Domestic Newsflash #4

It’s been a busy week, as usual. Thanksgiving weekend is like the official dive into Christmas. It’s so nice on a special day to thank God for His provision and love. I was convicted this week of having a basically ungrateful attitude, and with Christ’s help, am determined to ‘count my blessings’ with thanksgiving daily.
We’ve had a lot of car troubles. Everything from accidentally shooting a window out, to accidentally putting gas in a diesel car! On the latter occasion, stranded a couple of hours from home, I was delegated to find some French fries and strong coffee to bring back to the people staying in the cold car. Tired and worried, I entered a little diner. It was about midnight, but there were a few stragglers still eating. After taking a look through the menu, I finally approached the counter and asked the price of French fries and coffee. Then I counted the change that I had brought from the car. Too expensive. So I told the lady, ‘just the French fries.’ Well, she didn’t know how to cancel an order, so she asked the manager for help. He listened to her story, canceled the coffee, and watched me finger over some quarters and dimes. ‘I was there myself,’ he said. ‘Scraping pennies.’ I just laughed a little, not quite sure what he was saying. He was kind-hearted, and whispered something to the cashier. ‘We’re gonna give you the coffee, anyways.’ she told me. I said I could get more money, but the manager would not hear of it. It confirmed my suspicion that goodness still exists in God’s world today!
Even hillbillies will share: someone gave Dad a deer leg on ice that he had in the back of his car. Dad chopped it up, and helped me bag it in the deep freeze. I made vegetable soup with it the other day, and am making venison steaks tomorrow. Maybe I’ll grill them. After I unwrapped the meat and put it in a pot to thaw overnight, I reached for the salt shaker, unscrewed it, and gave it a hearty dash. Someone had filled it with pepper! So our meat is soaking in pepper-water.
Tonight we decorated our tree with colored lights, wooden beads, popcorn strands, jeweled cherries, and silver bells. It’s kind of a tradition for us kids to sleep under the tree- but what a waste of comfy beds! The boys had the right idea: they carried their sheeted mattresses to the living room floor and bedded down. We have three girls on three couches surrounding a floor filled with three boys and a girl on four mattresses. Someone said they feel hospitalized. Dad and Mom are going to laugh in the morning when they see us!