Happy Thanksgiving

K14 was telling me the other day, "Mom, we need to get a chimney sweep out here so we can start a fire in the fireplace." It barely gets below 40 degrees here, so fires are few and far between.

Growing up, we had a fireplace. Every year for Christmas I would buy my dad the exact same thing - a box of fireplace matches and a package of color crystals that you throw into the fire, causing the flame to turn beautiful colors. I remember us trying to pop popcorn in the fireplace popcorn popper. It was tiring to hold that thing and shake it over the fire. Once Dad had some wood sitting on the hearth, and it was full of carpenter ants. I remember that when he threw the logs into the fire, that the ants made a hissing sound. I remember feeling sorry for the ants because they were experiencing a painful death.

On Christmas Eve, dad would open the fireplace curtain and move the grate sideways so that it looked disturbed. Then he would take his shoes and put them in the ashes and walk them across the floor, making it appear that Santa had been there.

I LOVE fires in the fireplace, but I am afraid of leaving the embers unattended when we go to bed.

~Happy Thanksgiving!~

A crooked log makes a straight fire.