Crumpled Notebook

eKhaya eKasi Grand Opening!

“On December 1, World AIDS Day, after three years of planning and development, fundraising and designing, organizing and building, eKhaya eKasi Community Center in Khayelitsha, South Africa prepares to open its doors for the grand opening celebration. An hour before the event, young and old are already waiting outside in anticipation.”

Some of you may know, I’ve been working on the blog for ArtAIDSArt since February of this year (just the blog, not the rest of the site). I got involved because I was looking for a way to use some of my time doing something I enjoyed for a cause that I cared about. It was pretty exciting tonight to see all the photos of eKhaya eKasa Community Center from the grand opening Monday December 1st, which of course was also World AIDS Day. I’ve been seeing the construction photos for months as I’ve been uploading them and posting blurbs about what was happening.

It’s a super exciting project and an awesome organization which I think you should check out.

Since I did a Thanksgiving Top 10, I figured I’d do the Top 10 things I like about Christmas.

1. Nana’s biscuits and gravy. I can’t wait.
2. Home Alone. Gotta see it every year. Now I watch it with the teens.
3. Music. I play my trumpet more. My dad pulls out the guitar. People in my family sing or play piano or whatever. Music and Christmas go hand-in-hand.
4. Decorating makes me feel all domesticated.
5. Snow sledding. I don’t really get to do it anymore, but snow sledding with the cousins is some of my favorite times
6. It’s practically the only time of the year when I actually want to play some kind of board game. Trivial Pursuit is my families game of choice.
7. I  enjoy the family time and seeing friends I don’t get to see much. I get to just sit around and talk and do nothing. It’s great.
8. People seem happier at Christmas.
9. I enjoy shopping for other people, even though I don’t do a lot of it.
10. Peppermint Mocha.
11. Sweaters.
12. Christmas lights. You know, like Candy Cane Lane and things like that.
13. Homemade candy.
14. The Real Christmas Story–Luke 2 (I read that to the teens every year now too).
15. I enjoy the Christmas part of my job…making sure all the kids have toys. That’s fun.
16. Playing Santa for my mom.
17. Reminding my dad how my brother and I got a racetrack set every Christmas from Santa, but never asked for one. Hmmmm.
18. The hope that it just might snow.
19. The yearly drive around the entire state of Kentucky to see everyone.
20. Did I mention the biscuits and gravy? Oh yeah and macaroni and tomato juice, since it’s the only time of the year I get homemade tomato juice. And Pot Roast.

This is my annual “I hate Thanksgiving” post. I shouldn’t say hate. I just don’t love Thanksgiving like 99% of the rest of this country. I thought this year I’d tell you why I don’t like Thanksgiving that much. I’d like to tell you it was something like this:

But, it’s just not true. Although my disdain for Thanksgiving is close to that of Chandler.

1. The Food: This seems to be why most people LIKE Thanksgiving. For me, it’s a combination of all the foods I don’t like. Turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, green beans, brown gravy, casseroles, corn, etc… Basically, “As long as the Pilgrims didn’t it, I’m in.” Stuffing and mac and cheese, I’m good for.
2. Turkey, the food: I know I mentioned this earlier, but I really don’t like turkey. Sliced turkey, turkey sandwiches, turkey with gravy, turkey salad. It seems that bird seems to stick around for weeks.
3. Turkey, the animal: Never been a fan. I think they are kind of ugly and annoying. And oh yeah, I was flogged by a turkey as a young child.
4. Shopping: People that actually go shopping on Black Friday are insane! I hate that I can’t go anywhere without seeing hoards of people fighting over everything from parking spots to toys.
5. Football: Not a huge football fan. If Thanksgiving was in March, I might like it more.
6. People complaining that “Thanksgiving isn’t over yet and you’re already starting Christmas stuff”: Get over it. Some of us like Christmas music.
7. Closed stores/resturants: Really? The rest of us have to eat too you know.
8. Iced Tea: What? Yeah, I said Iced Tea. I’m from Kentucky. We drink a lot of that. Well, they drink a lot of that. I never liked it. But on Thanksgiving, everyone drinks it. And it looks just enough like coke/pepsi that I sometimes accidentally pick up the wrong glass on the  already crowded table. Then I have to spit it out all over those poor people’s food.
9. Traditions: Okay, I typically spend Thansgiving at other people’s houses. For some reason, “Oh, I’m just going to stay home” doesn’t fly with most people, like they don’t believe me or something. And everyone has a different tradition that I have to suddenly become a part of, which always seems odd to me, not being part of their family and all.
10. I think we should spend more than one weekend a year being thankful.

Now, I figure since I told you all the reason I don’t like Thanksgiving, I will tell you some things I am Thankful for on Thanksgiving.

1. I am thankful for a 4 day weekend.
2. I am thankful for people who cook non-traditional Thanksgiving food for me, like shells and cheese, so I’ll have something to eat besides stuffing.
3. I am thankful that I have food, shelter and people in my life that I love.
4. I am thankful that Thanksgiving means there is only 1 month until Christmas, when I can really eat the food I love (Biscuits and Gravy).
5. I am thankful that I live in such a beautiful place that I can spend Thanksgiving at and enjoy the things I never seem to have time for the rest of the year.
6. I am thankful that I can do all of my laundry and get my house clean all in one weekend before Christmas :-)
7. I am thankful for Pecan Pie.
8. I am thankful for Denney’s.
9. I am thankful that everyone else is thankful.
10. I am thankful to God for giving us so much to be thankful for that we, as a country, set aside an entire 4 day weekend to reflect on it.

Hey all! I plan to buy my plane ticket home for Christmas this week. The dates I’m looking at are Dec 22–Jan 5. If those are indeed the dates, it’ll look something like this.

Dec 22: Fly into Nashville
Dec 22-24: Ft. Campbell/W. Ky
Dec 25-Dec 31: Monticello/E. Ky
Jan 1-Jan 5: Ft. Campbell/W. Ky
Jan 5: Leave Nashville

So, if anyone wants to hang out, let me know.