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.

Junket to Philly

This weekend we  took a field trip with the students to Philadelphia and environs.  We enjoyed a tour of Valley Forge with our guide sharing some colorful stories to keep us awake.  The weather was just crisp as we tramped around the cannons and huts.  The Freedoms Foundation hosted our group, and their dog, Ulysses, was the biggest star of the show, even more than Thomas Jefferson.  Tom laced up his running shoes the moment we arrived and found some good trails.  We took a lovely walk through the Medal of Honor grove until the mosquitoes found us.

Saturday we spent in Philadelphia at the Constitution Center and Independence Hall.  I was surprised at the orange and blue paint--not what I remembered as a little girl.  After lunch at the Bourse we ditched for the Philadelphia art museum.  It will take me a few more visits to understand Duchamp's The Large Glass but I appreciated Van Gogh's Sunflowers right away.  While waiting for the Phlash bus we watched a bride being photographed, wind lifting her veil.  Our day was capped by a pizza dinner at Marra's on Passyunk, very south Philly, very Italian. The students made quick work of 12 pizzas and as many pitchers of soda.

James Madison was about my height.

We are almost packed for our move on Wednesday to the new townhouse and I have no regrets leaving this high rise apartment surrounded by corporate offices and shopping malls.  Vienna, where we will be living, is a nice mix of neighborhoods, parks and schools.  I'm ready to buy a pumpkin for the porch and choose some colorful mums for the garden.  I am getting lost less often and still cannot figure out why every third street is Old Courthouse Road.

Ours is on the left.

Remembering and Deliverance

Umbrellas in hand, the students and I took the Metro to the Pentagon 9/11 memorial.  We scattered ourselves across the site in clusters, some listening to the audio tour on their phones.  I entered by way of the age wall that soon was taller than me.  I turned to the right and the vista opened.  As I walked I traveled forward in time from the birth year of the oldest (1930) to the youngest (1998) victim.  The name of each victim is engraved in the stainless steel casing of a polished granite plinth suspended over a pool of running water.  Flowers had been left on some of the graves, and others were bound by wide white ribbons. The benches of plane passengers point inward, of Pentagon workers outward.

I heard my footsteps on the gravel surface and turned my head at the noise of jets passing overhead.  I was reminded of the power of the machine to carry us up into the sky, or deep into the grave.  The sun came out and the beads of water on the benches evaporated.  We stood in the shade cast by crape myrtle trees.  In class today we talked about why it took a tragedy to unite a nation, and it's a good question for us in a city full of memorials. As the nation remembers 9/11 this weekend, I will remember little Dana Falkenberg and the 184 lives lost here on that sunny September morning ten years ago.

Pentagon Memorial