His turn

My son turned the table on us tonight.

Instead of me reading to him, he read to us -- two stories: "A List" and "Dragons and Giants" out of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad Together.

Happy birthday MLK

"Mom. Did you know..." my son said from the backseat of our car. From the tone in his voice, I could sense what he was going to tell me was important.

"...that they used to have signs on the water fountains that said for whites only? And only white people could drink the water?" We reflected, in 6-year-old terms, how silly that was.

"And they didn't have enough seats on the buses and white people took all of the seats and black people had to sit in back?" my son continued. "...And there was this one woman, I forgot her name, who was really really tired and she sat down?"

"Rosa Parks," I said, helping him remember the Martin Luther King lesson he had learned in school.

Horse parts

"Horse parts," the manifest read on the box from Japan.

"I hope it's not the head," I joked with my husband as he opened the box. Images of the Godfather played through my head, while my son eagerly helped unwrap the contents.

"I think he uses a translator program," my husband said of his benefactor. Inside was a pair of stirrups a Samurai had used.

"I'm just happy...

I got a castle."

---My son, regarding his belated birthday present from Uncle Tyler, Aunt Lu and cousins Anthony and Nathan.

Not one, but two...

I'm used to my husband receiving packages of historic Japanese artifacts from all over the world.

He was showing me the suit of armor a man had sent from Japan that he had picked up at the post office this morning. We paused from looking at the sweat marks, bloodstains and cuts in the 300-year-old steel, leather and silk do (corselet), to answer a knock at the door.

My husband returned with a strikingly similar box -- exact same size and shipping information. It was a second suit of armor only in better condition. Another gift from the son of his former mentor.

That brings our total of complete suits of Japanese armor to five. I guess you never know when a warring samurai clan might invade Duluth.

The moment

I was holding my son and spinning him around the other day, enjoying his smile and shrieks of laughter.

"Hold onto me forever Mom," he pleaded. His eyes, demanding and earnest, were locked with mine.

Oh, how I wish that I could.

Today, I am thankful for...

• Three pumpkin pies baking in the oven.
• My husband and son calling me downstairs so I don't miss my favorite balloons in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
• My mother still visiting from West Virginia.
• My husband's relatives cooking the Thanksgiving meal.