Let me tell you one big thing for which I’m giving thanks this year:  my cousin is having the extended family at her home for the Thanksgiving feast!  We have hosted the gathering the past two years at our house, which I love to do, but I am feeling so squeezed for time lately that I’m very happy to ‘pass the buck’ or ‘pass the torch’ or whatever is the appropriate expression.  The other night after dinner I said to my long-suffering husband (who is always in the position of wondering what I have thought of for him to do next), “I have cut out pieces for a mosaic stepping-stone to give to my cousin when we go to her house.  You wanna help me put it together tonight?”  The long-suffering one, who is also good-natured, agreed to do his best, in spite of claiming no artistic talent.  We went down to my garage studio and I mixed up a batch of cement to smear onto the top of a commercially-made plain stepping stone.  We steadily put shapes, tiles, and gravel into the thin-set mortar and mashed it down, knowing we had limited time before the cement set up and tesserae (little hard things) would no longer stick into it.  I enjoyed not telling my collaborator what to do, and I think that the result, realized about one hour after starting, is cheerful and decorative enough to be an asset to my cousin’s garden.

Happy Thanksgiving holiday to my North American friends!

Happy Thanksgiving