The holidays are upon us and today we got a taste of them.\u00a0 A gathering of my children and their families at the Compound was deeply enjoyable.\u00a0 The youngest grandchildren were triumphantly underfoot.\u00a0 They had a game where they spaced out some pillows on the living room floor and hopped haphazardly between them to avoid the \u201clava\u201d that surrounded these tiny islands of safety.\u00a0 They were a menace to navigation and a real danger to themselves from collision with doors and walls and other solid objects.\u00a0 So, they kept me busy refereeing their wilder excesses.<\/p>\n
And Camera Girl outdid herself in the kitchen.\u00a0 The food flowed impressively onto the table and then into the mouths of the delighted diners.\u00a0 I give her all credit except for one decision that I was responsible for.\u00a0 She had baked a huge Italian cheese cake and a chocolate cake and a chocolate pudding dessert.\u00a0 Along with whipped cream she declared that no other dessert should be offered.\u00a0 I insisted that vanilla ice cream must always be available as a component of dessert.\u00a0 When the dessert was being served, I quizzed the kids about this and the reaction was electric.\u00a0 They shouted agreement with my position.\u00a0 Well, Camera Girl must have known in advance that I was right.\u00a0 Not only did she have a half gallon of \u00a0\u00a0vanilla.\u00a0 She had chocolate chip and cookies and cream.\u00a0 I was magnanimous in victory.\u00a0 I openly applauded her willingness to accept advice and avoid disappointing the future of the family.<\/p>\n
We talked about this and that.\u00a0 Local politics and town affairs like the volunteer fire departments and their trials and tribulations.\u00a0 And I talked to the kids about the upcoming Thanksgiving celebration here.\u00a0 I mentioned that they would have the option of joining me in watching my traditional viewing of the 1930s versions of \u201cThe March of the Wooden Soldiers\u201d and the Max Fleischer cartoon \u201cGulliver\u2019s Travels.\u201d\u00a0 I also mentioned that there would be viewing of some of W.C. Fields\u2019 classic movies, \u201cIt\u2019s a Gift\u201d and \u201cThe Man on the Flying Trapeze.\u201d\u00a0 I emphasized that they should take special note of the similarity in behavior of the wife in these movies toward her husband (Fields) to the way that Camera Girl abuses and disrespects me.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s never too early to use the classics to teach valuable lessons to children about how the world works.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure Camera Girl heard me making these statements because I detected a growling sound coming from the kitchen at this point.<\/p>\n
Well, before we knew it the night was getting along and everyone had to get home to their own things.\u00a0 After they left, I noted to Camera Girl that it isn\u2019t such a bad world where such nice people can surround us with life and energy with only the cost of some peasant Southern Italian food and desserts needed as fuel.\u00a0 Sure, the world is falling apart at the seams and Joe Biden is still causing damage everywhere you look.\u00a0 But things could be much, much worse.\u00a0 And at least we\u2019ll get to do Thanksgiving and Christmas at least one more time before the world comes to an end.\u00a0 That\u2019s a pretty good deal.\u00a0 I\u2019ll take it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The holidays are upon us and today we got a taste of them.\u00a0 A gathering of my children and their families at the Compound was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2860],"tags":[300,94,1511,2341,948],"class_list":["post-31342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-reclaiming-the-family","tag-camera-girl","tag-christmas","tag-thanksgiving","tag-traditional-family","tag-w-c-fields"],"yoast_head":"\n