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Almost every morning at school, there is a bird that sits on the railing outside my classroom window. It makes a chirping sound, it’s black, and I saw it eating a grasshopper once. It’s kind of in the middle of the picture below. It was super shy.

I didn’t know what kind of bird it was, so I went looking online. I wish I could find the article that revealed the name of this bird to me, because it described my bird perfectly. It said this black-and-white bird likes to eat bugs, is often close to populated areas, and then even said something about it sitting on railings.

When I saw a picture of it, I knew I had identified the bird. It’s a black phoebe. I know a new kind of bird! Yay!

When the middle school comes in for recess, the lower grades go out. As I was coming up the stairs to go inside, one of the fifth grade girls handed me a wadded up index card. Here is what she wrote on it:

Oh my goodness! My eyes got watery. It was so sweet! I asked the fifth grade teacher if she had assigned the kids to write notes as part of Thanksgiving or something. She said that girl is just nice like that.

I wrote her a thank you note and left it on her desk while she was outside. I told her she made my day, and that I was looking forward to having her in class.

My church has been doing pilgrim-style communion for a while. They stopped doing tables because of covid, but yesterday for the first time they did table-style. It was so nice.

After church, I did my usual grading at school, then went home. I tried to do some Christmas decorations, but it didn’t work out. I was disappointed. But my disappointment went away when I got a package from Tennessee Debbie. She and Mark sent me some wind chimes. They sound beautiful! I love them! For now, I hung them in a closet. I have to figure out how to hang them somewhere permanent.

Yesterday I decided I’d put some Christmas lights on my house. Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time for Christmas. But I didn’t have any lights, so off I went….

I started the day by going out for breakfast. I went to a new place. A diner called Spires. They had biscuits and gravy! And it was good! I found a biscuits and gravy place! Woo hoo!

After breakfast, I went to several different places looking at Christmas lights I also needed hooks and a ladder. It took a while to find all the stuff I wanted, and when I got home, I hung the lights.

That is, I hung my new bathroom lights. They were waiting on the porch when I got home. My master bath has not had lights for a couple of weeks. Now it does! Beautiful light! Yay!

But the Christmas lights still need hanging. Maybe today?

Yesterday I went out on Black Friday, because I really enjoy the crowds. It’s like a party, and everyone’s invited!

This was my first Black Friday in LA, and I have to say – it confirmed what I keep saying about the people here – they’re so friendly! I don’t think I’ve ever heard so many excuse-me’s on a Black Friday. And people were smiling, and chatting with each other, and talking with strangers. What a delightful experience!

I needed two things: a toaster, and a food processor.
I sometimes eat toast, and I left my toaster oven in Maui, so I needed a toaster. I use a food processor once a year on Thanksgiving to make cranberry relish. This year I made it in a blender. It was difficult. I went to Target for both things. And they were both on sale! Woo hoo!

I also went to the mall. It was full of people. So much people-watching! Yay!

I went to the mall not to get something I needed, but to get something I wanted:

It’s this year’s Swarovski ornament! Yay! So sparkly! They’re in different boxes this year, and on a gold ribbon instead of silver. The woman who ran the register spent some time trying to convince me how good the change was. I didn’t need convincing. I get one of these each year now – a different ribbon won’t stop me.