Thankful is What Counts, and What Lasts, a Ten Things of Thankful Post

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It may be the last Ten Things of Thankful for 2024, but it's the thankful things that count in life, right?  And there will be more to come, as well.

Last Saturday, i arrived in NOLA to find my nephew Dre was there!  He's a sailor now, being trained as a gunner's mate, and i had no idea they would give him time off his training to come home for Christmas.  It was wonderful to see him, as Grandpa says, looking like a grown man now.

I'm thankful i was able to spend time with him over the holiday, as he goes back to training and then will be stationed in Hawaii for four years!  At least, that's what they are telling him, maybe we need to plan a trip to Hawaii to visit?

Grandpa and i had a funny Saturday, and i'm always thankful for the funny, silly things that keep you laughing at life.  Uncle J wanted a flank steak, and the store where we regularly shop didn't have any.  Grandma drove us to another store gave me his credit card and dropped me at the door.

I got in and found one of the butchers was stocking the case, he pointed out the flank steaks, i grabbed the biggest one (Uncle J asked for a big one to share with everyone that night), got to a register where there was only one person in front of me with only 4 items, and was back out in the parking lot in under 5 minutes.

Then, i couldn't find Grandpa.  The funny for which i'm thankful, he'd parked and walked in, and didn't see me walking out!

A quick phone call, and he came out and we went to the car, and went home laughing, with steak.

And, a busy supermarket on the Saturday before Christmas, to get in and get something that fast?  It's thankful and almost miraculous!

I was also thankful that day to confirm the details for our car rental and the Angel Tree Gift.

Speaking of the gift, Sunday i was thankful to be able to drop off the Angel Tree Gift to the young girl whose name i'd chosen.  I'd asked her mother what she likes and she likes candles so she received a very nice and full of everything you need to start candle making kit.

(For any who don't know, Angel Tree Ministries matches volunteers with the names of children whose incarcerated parent wants to send them a gift, but can't.  The volunteer provides the gift in the parent's name, thus reassuring the child their incarcerated parent still loves and cares about them.)

Monday i was thankful i found the leak under Ms. D's sink before it got out of hand.  It seems the dishwasher is at it again, so she's thankful she can still use her sink and not need a plumber until after the holidays.

I'm also thankful we remembered, after all the hullabaloo of my helping Ms. D dry everything under the sink, to go get the rental car!  We got there at 4pm, just as we'd arranged.

Christmas Eve was spent getting everything, and i do mean everything, ready, and i'm thankful i had time to go to the 11am service at church.

We had one of those monsoon rains we sometimes get here on Christmas morning as we were driving to NOLA, and we were very, very thankful to be in a rental car.

Once down there, we got a call from #1 Son, he'd left later than we did and those awful rains had caused an accident, and he wasn't sure how long it would take him to get there.

We're thankful, when we called #2 Son, he and His Bride and the baby were already on the NOLA side of the accident, having passed it right after it happened, before emergency crews even arrived.

And #1 Son did eventually make it, we were thankful to be 8 of us eating the Christmas dinner together, with the 3+ month old baby providing our entertainment.

There's a thankful, also, to see your first grandchild on her first Christmas, in her cute little dress.

Thursday morning, we were thankful to get the rental back at 7am on the dot, so we only had to pay for 2 days.

Then we got to Ms. SE's house and the crazy happened, just the usual crazy at her place.  The gate wouldn't open, so i'm thankful Mr. DE showed me how to take the pin out and remove the bar so it would open.

The boys were home and were supposed to be up and doing but of course, with it being vacation, they were still snoozing.  I'm thankful they got up when we woke them and picked up their rooms so we could clean, as well as packed their clothes.

Sweetie ran to the closest store to get dishwasher detergent so i was thankful not to have to wash dishes by hand, and i kept several of the packets for future dishwasher "emergencies."

I'm thankful once Ms. SE got back from work, she, the boys and the dogs left for the camp as we do make faster progress cleaning when we're not trying to clean around them.

Also, we're thankful Mr. DE came home and rigged the gate back up as well as ordered a new keypad for it, next time it should work correctly.

Friday evening at the shelter was great, the adoptions have picked up and there are several empty cages, we're very thankful for every one of those.

Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Clark and his co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.   

