lauren and husband Josh are in North Carolina where Josh is with the Army. Because of the imminent delivery, the shower was a long-distance one which Sabrina video-taped to send to the expectant parents. All of us at the shower called Sabrina, "Granny Smith," which she didn't particularly care for, made her "feel like an apple."

After we read Sandi's entry about Aunt Camp, we naturally had a question: Can Old Aunts attend Aunt Camp? It sounds like a wonderful tradition. My kids had the advantage of something similar when they went to "Aunt Janet and Uncle Pete" Camp as boys. They still talk about what they learned--some of it not good came from Pete but only gospel truth came out of Aunt Janet's mouth.

A short Brayden story. (Please indulge me.) Aunt Rose took Brayden with her to the storage area of the basement. He looked around in great wonder, then said, "WHO messed this place up?" Rose answered, "Aunt Shirley, Granny, and I." To that, Brayden said, "Was that when Granny had good hands?"

Brayden also told me that we couldn't ride dirt bikes because, "You have bad hands, and Aunt Shirley and Aunt Rose are too old."

As you can tell, Dear Readers, life is fairly quiet here. Would our editors jump in and add items from Greenwood, Turnbo, and all points west.