It's Official

Sean's engaged.  And Erin's engaged!  To each other!  Wonderful news, and, piecing together the posts on Facebook, I would venture to say that Sean popped the question on a hike.  For those of us scared of heights, we were thrilled with the news, but a little worried about the drop behind an otherwise very happy Sean and Erin.  Or is it Erin and Sean.  And did we say CONGRATULATIONS!  

Speaking of Facebook, an idea came up over the weekend to start a Pop's Weekly Letter group on Facebook.  And so I did.  I invited whoever I could, but some of us are not on Facebook or at least not my friend (hint, hint).  That's okay, since I'll continue to write the blog posts.  But this may encourage everyone to share shorter stuff with the group, and just so you know, it's a secret group so only the readers of Pop's weekly Letter can see it.   Plus the Russians.

It begs the question.  What would Pop say?  Well, we know he was resistant to using Grandma's computer, and he enjoyed his pencil and paper and carbon copies and individual letters to each of us, sometimes filled with articles he cut out.  So, we can probably guess.  Still, I think if we start a Pop's Weekly Letter Twitter feed, that might be one step too far.  So, please feel free to post stuff on it, not that anyone is shy about posting stuff on your regular accounts.  

What we have already seen there are a couple of photos from Margaret who ended her Thanksgiving weekend by heading to Haiti on Sunday.  From there, she's going to Santo Domingo, before heading home.  All work, and maybe a little fun.  Hopefully. By the way, she did have a little fun on a work trip to NYC when she met up with Johanna for dinner.

Margaret and Andrew hosted all of us on Thanksgiving, and this year we had a new person at the table - Thomas.  He did so well, even with all the commotion.  By the end of dinner, he had ended up with Annie and Margaret, dancing and singing.

Jeff and Melodie were also able to join us.  They had tried a couple of years ago, but they had come down with colds and pulled out at the last minute.  This year, with mac and cheese, with baked brie and apple pies, they made it.  

Annie made her first trip back to the east coast since moving out to the other coast.  We had toyed with the idea of her catching an Uber from the airport, but when I went to pick her up, I realized how impossible that might have been.  There were a few other people there who were also probably looking for an Uber.  She might have missed Thanksgiving.  Anyway, she left DC for a week in Montreal.  For work, and hopefully a little fun as well. 

How come Joe didn't go anywhere after Thanksgiving?  Well, because he had just gotten back from a week in Australia.  Holy shrimp on the barbie!  (Do they say that down under?  Do they even say down under?)

All in all, it was a wonderful Thanksgiving, and you guessed it, there was way too much food.  Even more than last year.  It was nice to have Andrew's mom and dad there with us - they had come down from Lancaster for the night.

Thomas by the way is growing up rapidly, by the day.  More alert, more happy, and more intellectual.  Leonor takes him to story time at the local library and yoga classes!

So, how was your Thanksgiving?  We heard that David and Paula were with Tina's parents, along with Matthew and Oliver and Donald, who also seems to be growing by the day, and happier by the day.  We see regularly see him flipping the pages of a book as well, so he must also be more intellectual.  

Andrew mentioned that they had a houseful with Claire and Daniel home, and Lur's sister up from Florida.  And Peter and Janet headed for Janet's cousin Dede's for the day, along with Johanna and Sean and Erin.  Was there too much food at your celebrations as well?  

We touched base with John and Marilyn on our long drive down to DC, and they were going to friends for the big day.  We made plans for a trip to Florida this spring.  That's hopeful.

More importantly, how did you spend Black Friday?  We went to the mall, as we were told but we didn't see anyone else shopping.  (The mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol Building.)  Or small business Saturday?  Or, cyber Monday and giving Tuesday?  So what's tomorrow?  Weight loss Wednesday?  Sounds good to me.

Has anyone else been receiving catalogs?  I don't know how they make money printing all those catalogs.  We must get 4 from Land's End and LL Bean each week.  I did read that only 20% of retail is on line so I guess there's still money to be made out there somewhere.

So, the wreath is up, but I won't turn the lights on until December.  Just a thing I have.  I did see something from Jeffrey that he may get the award for the Dickson with the most lights.  Send us a picture.

Anyway, it's a wonderful holiday, everyone's favorite.  Hope you all enjoyed it.  This year was made special by Sean and Erin's announcement.

Love from up here.

​

 

   

Giving thanks

The papers that arrived at the end of our driveway today were so big they could hardly fit in the protective plastic bags.  That could only mean one thing:  one day closer to Black Friday.  If only Thanksgiving didn't get in the way.  (You're supposed to be laughing, not cringing.)

It's not as if we haven't had enough cringe-worthy news lately.  Uggh.  At the same time, Mary has retreated back to the marvels of Andy of Mayberry, which she watches with her Aunt Mary every Tuesday afternoon when she goes to visit.  You can get Mary going on the subject, but it may be time to start streaming Andy Griffith.  

Anyway, we headed south to Washington last week for a colleague's retirement party ostensibly, but really that was just an excuse to check in on Thomas, who is wonderful.  Healthy and happy, growing and alert.  We even got to watch him all by ourselves.  I should say all by Mary's self, although as luck would have it, after holding him for all of 30 seconds over a two hour period, Leonor chose that moment to come home and see Thomas in my arms.  Grandpa John got and took all the credit.   

We were able to spend time with Margaret and Andrew, enjoying dinner with them, thanks to a lamb and corn pie that Uncle Andrew had sent.  Gerry and Dennis joined us and they were busy doing door-to-door canvassing in Virginia for their candidate.  (Guess??)  Joe was not home, since he had traveled to Sydney for a week's worth of meetings.  That's not Sydney Maine or Ohio.  Australia.  The wonder of technology is that he could do video calls from there every day to check in on his son, who became animated every time he saw his father on the little screen.

Both Margaret and Andrew are busy at work, with Margaret taking Spanish classes and Andrew in the middle of another semester of public health schoolwork.  

How do you measure how wonderful the weekend was?  The scale.  I gained five pounds.  Too much, so when we got back we spent the new few days on a "cleanse" but I think I've gained it all back again.  It's hard this time of year, especially because of my wacky theory that we humans are just like animals and need to beef up for the long winter hibernation.  A good excuse for indulging between Halloween and Christmas. 

On the drive home, we talked to Annie, who was just finishing a long hike through a nearby redwood forest.  Heavenly.  We also checked in with John and Marilyn who were planning their schedule over the next year, to include a cruise along the Rhine River.  And Mary finally reached her brother Tim, to wish him a happy birthday.  Tim threw out that he was thinking of moving back to Pittsfield.

News from Dundee is that Billy has a new job with Cisco.  Congratulations!!  

 Other news: We had dinner one night with Colleen, who had stayed here looking after the cat while we were in Italy.  We saw on Facebook that Matthew had had a twinge of sorts in his back which they were worried might be a return of his spine issues.  After a day of tests, it looks like all is well.  Phew.

We just finished the makeover of our basement, which has involved going through all the stuff we had stored in there, including boxes that had been taped up as far back as Silver Spring so many years ago.  One box, which must have come from Pomfret was labeled "Ann."  In it were a number of letters and photos that were in Ann had in her apartment in Cincinnati.  I will send around a few of the important, sad letters, but I did want to share a couple of photos in this letter.  One is of a Thanksgiving in Wilton with Grandma and a very young Paula; the other I'm not sure if it's from Wilton, but featured is a very happy auntie holding a very young Matthew with a very young father.

When we were young.  

With that, love from up here.  Happy Thanksgiving!!

​
​