“Poor wise men.” Hannah presses her freckled nose against the back window. “I feel sorry for them.”
They have just driven by their church, which is down the street from their home. Every December, the church displays a manger scene with life-size statues. Even the camels are their real size.
“Why in the world do you feel sorry for statues?” Her momma asks.
“Because all they do is follow the bright star.” Hannah answers. “They never reach baby Jesus.”
“It’s okay sweetie.” Her daddy tells her. “They’re not real anyway.”

“I don’t know what it is, but it’s coming up behind us!” Alan’s voice rose.
He is the husband of my cousin and best friend Lynda. A few years ago, they had an extra ticket to the Smokies game. She called and asked if I wanted to go. Does the sun come up? Of course I wanted to go. She and her family stopped by and picked me up on the way to the game. I sat in the back with their son Clark.
When Alan made his announcement, we were driving east on I-40. Naturally we turned back and looked into the traffic behind us. As for me, all I saw were a mass of cars.

The other day, I found the grave marker of my baby sister. It was an emotional moment, because I was eight when she died as an infant in 1961. She had laid in that spot unvisited for almost twenty years because the only people with sure knowledge of her whereabouts had all passed on. When I found her grave, I saw where other baby angels had been interred. Their gravestones looked as neglected as my sister’s had been.

Those that hold to the tradition of using a real tree enjoy the smell and feel of a natural product that comes from a renewable resource. Buying one can also help support small family farms, so it has many positives. On the downside, a Christmas tree is a living thing that requires some extra care to be sure it doesn’t dry out and pose a fire hazard. Here are some tips from the National Christmas Tree Association on keeping your Christmas tree fresh and green as long as possible.
- When you get the tree home place it in water as soon as possible.

Each month, nearly eight hundred books are mailed out to children across Union County through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Governor’s Books from Birth Foundation. Maynardville Public Library hosts as the headquarters of the foundation here in Union County, investing their time and efforts in assuring that the hundreds of children in the county that have signed up for the free program are receiving their reading materials each and every month.

This year, fall was slow to move in, but winter has fallen in quickly behind with freezing temperatures and a beautiful early snowfall. Kids, and those with a youthful heart, gleamed with joy as they awakened on Tuesday, November 12 to a beautifully, cotton tinted blanket of snow across the county. The excitement swept across the smiles of many faces as they sprinted out in the early morning hours, some unable to wait until sunrise, in their bundles beneath the gray clouded skies.

Thanksgiving is one of the high holidays of the US, involving traditions of being with family, eating a bountiful meal of traditional foods, and hopefully taking time to give thanks for what we have been given. You know the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving involving Pilgrims, Native Americans, feasting and all that, but history is always good to review occasionally, as you often learn something new.

Human joints come in many shapes and sizes and allow us to move and carry out normal activities of daily living. Without joints, we would be rigid and immobile. But they are also often injured, causing pain and discomfort. The most commonly injured joints are the knees, shoulders, ankles and spine. Approximately 30 million doctor visits a year are due to knee and shoulder injuries alone. Some 150 million to 200 million cases of back pain send people to the doctor every year—and many of those are related to joint injuries. Most sports-related injuries involve damage to the joints.

It’s in the Head!
(or Is It?)

As I write this article, next week will be Thanksgiving. I am thankful, among many things, for opportunities and health to share meals with good friends and coworkers. One of the greatest honors for me is to be invited into someone’s home for a meal or be bought a meal in public. It is also a great honor to be allowed to purchase meals for friends. I have never purchased a meal for anyone that the kindness wasn’t returned many times over.

It was the crash that was heard around the world. Well…not exactly. It was the crash that was heard all over Tim’s parent’s house. After the crash, the next sound I heard was Tim’s mother calling out, “Oh no!” I jumped up and ran downstairs. While I knew she wasn’t hurt, I knew something was wrong and it was most likely my fault.

When I reached the kitchen, the first thing I noticed were pieces of a dish spread out across the floor. It had completely shattered. Standing next to the pieces was Tim’s mother.