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!!
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