You Might be Celebrating Thanksgiving in Haiti if...

by Jimmy

...you gorge yourself so much on Beth McHoul's feast that you don't eat dinner.

...visiting friends only a couple miles away takes 40 minutes to drive between them.

...Skype is how you celebrate with your family.

The Heartline Academy kids came up with a list of 30 of their own Thanksgiving in Haiti lines, and presented them to the masses that came to Beth's widely known and more widely coveted Thanksgiving meal. I started counting people and stopped at 50, as that was just when the food table opened up and everyone started to move around. Needless to say, many went uncounted. The kids performed wonderfully. I was a little surprised at how nervous I was for them, with that many people present.

(photo stolen from Heather, as our camera battery failed after 3 not-so-great pictures)

Also, to stay with Burton family tradition, for my holiday days off, I worked on the yard and my garden in particular. I spent Wednesday hauling dirt 100 yards in a wheelbarrow, shoveling that dirt into two 5 gallon buckets, and carrying them up a flight of stairs, then up to the roof on a stepladder, and concrete ledge to my waiting garden bed. After only about 32 buckets of dirt, the bed lies nearly full. I am so excited. I keep thinking that we will have fresh vegetables that I will actually eat in just 3 months time. We will see how that pans out, both in HAVING something and then EATING some of them. I will remain, however, an optimist.

As I was finishing that evening, the birds came to roost like usual in the tree just outside our door.

One of the birds became a bit ambitious and tried to roost higher in the tree than others.

It caught its leg in between two branches, so of course being the kind, considerate soul I am I laughed and called my wife to share this moment.

... and mounted a rescue.

Of course I had to stop and pose with the dumb bird before releasing it from its perch. As dumb as those birds are, I still so thoroughly enjoy having them around, feeding them, and watching them. Thank you Barney and Joanna for the opportunity to first raise them.

And there is my recycled garden bed, just waiting to be planted. I like it.