Thanksgiving Threads

--I have spent the last 15 minutes down a Pinterest rabbit hole as I "researched" making my own cornucopia.  I was hoping to find something that reminded me of the basics of paper mache.  Instead, I found chicken wire and pizza dough and ice cream cones for a smaller version.  And of course, many of the ideas revolved around buying the cornucopia from an arts and crafts store and decorating it.

--Why do I need a cornucopia?  I want to create a Cornucopia of Gratitude event for my campus next week.  There will be pie, and I have a vision of handing out gratitude slips as people arrive to campus.  My hope is that people will write one thing they're grateful for on the slip of paper.  Put it in the cornucopia, get a slice of pie!

--I have spent many hours in the past 2 days trying to figure out how to get turkeys for our campus Thanksgiving dinner on the Monday before the holiday.  The Ft. Lauderdale campus got a really good deal from Publix, a local grocery chain, for cooked, hot, sliced turkeys delivered to the feast.  I can't seem to find anything similar in the Publix branches closer to me.

--The turkey quest is getting to me.  Just before I woke up, I dreamed about a special episode of Little House on the Prairie.  The family was building a new house; the exterior walls hadn't been filled in, but they were having their Thanksgiving meal anyway.  And then, a stranger comes to the feast . . .

--And yes, I do realize that the Thanksgiving holiday would not have been invented during the time of the Ingalls family.  And they likely wouldn't have had turkeys to hunt out there on that prairie.

--My nephew has caught the road race bug--the running kind, not the NASCAR kind.  This year, at our family gathering, we're going to do a road race together.  One race we considered had a 1 mile Gobble Wobble.  Now that's a great name.

--We will do a more low-key road race--and it's free, if you don't want a t-shirt.  My nephew has already started seeing the t-shirt as a collection.  And I confess that I've already begun thinking about a possible quilt that we'll all make years from now.

--My favorite bit from the race web site:  "If you need your time – wear a watch."  These organizers sound like my kind of people!

--And now it's time to get on with the day--what will it bring?  Often in the last week I've reflected on how I am doing tasks I wouldn't have anticipated doing a year ago when I was new in this job.  But I want to believe we're building a more welcoming campus.