Soon it was time to give work a break and be with family for the Thanksgiving holiday. A trip out the airport to pick up one of my sons, coming in from Laguna Beach and we were ready to enjoy family time. The next morning F. J. strapped into her car seat with Tootsie AKA Batman, our Italian Greyhound, and headed over the river and through the woods to our mountain cabin for a hectic Thanksgiving with my extended family which consisted of many, many people bunking on every surface of the place. She complained a little about Tootsie's breath and chose not to spend much more time with her on her little jaunt to the mountains (she did enjoy riding on the other dogs who came for the holiday). She seemed to enjoy playing the guitar and even tried her hand at the keyboard with my nephew, it was amazing to see how fast she picked up Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. There were many meals enjoyed over four days of festivity and fun. She seems particularly drawn to pickles, pastry and oyster stuffing. As a matter of fact for several days after Thanksgiving she wasn't exactly "flat Juliette", but has now returned to her girlish figure after attending some rigorous trips to the gym with me. She is pretty good on the Stairmaster, but couldn't bench very much weight. I hope the next people she visits will work on her muscle strength.
She particularly enjoyed playing Frisbee Golf on our mountain course, consisting of many great views of valleys, peaks and examined the scat of numerous wild animals like a scientist. She didn't particularly like it when we found the skeleton of a deer that some mountain cats had left, but overall seems to be an outdoor sort. She liked reading her book in our treehouse and even tried her hand on our shooting course. My nephews commented that she was kind of a girly-girl and only rolled her eyes at their video games.
One early morning, while I was pecking away at my keyboard, trying to find the magical ending for my newest picture book, which I am gearing more toward my female audience, she offered some advice. Also, while thinking about a few character names, she offered up several... hmmm... as I thought over her choices, rolling the names around in my head... Chocie, Katie, Claire, Morgan, Cora, Becca S., Alyssa, Jocelyn, Emily Ann, Patty... I wondered if any of those names might show up in my new creation...
She did enjoy going searching for our annual Christmas trees and helped strap them on top of the old SUV.
F. J. REALLY likes to play hide-n-seek! When it was time for dinner, we couldn't find her, but soon learned she likes to go where Santa is. She was hiding in our bathroom on the counter next to the Santa night light and just as we started to "trim the tree" she climbed up the boughs and found her place next to one of the many Santa ornaments in our collection.
At one point F. J. climbed up the bookshelves in my office and found some of the books I have written. After some reviews, advice and editorial commentary, she of course told me her favorite was Oliver Kringle, which I wrote about Santa's brother. She really likes Santa A LOT!
She went to church with us and got to hear about the REAL reasons for the season and it seems she likes Jesus as much or actually even more than Santa.
I finally had to take my iPhone away from F. J. because she was snapping shots of everything! Here are a few of her pictures. She liked my No Shave November look had to snap a picture of me at my desk along with sunrise, sunset and frosty pics.
Well, we are sorry to see F. J. go. I'm posting this blog on my Facebook site https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Works-of-Justin-Matott/213624096290?ref=ts
to see who would like to take her on her next adventure.
If there are no takers, I will send her on her way to see some of our very best friends in Texas, where she will be in the house of two teenage girls... Oh Lordy, talk about drama! Come join my blog and keep up with the further adventures of an imagination in progress http://justinmatott-snickers.blogspot.com/
I hope F. J. has many great adventures and look forward to seeing where she will go.
Thanks for reading,
Justin Matott
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