Another year's Thanksgiving day is down in the books, and Thanksgiving day of 2011 was a very, very good one for me:

• It's the first year the Broyles family gave thanks as a family of five
• The weather for the day itself was a glorious 68 degrees, and sunny
• My mom hosted both her kids and all her grandkids at her house
• I got to see both my grandmothers, my parents, my parents-in-law, and my sister's family; all in one day

Tuesday was a long day at school because many students were absent, their parents agreeing to start their Thanksgiving break a day early. It is difficult to "do" something meaningful and worthwhile in classes on the day before Thanksgiving break begins when about half the students in each class are absent. I made the best of it and students learned a little more about Odysseus and his misadventures on the way back from fighting in the Trojan war. It was very nice to pedal home Tuesday afternoon, I'm not going to lie.

Wednesday I dressed the boys and fed them breakfast. Lately I've been preparing Malt-o-Meal oatmeal for them almost every morning. It's easy to make and inexpensive. Plus, it's good for them and for me. The weather was sunny and only a dash of cool. Leo rode in the pull behind trailer while I delivered paid bills to a handful of places across town. When I returned, Mare's mom was in our kitchen in full-on Thanksgiving meal preparation mode! I stayed outside getting the yard cleaned up.

The "shine" my grandpa Jim spoke of being attached to new things or activities has worn itself off of raking the leaves in my yard. Just five years ago when we moved in, I couldn't wait to get out there and rake, rake, rake; as if it were about the most important thing in the world to do. Now... not so much. I opted instead to break up the surplus leaves into the smallest pieces using my walk behind mower. Doing this helped the looks of the yard tremendously. The electric leaf blower helped clear off our sidewalks, patio, and driveway.

Thursday morning, after completing the last of the "to-do" list, I tackled cleaning out my workshop. It had been a deposit place for different things I didn't immediately know what to do with since late summer. I rearranged and swept and rearranged some more, and swept some more until it was presentable. The workshop is where my dart board is, and I wanted it accessible in case the visiting father in law or brother in law wanted to throw darts.

We didn't throw darts. Instead, I roped them into shooting baskets in our driveway with Jack and Leo. Jack and Leo like shooting baskets and they really aren't of the dart throwing age or size, yet. The day was just too lovely to go in and sit in front of the t.v. There are many worse things a family can do together on Thanksgiving day, compared to shooting baskets. I look forward to hopefully making it a bit of a family tradition.

It reminds me of my childhood Thanksgiving days growing up in Humboldt on 12th street. Many of those Thanksgiving days and nearly every holiday spent at home found us, the kids and uncles, shooting baskets in our neighbor's driveway. We treated that goal like it was our own, which I'm sure the Salzwedel family didn't appreciate. The point is, it was nice to get out either before or after Thanksgiving lunch, to shoot baskets and sometimes see the men of the family join in as well.

Thursday, after the in-laws left, we loaded up in a big tiff and barreled down to Humboldt to see my sis and her family for an hour or two before they left back home for Oklahoma. Those nieces of mine have just grown and grown and are becoming or have become young women. My nephew is tall and a lot of fun. They're such a good family.

Friday, it was cold and damp. I lit the workshop lights and heaters and piddled around in there off and on all day with the boys. They like to use the tools in there. No, not the power tools. I like seeing them handle the hammers and screwdrivers and pliers as they try to imitate what I'm doing.

Saturday, Mare took the boys to attend a baby shower. I worked on the bathroom a little bit. Yes, I'm still working on the bathroom. Rather, I have resumed working on the bathroom, as I've technically taken a rather extended hiatus from it.

Sunday: breakfast with boys and dividing time between hanging with them and piddling around in the workshop with them. About 8:00 Sunday night it dawned on me I would be back at school today! What? The break was coming to a close. Reality was about to set in, unless you ask some members of our society who hold particular opinions about school teachers and public school, in which case they would say going back to school was not reality setting in, but more like returning to fantasy land. Whatever view is accurate, there was not getting around the fact that I'd be in school and I'd have to put on my game face which I'd left in my back pack on the back porch!

It was a great break. Thank you God for my family; blood relatives and contractual relationships. Thank you God for our prosperity; though I complain about our financial situation, really I am rich beyond some peoples' wildest dreams when compared with their situation. Thank you God for our continued good health. Thank you God for letting us grow up in the best country in the world, both for freedom and for shear beauty.

Family of Five!

Henry Lee Broyles was born November 11, 2011. That is 11/1/11, at 3:33 p.m. at Ransom Memorial Hospital in Ottawa, Kansas. He was 8 lbs. and 20 inches long. Henry is not a family name, but Lee is a middle name shared by both my mom and Mare's dad, although my mother spells it Lea.

Since Leo was born RMH has completely renovated their birthing rooms and they are warm (as in inviting, not necessarily as in temperature, but they are that kind of warm, too of course, it just seemed like a given that a hospital would keep their rooms heated and therefore unnecessary to mention, but then I went and used a confusing adjective like "warm" which required this lengthy disclaimer and required far more thought and typing than simply describing the room as inviting, but then I'm a poet and writer at heart and use words like warm in place of inviting because they invoke a bigger emotional reaction  in the reader, so what can you do?) and feature big windows for gazing out of and quite a bit of space for the happy couple (in this case, me and Mare) and the attending physicians and nurses and all the other people with specialized careers which peek in and poke and prod and measure on the mommy immediately prior to birth. The room was supplied with one of those easy chairs that convert into a cot or sleeping surface, on which I slept overnight.

The delivery itself went fine. Mare was vocal to her doctor and the nurses and to virtually anyone who would be involved in the delivery that she wanted the pain management anesthesia started early on enough that she would benefit from it during delivery; unlike the previous two births where the anesthesia arrived to ease her pain just after the delivery, therefore not doing her much good. Mare was a champ and confirmed my opinion that she is from good German farming stock whose body is made for mothering.

Henry came out perfect without any blemishes and soon his sallow, purple skin color changed to a healthy pink and wasn't very long at all until he began exercising his lungs. Henry doesn't have any birthmarks to be found, and he was born with a good head of hair.

I enjoyed taking off work for 8 school days to be home and help out with Jack and Leo in order to provide mom and Henry time together for bonding and rest from the traumatic experience of birth. We three boys played and I delivered Jack to preschool and Leo to the library for story time. We made campfires and walked around the block and rode our bikes to the park and prepared breakfast, lunch, and supper, read books, brushed teeth, combed hair and just generally enjoyed each others company for those days. Everyone should be as fortunate as me to enjoy all this time off work to spend time with family. It is irreplaceable. If time is our most precious commodity, we should be spending our time wisely; namely, with our families.

Henry does not sleep through the night, of course. But, he is slowly improving already. Mare works her little tail off (bless her heart!) Now she's outnumbered by four, and we both are outnumbered by three. We love Henry, of course, and he's a welcome addition to our family. He's healthy, and mom is healthy and the brothers love him.

We're rich and life is good!