Each one of us grows up thinking a group of singers and musicians are the best. As we get older, they get older too. Not just physically, but passe in their "cool factor."

Our parents were old fuddy-duds to us kids and their taste in music was boring. Not us --- we were hip, cool, and the music we loved and experienced life with was "cutting edge" radical!

The problem with this is, as time marches on, each generation sees cool as something different. There is always something new. There is always something exciting on the horizon until one day the question is, "Who IS that singing?" Our feeling is, once the sounds gets farther away from our early musical experience, the more we give up on learning about the hottest groups and singers.

Us old rock'n'rollers are lucky enough to have years and years of our music still playing on the airwaves, but sticking with just the "oldies" can close us off from changing sounds and experiences. Even the poetry of the lyrics has changed greatly. Like almost everything else, creativity in music is continually exploding in all directions.

Instead, let's have it all --- love the oldies and, at least, listen to the alternatives! Every generation has something to say and each extreme of the spectrum has something worthy to express, as well as all the range of notes in between.

Music is universal and it will always unite people worldwide.

The day after Thanksgiving is called "Black Friday," supposedly because many retailers cross over into the success side of accounting on this gigantic day of shopping. The newspapers are filled with glossy booklets full of tantalizing ads. By nightfall, a collective "in the black" sign of relief is heard across the entire US of A.

Also, every Friday has recently been designated "Red Friday" to encourage everyone to wear the passionate color of red in support of our troops serving in the military around the world. That has melded nicely with the older, but still surviving, "Casual Friday" by teaming blue jeans with an appropriate red top of one's choosing.

However, only for today, since most people are off work and shopping, can black, red, and casual be combined into one bold fashion statement while spending one's saved holiday money to save our nation's retailers!

Now, go and shop, but just make sure you're dressed properly!!

Today we started the task of putting up our ten foot Christmas tree. Since we had such a high ceiling in this house, we needed a big tree and, because of my allergies, we opted for an artificial Blue Spruce. It's a beautiful tree, well-made, but it has become out-of-date with all the improvements of fold-out firs, already decked with twinkling lights.

Each tier of limbs has to be assembled correctly and fanned out in an attempt to copy Mother Nature's flair for beauty. My husband puts the limbs into the slots and I try to adjust each one. The tips of every small branch has to be slightly turned up to mimic the real thing.

I am obsessive in trying to make each tiny plastic needle go in the right direction. I like the little branches just so..............

Oh, my gawd, I have turned into my FATHER!!!

My father was fanatical when it came to ice cycles.

The silver tinsel had to be placed, one at a time, on the live tree. All had to hang down exactly alike. We kids were terrible at this, or else we did it wrong on purpose to see his face turn red. Then when he would leave the room, we'd throw wadded up balls of crinkled ice cycles all over the tree, especially at the top! We were hopeless. But Dad never gave up trying to reform us to do it his way, so I guess, that's why NOW I'm so determined to get those fake fir tree limbs to go just right.

Today I asked the question of what is the real reason for Thanksgiving? It's not the food, even though that's all we ever hear about anymore. Turkey, dressing, green beans casserole, pumpkin pie are all good and in the American tradition, but that isn't why the holiday is important to us. Food is only fuel for our body.

The reason is we want to be together with family and friends and "break bread" together in a large communal meal. The fellowship is the most important part of the Thanksgiving feast. The first Thanksgiving may have been only about the life-giving food that had sustained those Pilgrims in a new land, but, to me, inviting the Native Americans to the gathering changed that reason, turning it into something new and wonderful.

I, and many others, didn't cook this Thanksgiving. It was still one of the best celebrations ever. We went to a place and with other families enjoyed the afternoon together. The fall decorations and tons of traditional foods were part of it, but the time spent together is what really made the day!

I am thankful for everyone in my life.

Too pretty to pay for a crime? Her lawyers kept her out of prison saying she was "too pretty," even though she admitted she was guilty of statutory rape. The twenty-five year old was sentenced to house arrest, and a few other inconveniences, but it comes down to a slap on the wrist by anyone's standards.

All of us are pretty at a young age, but how one lives one's life can take the blush right out of those innocent cheeks. I would say she's had a bad start on her life and now she's given a 14 year old boy a worse start. It was wrong and she knew it was wrong --- because she actually said she enjoyed having sex with the youngster because it was forbidden. That comment tells me, if the situation arises, she will do it again. She is the type of person from which we need to protect our children.

I say, let her go to prison and then we'll see how pretty she is after six months in the prison laundry. Dark roots, sleepless nights, and no makeup should finish off that well-kept look she's perfected while seducing underage boys. But they didn't ask me, so we'll see in a few years if she's learned her lesson.

If I was Debra Lafave's momma, I would have told her that "Pretty is as pretty does."