Thankful

Tags

British Library, Extended family, family, holiday, Illuminated manuscript, medieval, Public Domain Mark, Thanksgiving

Could go on a long time about this, and some friends have been microblogging thankfulness all month. Two things in particular for Thanksgiving Day:

1. My family. I know many people have to deal with difficult, annoying, even dangerous family members, and there are many comedy routines and movies about this kind of films. I don’t mean to boast, but my immediate and extended family is pretty great and I was blessed to have the opportunity to see quite a few of those I rarely see (because of distance) at my nephew’s recent wedding.

Three members of my dear family.

2. On a completely different subject, the British Library announced today that their ” Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts content is now available for download and reuse. Although still technically in copyright in the UK (and a number of other common law territories) the images are being made available under a Public Domain Mark* which indicates that there are no copyright restrictions on reproduction, adaptation, republication or sharing of the content available from the site.” Obviously, reason and respect, and acknowledgement of the source is expected.

This will make future presentations and studies so much more interesting.

Thanksgiving, day 2

Tags

family, Thanksgiving

My dad and I spent a great afternoon with my sister & brother-in-law’s families. My nephew & niece were home from college and we enjoyed visiting with them. More than enough delicious food was consumed by all, including (if I recall correctly) four or five different desserts.

After dinner, we tormented all assembled with a variation of  “What are you most thankful for?”—questions from the Thanksgiving Box such as “What should be your family motto?” “What have you learned from a culture other than your own?” and “What is your favorite Thanksgiving dish?” Similar boxes available for all occasions—entertain and annoy your friends and families!

Thankfulness

Tags

btvs, Buffy, family, TCK, Thanksgiving

Thankful today for many things, with one exception: the big traditional family feast. That will be happening tomorrow. In our family, with our TCK/CCK heritage of missionaries and military, we focus on celebrating when and where we can. If that doesn’t exactly match the officially designated time/place/menu, we celebrate anyway. For us, this year, Thanksgiving day will be on Friday.

However, this has not stopped my father from watching football this evening!

And nothing can stop me from quoting from the only Thanksgiving-themed Buffy episode, “Pangs”:

GILES: Well, you know, you should be very pleased.
BUFFY: Wasn’t exactly a perfect Thanksgiving.
WILLOW: I don’t know. Seemed kinda right to me. A bunch of anticipation, a big fight, and now we’re all sleepy. And we did all survive.
BUFFY: I guess that much is true. First thanksgiving on my own, and we all got through it.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and to all a good night.

Last week of classes

Tags

family, students, Thanksgiving, traditions

We had a good visit with my father over the Thanksgiving break, and spent the day with my sister’s family, with our celebratory meal a brunch. Start with eggs benedict, end with pecan pie—I recommend it. Along the way, we asked each other entertaining questions such as “What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?” My sister laughed, “We don’t have any!” Exactly. We are thankful when as many as possible of our widely scattered families can be together, and that we’re on good terms with those who are far away. We have homes, jobs, and more than enough to eat—and enough to share with those less fortunate. The details aren’t that important.

Now it’s the last week of University classes, then exams. I am far behind on grading, but fully expect to have everything done by the end of the week, and then…well…the finals.