A gentle bump. Yesterday we went to my Mom and Dad's farm out in the country near Herman to celebrate Christmas. Originally we had intended to go down on Christmas Eve as part of our annual tradition, but a huge snowstorm put a stop to that. Yesterday we continued one of our annual traditions which was "The hunting of the rabbit." I grew up mostly on farms, and hunting and guns were a big part of my childhood. My brother passed away a few years ago I and I keep all of his guns at our house. Every year at Christmas or Thanksgiving I take Charlie, Matt's Son, my newphew, out hunting. It's really the only opportunity we have anymore. My father's old farmhouse sits on 15 acres with some forest, open fields, and a small pond. For about four years now we have tramped through the woods and underbrush and have sometimes scared up a rabbit, but it has always dashed off before anyone could get off a shot.

This year Charlie was able to raise his 20 gauge shotgun, take aim, and make a perfect shot on a fat little rabbit from the other side of the pond. I showed Charlie how to dress it, and last evening we shared a delicious meal of roast rabbit. I'm not a huge hunter any more, but I do consider this part of my heritage and I want to be able to share it with Charlie because he is an outdoorsman like his father was.

My Dad knows I am into 16mm films and he gave me one of the coolest Christmas gifts I have received. He found an ancient 16mm film projector in an antique store. It's a 1947 Keystone Model-161 portable 16mm film projector in perfect working condition. I projected an old silent film through it last night. It's a pretty amazing functional antique.

Today it's 60 degrees outside and I'm going to celebrate by going fishing for a couple of hours. Later this evening I'm going to watch the disaster of a train wreck that is the end of the Rams football season on Monday night football. It should be entertaining, in the same way that watching any form of self-destructive behaviour can be called 'entertaining'.

Charlie's Rabbit
Charlie's Rabbit
Me and Charlie and the Rabbit

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