On Thanksgiving, be thankful for "little things"

This Thanksgiving, as your family gathers together for food and fellowship, look at your big turkey and, for a moment, think small. It's easy to be thankful for the big things, our homes, cars, and accomplishments, but it's just as easy to forget the small things that make our lives comfortable. No matter how rich or poor we are, we all have many things to be thankful for. We take for granted that we have enough food. We don't worry that our food will last through the winter as the Pilgrims did. We can count on the grocery store for that. We expect to have a home, be it fancy or plain, but that's not a small thing for many millions of people. So perhaps we should take a moment to be thankful for our abode, be it ever so humble. We can take a moment to be thankful for our spouse, children and friends, for sunshine, autumn breezes, and changing seasons. With winter approaching, we can be thankful for our warm jackets and scarves. We can appreciate having lived for another year and that most of your family and friends have done the same.

You can involve children and guests in the spirit of thankfulness with the charming 'Ship of Thanks' game. Make ships from paper cups with a triangle of construction paper placed inside for a sail. Have each child or adult write what he or she is thankful for on the sail and place the paper cup anywhere on the dinner table. After dinner, kids and adults read what is written on the sail by their plate and guess who wrote it.


Software takes texting off the road



Because texting while driving has caused fatal auto accidents, 30 states, the District of Columbia and government agencies have banned it. But the ban is hard to enforce. Now, a Georgia company announces that it will provide software to government agencies and business that disables the texting, emailing and Web browsing functions of wireless phones when the vehicle is moving. WebSafety developed the CellSafety software in response to concern over teens texting and companies worried about employees' texting and emailing at the wheel. Some of Ford's 2011 models have a "Do Not Disturb" button to block incoming calls and text messages.

 


Trivia Teaser:

Playing House

  1. What is the first name of the title character on House, M.D.?
    a) Collier
    b) Jesse
    c) Gregory
    d) James

  2. What rocker had a top ten hit in 1983 with "Pink Houses"?
    a) Michael Jackson
    b) Don Henley
    c) John Mellencamp
    d) Lionel Richie

  3. The host of what long-running kids' TV show lived in the Treasure House?
    a) Mister Rogers' Neighborhood,
    b) Pee-wee's Playhouse
    c) The Howdy Doody Show
    d) Captain Kangaroo

  4. Siblings Sookie and Jason Stackhouse can be seen on what HBO TV series?
    a) Carnivale
    b) Oz
    d) Six Feet Under
    d) True Blood

  5. What actor reinvented himself as a horror film star in the 1950s with House of Wax and House on Haunted Hill?
    a) Vincent Price
    b) Raymond Burr
    c) John Carradine
    d) Peter Lorre

    Answers:
    1 c - Gregory
    2 c - John Mellencamp
    3 d - Captain Kangaroo
    4 d - True Blood
    5 a - Vincent Price

A Question For You:
We know you're not actually a hoarder, extra coats, boots and shoes have a way of piling up in closets. You think you might need them sometime, but be realistic. If you haven't needed them in the last year, or two, it's time to donate them to charity. Winter can be tough on kids and adults in poor families. So give what you can. Our question for this holiday season is: What can you give to clothing drives this year? A coat, a pair of boots, lots of things?



Wisdom of the ages
The great danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short, but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark.

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, 15th-16th century sculptor, painter, architect