Bloggerlife.blog

11/24/2025

Today’s blog

Lynn Murphy Mark

A tiny road trip

This is Thanksgiving week, a time when people take to highways and airways to get together as family and friends. It’s a holiday that is rich with family traditions, favorite recipes, hopefully some gratitude, and time for togetherness. It ushers in the full blown Holiday Season. This year everything happens quickly – Thanksgiving, followed in a few days by the beginning of Advent. Good grief. What happened to 2025?

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday of all. Of course when the kids were little, Christmas was where it was at. Trees were decorated, presents were wrapped and hidden, and there was often a late night scramble on Christmas Eve to put something together for a great reveal the next morning. A favorite little story of Christmas was the year Jackie asked for bed sheets featuring “Rainbow Bright”. Remember her? Anyway, Jackie’s father and I waited until she was so sound asleep that we could change her sheets with her in the bed. When she woke up on Christmas morning, she was sleeping on colorful sheets with Rainbow Bright all over them. 

Back to The Giving of Thanks Day. There’s something about its approach that feels comforting to me. Autumn is fading away, even though Winter is almost a month away. Seasonal themes are everywhere. To me, the earth is going toward a mode of quiet and reflection. It’s time for a review of the past year.

2025 has been a bizarre year. It’s been filled with controversy and sometimes pure hatefulness. It seems that every day there is something new to be shocked about. My view of politics takes a hit so often that it is amazing to me that this country is still able to function in any form. This is why I look forward to the quietness of these next few weeks even though there is plenty of frantic getting-ready going on. When December 31 rolls around there will be a last “Hurrah!” in honor of the outgoing year. 

This Thanksgiving will be a little different for Jan and me. We have made an agreement that we can spend the day apart. She will go to Donna’s for the big day. And I will be on a road trip to Indiana. Rose and I will be making our first real road trip together. Now, we have traveled by air together on a couple of ventures to New Mexico. But we have never packed bags and taken a car ride together. That changes this Wednesday!

Mary, who usually accompanies Rose on this trip, is not feeling up to taking a long car ride. Rose, who is the most adventuresome of the duo, is able to make the drive, but would prefer not to do it alone. When she asked if I would consider going with her I said I would have to clear it with Jan. Jan graciously agreed. 

It feels like a fun trip to me. Rose’s family members are known to me, and we are long distance friends. I see them whenever they come to Saint Louis and always enjoy our encounters. They are amenable to my coming with Rose, so that is the plan. 

Needless to say, Rose and I carefully planned our trip around meal times, as only true foodies would do. We will leave early, in time for breakfast at First Watch – for which I have a $10-off coupon – and stop for lunch somewhere on the road. Rose has made this trip so many times that she knows all the eateries along the way. When we get to Indiana there will be plenty of laughter, football, maybe some playing of games, and no doubt a great Thanksgiving meal. It will be a chance for me to simmer with gratitude that Rose and I are such good friends. I am told that we’ll probably go see “Wicked for Good”. Great. I loved it the first time around!

So, this week kicks off another Holiday Season. To illustrate the joy of this time, I found the picture of Jackie on Christmas morning 40-some years ago when the magic of what Santa Claus can do occupied her child’s mind.