Winter Breaks. What Winter?

We greet spring with renewed energy as sunshine warms winter's cold breath.  What winter?  Crocuses surround the trees and daffodils bloomed a month ago in Georgetown.  We hibernated in January while Tom suffered through a bout with pneumonia and waited impatiently for his lungs to heal.  Then one day he felt better and now he is out is running long miles for his annual half-marathon race in Moab mid-March.  I have relearned to walk and am building up strength in my injured leg with calibrated exercise.  I am so grateful to be able to walk again.

With Cynthia on the Magnificent Mile

Foggy Bottom flowers

Tom's first day out of bed on an expedition to the nearest WaWa

The metro up the street gives us chances to explore new places.  For Valentine's Day we took the Metro to Clarendon, where we chose sweets from Artisan Confections and then ate dinner at Pete's New Haven Style APizza.  It felt romantic to be footloose in the city.

I enjoy working with a new batch of students.  When they came over for chili they baked cookies and did all the dishes while we just chatted.  Between grading papers and taking students to briefings in DC, I have spent many a day waiting for furniture deliveries.  It was worth the wait.  We are grateful for our comfortable home, especially its sunny kitchen, and cozy family room.

Sunny kitchen

A good place to snuggle up and watch ESPN

Guest Room

Master bedroom

Bunk room

Children make a house a home, and luckily Charlie and Max broke in our new bunkbeds.  Charlie lost a tooth and the tooth fairy left her a sweet note and $3.  Max is an avid player of Fish and excellent at spying numbers while traveling on the highway.  It was hard for Charlie to name a favorite piece of art at the National Gallery, but the highlight for Max was definitely the light tunnel. The sunny day made it a pleasant visit to the memorials.

Jeff cooks us a feast with apple pie!

Tom and I drove to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia for a day with Lizzie, Jade, and Davey, captained by Katie.  (Jake was away at a job interview.) Tom kept up with the kids'  building and exploring, while Katie and I looked on from a comfortable bench nearby.  Those three have an amazing capacity to work and enjoy it as play. The carousel ride was a delightful interlude.  On the way home Tom and I stopped for dinner at a the The Black Olive on Fell's Point in Baltimore. 

Feeding them junk food.

Davey was in charge of recyling.

Dr. Lizzie will see you now.

We had a hard time getting Davey to finish shopping.

Tom continues to do important work for his company, and we enjoyed a delightful dinner last evening with one of his colleagues and her husband.  We traded stories about raising three boys and listened to her talk about the disorder in her native Zimbabwe. When I tire of the political chatter, it is nice to remember that we live in a place where global currents converge and we can visit with our children and grandchildren. 

 

 

Charlie's Lego Tree House

Thanksgiving Holiday Memories

Tom takes a turn at posting a blog--

The Drive and Arrival

We drove to South Orange on a drizzly day that turned into driving rain at times—so we were looking forward to the comfort of the Jeff and Jaime’s house. We weren’t disappointed; Max greeted us with hugs and Max showed me the Orange Crush that they had on hand “just for Pop Pop Tom!” 

After lunch we headed to Charlie’s school to pick her up and head to gymnastics. Charlie greeted us with big hugs in her classroom where we met her teachers Christine and Claire. Charlie introduced us to Homer, the class bunny rabbit, as well as the class tortoise and fish!

On the way to gymnastics we picked up Jeff at the train station. Charlie changed into gymnastics clothes and she and Max took to the floor with many varieties of pads, poles, trampolines, and a rope ladder. Charlie and Max responded well to instructions from their teachers Tammy and Paulo to climb, bounce, run, tumble and roll. Charlie showed us how to climb about 30’ to the top of the rope ladder.

We returned home from gymnastics via McDonalds for a fabulous lasagna dinner that Jaime made especially for Tom because Tom loves Jaime’s lasagna! Grandma Susan worked with Jeff and Charlie to make a scrumptious pumpkin pie AND cinnamon rolls the next morning’s breakfast. We helped Jaime decorate and prepare for the next day’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Thanksgiving Day

Tom went for an early morning jog and returned in time for a delicious breakfast of cinnamon rolls and left over lasagna! While Susan and Jaime cooked, Jeff, Charlie, Max and Grandpa headed to the park to swing, climb and slide. Charlie can swing very high and Max was slaying dragons as he slid down the slide. We arrived home in time for an afternoon in the back yard where Grandma and Grandpa watched Charlie play with bubbles, mud, and worms while Max tossed sticks and threw a ball at Tom while he rode down the driveway on Grandma’s scooter.

