Life has been full on the farm since the last time I wrote this column. Thanksgiving in particular was a high point for us. Laird arrived home the evening before after his long odyssey across the U.S. He was riding with a friend, Harvey, who lives at Dunmire Hollow Community in Tennessee. They had attended the FIC Board meetings in Tahuya, Washington together after driving there from Ann Arbor, Michigan. Harvey stayed the night with us and then went on to Illinois to spend the holiday with his sister. This was Laird's first Thanksgiving at home in five years since he has visited family away from Sandhill during the intervening ones.

Gigi, Stan and Cory made a quick trip up to St Louis on Thanksgiving Day to pick up Gigi's sister, Monique, and her little girl Naomi. Monique and Naomi flew in from Albany, New York where she works as a city planner.

The rest of us at home were busy cooking and organizing the festivities. We were joined by our friends at Dancing Rabbit, who brought more yummy things to eat. After a land walk, folks from both communities help clear out our living room in the white house and set up the tables. There was a group sing before supper and, after a real feast, we spent the rest of the evening enjoying each others' company. One of the fun things that happened is that Monique and Susan Brown from Dancing Rabbit realized that they had been college classmates at Byrn Mawr(" You look really familiar...").

Early the next morning, Stan left for his annual winter visit to Manitoba to see his family. He is due home this Thursday. He has called and reported that the surprise party for his mother's eightieth birthday was a success. He also said that it is twenty five below up there in the great white north and that he has had a chance to go to both a hockey game and a curling match. For those of you not familiar with Canadian culture, curling is folks with brooms sweeping large rock-like objects across the ice. It is definitely a more polite pastime than hockey!

Monique and Naomi visited with us during the weekend and then Gigi and Cory took them back to St. Louis. Gigi made deliveries to some of our St. Louis accounts and the four of them stayed at a hotel and did some sightseeing before Monique and Naomi had to go back to New York. Gigi and Cory then stayed with Matthew, a former resident at Sandhill, and saw some other friends.

Sue spent a few days off the farm just before the holiday helping a friend in Columbia with a project. That week, we also had an overnight visitor who is a sorghum maker in Wisconsin. Richard and Stan know each other and they had a chance to talk shop during the visit.

This past Saturday, Michael and I participated in the Memphis Christmas Bazaar at the high school. It was fun to do a local fair and to see people we know. We were impressed with the number of vendors that were there and how many folks turned out for it. It is nice to realize the kind of support that Memphis can give to an event of this kind.