It's January already

Happy New Year.  A new year, new beginnings, new hope.

Many years ago, when Ann celebrated her birthday, we traded in Uncle All's Christmas gift of $10 to get Ann a present, sometimes a record or a poster or a pen.  Happy birthday Ann.

Let's go chronologically since the last letter.  One Sunday morning, Mary and I woke up in the dark, but not at 3am as we originally expected, since we found out the flight from Sao Paulo was delayed. Still, in the dark, we headed down to Newark to pick up four very tired travelers from Brazil.  The two boys slept pretty much the whole way home, even through a stop at Dunkin Donuts.  Everyone had gotten their negative test results while sitting on the tarmac, so they were good to go.

Luckily (I think) it had snowed a few days earlier – about 15 inches – and it was still on the ground.  So the first few days we spent time outside sledding, making snow angels, having snow fights, exploring and climbing over the plowed snow "mountains." 

Baby John ventured out but not as long as his older brother.  Grandma used to say that Uncle Andrew was such a good baby, just sitting in his playpen and watching the "show" all around.  I think Baby John has inherited that mantle - if Grandma were here she might even call him "chill." 

Annie and Sankar came up and joined us for Christmas, staying through the celebration of Joe's birthday.  Not quite as dramatic as the festivities at Pomfret, but still fun, with Thomas helping blow out the candles and unwrap the presents.

Margaret, Andrew and Simon celebrated with us via Zoom, following the quarantine rules for DC which would have meant no day care for Simon when they returned.  We missed them, but that's the kind of year it is.

We saw photos of Facebook of Christmas in other parts of the Dickson world, including musical renditions from Everett and Donald, puppy portraits from DC and Pennington, and a grinch in Albany (Natalie on Facebook with her face painted green!)  Claire was able to get home, but after Christmas, I think.  Bill and Jen and their children headed to Andrew and Lur's for Christmas eve and Daniel had ventured west from Chicago as well! 

John and Marilyn were hunkered down in Daytona and Timmy was on the road again, somewhere in southern California, the owner of a new Rav4.   

I bet you all partook in many of the same activities we did over the last week or so – walking, watching and listening to the Muppets, putting together jigsaw puzzles, playing board games, watching football games, preparing and eating wonderful meals by so many different cooks, returning to the stores to stock up on provisions, playing games on phones and singing songs.  'Tis the season…

Here is a winter season adventure and a tip.  Start with the tip – mice don't like dryer sheets so put a few in your car.  The adventure was a routine service trip that turned into an $11,000 repair to replace the wiring the mice had eaten in my car and the air bags they had nested in.  Ratatouille it was not.  Anyway, the other tip was that insurance might pay for it, and sure enough they did.  The claims agent told me he writes about 4-5 claims a week for mice, just in Toyotas who apparently had switched to a soy-based insulation for their wiring.  Hope this adventure doesn't become a tradition.  Hence the dryer sheets.

Breaking news from DC – just saw a photo of Simon on his hands and knees.  About to make the transition to crawling.

Just think, one year ago, we had no idea.  We were happy and unaware of what lay ahead.  Here's a toast to all the adventures that lie ahead this year, especially as we emerge from our hibernations.

Love from up here.