November is upon us! Today begins the next to last month of 2009. This month always catches me by surprise. The year trundles along with no undue speed and all of a sudden, Boom! The awareness that another year is speeding rapidly to a close slams into my consciousness and I am caught up in the throes of what is to be done before 2010 or whatever the next year is, is ushered in.
The great saving grace of November where we live is that the first couple of weeks are normally our fall. We have been known to have a killing frost by the tenth, but we usually do not have long stretches of cold weather until November is a memory. We have our fall color. While we may not enjoy the intense color that the mountains have, we have enough deciduous hardwood trees that we are blessed with color on our roadsides and in our yards. Those dogwoods that already have their bloom buds swelling towards eruption next spring will go out in a blaze of red. The pears, both eatable and decorative, will flame with color. The maples, sweet gums, hickories, blackgums, and crepe myrtles will add to the palette.
The next positive point for November is Thanksgiving. Other places have great holiday parades on this holiday to begin the Christmas season. In my beloved small town rural south, we have a parade to “Mama’s House.” Now that I have attained the rank of Mama, I relish the day with my assorted relatives including my own Mama who played this role for so many years. Now I am the one coordinating the casseroles and seeing that the turkey and dressing are in place at the traditional time. At my table that tradition passed down to me is noon Thanksgiving day. By then, in the old days, the hunters were back home and ready to eat. Now there are no hunters, but the assorted young adults, older adults, and children are ready to have the first go around before they spill out into the yard and community for physical activity leading to round two. I, completely, totally, unabashedly love this day. It normally brings everything that my Lord has blessed me with into sharp focus. When those hands are held and those heads are bowed over pieced together tables overburdened with food, so much of what I am truly thankful for is gathered together in that room.
This year, some of my thankfulness will sweep its way north to South Carolina. An eight hour trip in the car with a nursing baby is a little more than I expect from my daughter-in-law Reagan. Although we will not literally have them in our circle, they will be in our hearts and I will whisper special thanks for my son Kevin, his wife Reagan, and our darling grand girls, Ava Grace and Leila Kate.
The third great thing about November is that there is good football every Saturday. In the South the games that mean something, the infamous rival games, are played. Even when we know in our brains that our beloved team will go down to defeat, we hold to that hope that on any Saturday or Friday or Thursday night, any team can beat any other team. I know that my beloved FSU Seminoles have an uphill battle on that Saturday late in November when they face the number one team in the nation. “On that Saturday we will drop our loving acceptance of other family member’s teams and wallow in the uncontrolled fury of supporting our garnet and gold, no matter that they have no defense and have endured an awful season. The same will be true in other homes and on other days as at least half of us wait to begin the “There will always be another year!” chant.
The final star in November’s crown is that it is the month the Christmas tree goes up and the preparations for Christmas kick into full gear. We will write the Christmas letter. For us, this includes a review of the year that has been. It is also a chance to say to so many people scattered from coast to coast that they are important to us. We will receive our first card on the first of December. It will be from our cousin Wilma who will probably have spent some time during the Thanksgiving weekend addressing them. I know this. I count on it. The cards will continue until we get the annual Christmas letter from Len and Judy out in Oregon which normally arrives sometime in January because they have been on a fabulous family trip doing something unusual in somewhere exotic which delayed the mailing. Christmas preparation also includes getting ready for our annual open house which will happen the first week in December.
So, bring it on November! If I were the maker of calendars and the arbiter of all things right, I would decree that you above all months deserve a thirty-first day which could come from January. Who needs thirty-one days of what January dishes out to us each
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