Thanksgiving I met my son's in-laws. On the way down to Oceanside, where they live, we passed several things I had never seen before and some things I hadn't seen since I was 8 years old. I saw Biola University, my teenage dream school. We passed by Mission San Juan Capistrano, Which I read about when I was in the fourth grade, but remember mostly from watching this cartoon. At one point I saw an exit from the freemay that said Basilone Dr. I was like, No Way! so I googled it to see if I was right. Yes, it was named for John Basilone. Almost as exciting was a few minutes later when I saw Camp Pendleton off to my left; the place where Gomer Pyle lived.
When we got to our destination I immediately loved my son's in-laws. My daughter-in-law's grandmother lives there. She is a widow and has an intese prayer rule. She prays the Caplet of Divine Mercy (Which I learned many years ago from watching Mother Angelica's TV network, 50 rosaries and a bunch of other prayers every day. Her daughter, my son's mother-in-law is Mexican so the food was out of this world: Tamales, birria, chocolate mole served over shredded chicken, plus the ham, turkey, tortilla, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, pies (including my cranberry walnut pie and pecan pie), cheese cake, and so much other stuff I didn't even taste it all. They had me pray at so many meals I was starting to feel like a priest!
The funeral of my sister's father-in-law was two days ago. He was a sailor; a tail-gunner who flew off of the U.S.S. Hornet at the Battle of Miday and several other battles. After the war he became a pastor and a Christian school administrator. Even in his 90s he was active in helping organize Christian colleges. He is an amazing man. Sadly, I could not be at the funeral so I could only send flowers, But, maybe, you can jon me in praying for Charles.
I think I might have mentinoed that I have about 20 different Christmas theme ties. I wear a different one every day and kids who aren,t even in my classes come in to see the tie of the day. One of my favorite things is that I play a Christmas Carol at the start of each period. So far they have heard O Tannenbaum (One of my Vietnamese students asked "Mr. Karnes, what do Christmas Trees Mean" Wow! What an opening! In 3 minutes I told them about St. Bonifice, an ancient Icon depicting Mary, Jesus, and a pine tree decorated with litte loaves of bread, and martin luther using a pine tree to represent the tree of life in plays he staged at Christmas.), The Holly and the Ivy (Not the sermon but only the music starting at about 5:30), Today they heard Il est ne, le divin Enfant. A student of mine from Romania asked me to play a Romanian Cristmas song tomorrow, so we'll all hear Open the Door, Christian. Also, I bought a Christmas tree for my classroom today and invited all the students to bring an ornament to hang on it.
Tonight I drove the chocolate coins and a fruit cake to my godchildren in San Francisco; tomorrow is St. Nicholas day. On the way to their hous I saw a woman step into traffic and get run over by a pick up truck. The driver of the pick up truck leaped out of his truck and went to the womans aid. Her leg was bent in the wrong direction and she was screaming. I pulled over and called 911, told them what I saw, and waited for the paramdeics and police. When the police got there I told them what happened, then went on to deliver the chocolate and the fruitcake. The woman was taken away in an ambulance. It has been an eventful day. Good night.
1 day ago
1 comment:
I would love to be a student in your classes. I was thinking recently about various teachers I had in elementary and high school, and the few things I remember about them. Often I remember something that they told me or taught us that wasn't true; sometimes I knew it at the time, and sometimes I was only skeptical about their knowledge, especially when they held forth on a topic not pertinent to the class material. Looking back, I resent the fact that we were captive audiences to them.
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