Dinner was on at 5pm: a delicious array of side dishes made by Jaime, beans, corn, cabbage, and yams, “champ” potatoes by Jeff, and wonderful bread made by Jaime. Their guests Warren and Betsy and their three children brought the turkey and gravy and lots of good cheer to the evening. The kids enjoyed their table while the grown ups chatted about various topics.  One was Star Wars--brought to our memory by the Chewbacca that Jeff created to put on the top of the pumpkin pie. 

The Drive Home and Withdrawal

After eating leftover pie for breakfast we headed home via Christine and Doug’s house where we enjoyed lunch with them, as well as Emma and Lee’s family and Christina and Mahali’s family. We dealt with grandchild withdrawal by going to the movies to see “Puss in Boots,” which all the grandchildren saw over the holiday! 

Saturday and More Family Fun

Jake, Katie, Lizzie, Jade and Davey joined us for lunch, Susan’s delicious chalupa recipe and lots of other sides, including Oreos for dessert. After making Lego Christmas trees with Grandma, we headed off to see the FDR and Martin Luther King Jr. memorials on the mall in Washington DC. The grand kids liked riding on Grandma’s scooter, as well as special parts of the memorials: FDR’s dog and wheel chair, the sayings of MLK inscribed on the granite walls, and the waterfalls. 

Back at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, Tom chatted with Davey on the front step about scary movies, sword fights and Puss in Boots. Meanwhile Susan and Katie helped Lizzie and Jade make apple turkeys out of toothpicks and gumdrops. They took their beautiful creations with them back to Princeton, but not until we enjoyed a nice dinner of ribs and hamburgers at Famous Dave’s.

Fall, Literally

Fall is lovely here, pleasant days and trees that glow orange and red.  For a week after my ankle surgery, precipitated by my fall down the steps in Salt Lake City, I looked out our bedroom window at the changing colors. Thanks to the ministrations of my sister, Christine, who took me into Georgetown for surgery, sat all day waiting, and left with our larder full of her good cooking, I survived.  Tom and my visiting teacher took it from there, and he does the wash and the cooking and cleaning while I recuperate.  He also cheers me on as I try to become more self-sufficient, like getting out to Best Buy on my knee walker.

Last Friday was a turning point for me.  We had a briefing at the Rayburn House Office Building with Congressman Matheson, then I scooted over to the House gallery to see a vote on my rented knee walker.  Students helped me on and off escalators and up the ramps so we could see the stragglers run into the well of the house to make the vote deadline. We found it very entertaining.  My loyal escort, LeAnne, took a cab with me over to the US Tax Court, where we ate an unforgettable(?) lunch at the Tax Court cafeteria before our briefing with Judge Swift.  He had concocted a mock trial and I laughed until my sides ached at our students taking on the roles of plaintiff, defendant, counsel, witnesses, judge, bailiff, jury, etc. in the tort case of Waters vs. Holland.  I'm so grateful to the generous people who give these briefings to our students.

Our students look sharp.

Me with my trusty knee walker.

Ms. Waters, supposed traffic chaser with my device as prop.

Jeff and Jaime, Charlie and Max visited over the weekend and it took my mind off my problems.  We enjoyed time in the play park and a visit to the Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum, just  few minutes away.  Charlie and Max decorated birdhouses with Tom.  Charlie dressed up in my fancy gown and Max bounced off the walls. Such a pleasant visit!

Photo by Jaime Rugh.

Battlefields

Today we went our separate ways to historic sites. Tom rode his bike to Mount Vernon, 60 miles round trip.

I went to Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry with the group, many miles in the comfort of our chartered bus.  After a visit to the new museum we toured the sites of the first, second, and third days--July 1-3, 1863--and their commemoration in stone.  The beautiful scenery and celebratory monuments insulate the visitor from the awfulness of the carnage--35,000 casualties and 7,000 battlefield deaths.  Few sites preserve the past as does Gettysburg.  From the number of markers and monuments it appears that from the time of the first shot all knew the import of the moment.  It is too beautiful.

We spent late afternoon visiting Harpers Ferry where three states intersect at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers.  Across the footbridge I inspected the remains of the C&O canal and thought of William C. Critchlow, my ancestor who built canals until the disabling accident that set him to reading the Bible and led him west to Zion.  Wild grasses fill the vacant stone trough and weeds climb up the rock walls.  Trees and bushes sprout from the stone piers, remnants of the bridge that was destroyed nearly 150 years ago.  Time passes slowly in Harpers Ferry, at Gettysburg it almost stands still.