CHRISTMAS BREAK

Merry Christmas

from our family to yours

Thanksgiving Remembered

My Grandmother never baked a turkey. She served chicken and dressing made from the left over cornbread and biscuits of meals past and a speckled hen from her own yard. We had red potatoes smothered in butter churned in her lap in a fruit jar. The screened in porch sheltered a table heavy with desserts. Berry cobbler with crust somewhere between flakey and chewy cardboard made with berries she harvested along the fence row and soaked in sugar. Dark chocolate pie so rich you could only eat a small sliver at a time. Washed down with heavy goblets of iced tea.

As the six grown children arrived with their wives and children in tow the yard filled with trucks and cars resting under the giant oak tree that dwarfed her little white frame house. The cousins checked out the old moma cat and counted her kittens and shared cautions like don’t go near the rooster “cause he’ll flog ya”. Then everyone was called inside to pray. Most of us didn’t hear much more than Amen cause we were twenty strong in a three room house but we bowed our heads and listened just the same. Then the kids went back outside to play until called so the MEN could sit down to eat. In her house the men ate first, then the kids were served and finally the women who had slaved to prepare everything, sat down to eat their meal, before they began the massive clean up.

After the feast was over adults reclined along the walls in cane bottom chairs like beached whales. All to full to make much conversation. My grandmother would take off her apron and sit down for the first time in hours. I know she was tired but she never complained. She would try to coax one of her sons to eat one more piece of pie but they would just tell her how good it was and they were just too full for another bite. The white cloth would cover the desserts and one by one the folks would leave for home amid hugs and goodbye tears. And that was Thanksgiving in Kanawha.

The store front with CHRISTOPHERS sign.

Alfred Hitchcock sorta event

This was a long extended vacation stay...Saturday to Saturday. We are trying to get a handle on whether we can get everything in place to open in July 2009. Truthfully, we just do not know. a person with store opening experience, which we will only have AFTER the event, would know how to plan and prioritize.



So Saturday finds us post Brookshires unloading at the store. The next morning I notice a swarm of something winding up the electric pole like a black snake, but I fail to mention this to Bill as we are heading off for Home Depot with do not forget list in hand. We shop and return to work. Our working and eating lead to a down time when we notice a large number of small black paper wasps on the front porch. This leads to a discussion of the swarm I noticed early on the pole. Then we see them on the back porch and all over the trailer. For three hours they surround the building, all 60 feet of it and hold us hostage. Trying to make light of it I suggest this might put a small cramp in our ever actually selling anything. Bill looks as me and we say in unison, Alfred Hitchcock's... The Birds!!! After sundown the wasps went back to the pole and that night it got right cold. I guess they were just looking for a warm place.



We had three visitors, a new neighbor and a passerby. Vera pulled up. She was on her way to get medicine for asthma. Her brother is helping Michael Wright restore his historic home on the plantation. We hope she is feeling better.
Jody stopped to tell us about her trip to Colorado to see the Walker relations. She and Gerald no sooner got home than they had their little 2 and 6 year old grandchildren come visit. She told us about her rheumatoid arthritis acting up. Still, she remembered to bring copies of the Detroit News for us. I don't see how she does it all, but we are grateful she does.
Billie came by and we got to hear some of her Kiomatia adventures. She is having some challenges. She was on her way to shop, see the doctor and get a haircut.
The M C Lester moving truck placed a home down the lane by the store. We look forward to meeting our new neighbors.
Several days into our stay we saw Houston drive by in his red and white van. It was good to see him driving around enjoying the beautiful Autumn colors.

We have a CHRISTOPHERS sign up. The right side of the building has trim around the windows outside and most of the inside wall finished. The back wall is complete. We outlined the wall that should seperate the utility area from the store using a chalk line Bill brought. The shelves for the chips, cookies, crackers, paper products, fruit, vegetables, beans, rice and noodles in bags are finished. We purchased them from the Texas Basket Company established 1919 Jacksonville Texas. Jacksonville has deep darker red sand and hills a bit steeper than Kanawha almost Mountain like as the Look Out Mountain sign suggested. It was a nice place to visit with friendly folks.

Back home, I ask Bill about some holes in the big steel cross beam at the end of the store building and he said he saw sky when he looked up. Another purpose for that trusty foam. We discovered another wonderful invention...liquid nails. Bill has been screwing and nailing every board in our remodel with a touch of wood glue to be safe. But liquid nails has become his new best friend.

Free is only good if it is functional. I found a chair for the store in our neighbors discards. Finding assorted chairs that have similar size and shape under $50 has been a challenge. This one had promise. Unfortunately the back was trimmed in real leather. I painted it with primer only to find it was still sticky after three weeks. Bill suggested I go ahead a put the finish coat on it and seal it with a clear poly something. The result was a dry non-sticky chair back. He was right! We are still short a large square farmhouse type table and four chairs, but well on our way to filling up the store.

We have no new store pictures due to not charging the camera battery.

The new windows are in.