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Today is:

Bairns Day -- Scotland (Begins the runic half-month of Eoh, the yew tree, which signifies the dead, and is now associated with the Slaughter of the Innocents of Christian tradition, so today is considered by some the unluckiest day of the year, and no work should be undertaken today.)

Call a Friend Day -- just to catch up a bit

Card Playing Day -- internet generated, enjoy a fun game with friends and family; "Go fish!"

Childermas a/k/a Holy Innocents Day -- (Patrons of babies, children's choirs, foundlings)

     various Christian traditions celebrate under many names and in various ways

     Els Enfarinats -- Ibn, Valencia, Spain (flour fight, and if it's anything like the tomato throwing in other towns of Spain, it's probably lots of fun)

     French Childermas tradition interpreted what the Norse saw as evidence of the Wild Hunt of Odin as the spirits of the Holy Innocents running from King Herod

     Inocentes -- Mexico, and sometimes celebrated as Mexican December Fool's Day (Herod fooled himself into thinking he had gotten rid of his rival king born in Bethlehem.)

Dyzemas Day -- Northhamptonshire, UK (an unlucky day to begin any new undertaking, "what is begun on Dysemas Day will never be finished")

     origin unknown, but often translated as Tithe Day, being very close to the Portugese word for tithe

Eat A Vegetarian Day -- an internet generated joke; yes, the vegetarian in question can be a cow

Endangered Species Act Day -- US (act passed 1973; a day to mourn species already extinct)

Fourth Day of Christmas

Incwala Day -- Swaziland (the biggest day of the 8 week Ncwala Festival, which loosely translates as "first fruits", although today's tasting of the first of the harvest by the King is only a portion of the many days of ceremonies)

King Taksin Memorial Day -- Thailand

Kwanzaa, Day 3, Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)

National Chocolate Candy Day

Proclamation Day -- South Australia (trad.)

Return a Gift for the Cold Hard Cash Day -- and good luck, these days

Runic Half-month Eoh (yew) commences

Take a Drive and Enjoy the Christmas Lights Day -- before they are gone for another year

Unluckiest Day of the Year -- various traditions state no work should be started today, for whatever is started today will never be finished!  In Olde England, nothing of importance was ever undertaken on Childermas, because it would prove unlucky

Anniversaries Today:

Billy Ray Cyrus weds Leticia Finley, 1994

The US Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted, 1945

Iowa becomes the 29th US State, 1846

Birthdays Today:

David Archuleta, 1990

Sienna Miller, 1981

John Legend, 1978

Joe Mangianello, 1976

Todd Richards, 1969

Malcolm Gets, 1964

Denzel Washington, 1954

Edgar Winter, 1946

Don Francisco, 1940

Maggie Smith, 1934

Nichelle Nichols, 1933

Martin Milner, 1931

Johnny Otis, 1921

Sam Levenson, 1911

Lew Ayres, 1908

Cliff Arquette, 1905

Earl "Fatha" Hines, 1905

Hendrik Meijer, 1883

Woodrow Wilson, 1856

John Molson, 1763

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Gulag Archipelago"(Publication date), 1973

"Last of the Red Hot Lovers"(Play), 1969

"Night of the Iguana"(Play), 1961

"On the Town"(Musical), 1944

"Tip-Toes"(Musical), 1925

"St. Joan"(Play), 1923

"Cyrano de Bergerac"(Play), 1897

Today in History:

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, a/k/a Westminster Abbey, is consecrated, 1065

The reign of Emperor Hanazono of Japan begins, 1308

Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star, 1612

King Taksin is crowned as king of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as a capital, 1768

Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto, Ontario), 1795

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Echigo, Japan, killing 30,000+, 1828

John Calhoun becomes the first US Vice President to resign (over differences with President Andrew Jackson), 1832

Spain recognizes independence of Mexico, 1836

South Australia and Adelaide are founded, 1836

Rangoon Burma, destroyed by fire, 1841

The United States claims Midway Island, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits, 1867

The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema, 1895

The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, California, 1912

The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park, 1950

Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes "Gulag Archipelago", 1973

Winnie Mandela is banished from South Africa, 1976

The first American "test-tube baby", Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia, 1981

U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years, 2000

At 115 years old and 266 days, Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world's oldest living person, 2012

Iranian woman Vida Mohaved is arrested for protesting against the policy of the compulsory hijab, sparking other protests, 2017

L’Oréal heiress and businesswoman Françoise Bettencourt Meyers is the first woman to be worth $100 billion, 2023