Where have I been?

Early in January my laptop died. My habit had been to do my blogging, sitting on the couch. I was hoping to post more in 2008, but the laptop crash put a bit of a wrench in that plan. No problem, I will find a way to post more.

The weekend of January 12-13, I was almost fully occupied on the search committee for the new CEO of Star Island Corporation.

This weekend, Bethany came home from college with her friend Anna. It was really good to have her home and to see them interact. Of course, we had to teach Anna how to play Settlers and part way through the first game Bethany said "We don't have to be nice to her any more, she understands the game!"

And I have been quite busy knitting with the yarn that Bethany gave me for Christmas.

2 movies this weekend, Atonement and Enchantment. 2 weekends ago we saw Juno and The Savages. In order of how I liked them 1- Juno 2- Atonement 3-Enchantment 4-The Savages.

Surprised again, for the second time

I have been totally surprised twice in my life. The first one was on my 39th birthday. I had threatened close family and friends with death if they did anything on my 40th birthday so they surprised me on my 39th. I thought I was going to a play with Rachel and instead it was a surprise birthday party.

The weekend after my last post, at the jacket reunion, there was the second surprise. When I can get a picture of it I will post it here but briefly, many of the women that we have taught to make the jacket, secretly for the last few years have been making a quilt out of blocks that contain the fabrics from their jackets. They made 2 quilts, one for Amy and one for me. The quilts are absolutely amazing. The potluck was an opportunity to get together, and they presented the quilts part way through the evening.

Part of my baggage is that if I have something so special like this, I don't want to use it. Not this time. The quilt is on our couch and on these cold winter evenings, I have been crawling underneath it, feeling the warmth that our jacket community has given to me and everyone else involved.

Alert the Media - Jacket Reunion

I must say that I am getting very excited about our upcoming jacket reunion. This was Liz's idea and Jane implemented the idea.

A bit of background, for those who are unaware, a few years ago Amy and I discovered a wonderful woman in Acton, who designed a quilted jacket. One December, Amy and I went to her yearly sale and I bought a kit of fabric and pattern, and one snowy day a few weeks later the first jacket was hatched. I wore the jacket into church one evening and Nancy admired it. I mentioned that we could have an adult ed class making the jacket and we did. 10 of us were involved in the first class and we gave a summer worship service that next summer. Since then we had 2 more formal classes at church. We have also auctioned a jacket at the last 5 service auctions.

SO this Saturday, thanks to Jane and Liz, we are having a reunion potluck with as many of the jacketeers as we can get together with their families. My friend Cindy is coming from Mansfield and spending the night. She is in the middle of her 8 or 9th jacket.

My crazy idea is to post a slide show of jackets that have been made, so being last minute, I started last night collecting any digital images that I have taken. It is too last minute to have this ready for Saturday, so I'll bring what I have, take a "few" more pictures and find a place to post them to the web.

My long term dream is to have each person write a little blurb about what the jacket means to them and collect these where we post the pictures.

Here are a few pictures, AND there will be many more later.

Above is Sister-in-law Judy with her "New Year's Eve" jacket, and the original . . .

Our last 2 weekends - and retrospect of Christmas

As we coast into the New Year, I decided to keep my resolutions simple.

This all started at a Solstice celebration on December 21st put on at church. It was a lovely lay led worship service. Rather than lighting candles we extinguished lit candles symbolically snuffing out what we wanted to leave behind for this past year. I wanted to leave behind worrying. On the surface I don't seem to be a worrier but I am. I worry about "stupid" stuff, but it is not stupid if is causes me to worry.

I must continue on this tangent because it is classic. I decided at the Solstice, to not worry about whether my car was going to have trouble on our 2 long car trips planned for the next 2 weekend. Our trip to Vermont on December 22nd and 23rd was uneventful in regards to the car. It was a perfect celebration of an early Christmas at Chris and Meg's apartment. They recreated so many traditions that are part of Russell/Lowe/Swartzbaugh Christmases e.g. eggs benedict, playing games, learning new games, staying in PJs as long as humanly possible, stockings before breakfast, presents after etc. We also did some new stuff; wandered up and down Church street in Burlington, and sat and watched their cat Radar, like adults watch a toddler. It really was wonderful time with Chris and Meg; and the car got us there and back.

The next weekend, on our way to Princeton for Rebecca Anderson's wedding was a different story. Our car died 3 hours into the trip in Danbury CT. As we smelled the rubber, and saw the temperature indicator rise to H, we pulled off into a shopping lot. AAA is a wonderful organization and we certainly get our monies worth out of it. Within 90 minutes, we had a tow truck hauling it back to our mechanic in Waltham, and they arranged a rental (they came and picked us up) and were back on the road continuing to Princeton NJ. Bethany blamed the car trouble on the gas station on the Mass Pike where we filled up. It was the same gas station where she and Rod filled up 18 months ago on their college hunting trip, and that time the transmission failed on her car mid way through their trip. Another great AAA experience 18 months ago; they got it towed, found a rental, taxi, hotel and the next morning she and Rod were on their way. So if you believe Bethany DON'T FILL YOUR CAR up at the Charlton Rest Area on the Mass Pike. She warned us not to fill up there last Friday, but we did not listen to her.

The wedding was wonderful. Bethany has a second family who are the Andersons. They were her day car providers from 6 weeks old, through kindergarten and school vacations and summers after that. All 6 kids took care of Bethany in addition to Valerie. Rebecca and Bethany have maintained a wonderful friendship. She is already trying to convince Bethany to go to grad school at Berkeley to be close to Rebecca and her new husband Mark. The wedding was a wonderful time for all of us. A walk down memory lane.

Now back in Lexington, the car is fixed and we are into a New Year. I am keeping resolutions simple this year. I am going to try to stop worrying as much, and I am going to try to use canvas bags for shopping instead of plastic. Last year my resolution to exercise more has become a habit and since the service, I do try to worry a bit less. Less worry is not a habit yet, but I am practicing. As far as shopping bags are concerned, I put a few canvas bags in my car and need to make this a habit.

We did break with tradition this year. We usually put together our Christmas letter and picture collage and get it out before Christmas. In this letter we have been inviting everyone to a First Foot party on New Year's Day at our house. We did not get the letter out this year and decided not to have the party. A couple of people who always bring the same thing (we say bring your leftovers to get rid of them) emailed to see if we were having the party. Today was more relaxing than most New Year's Days for us and we might get our letter out for Valentine's Day. So the Holidays were a bit different this year. They were more relaxed in a way and busier because of the travel. They were Bethany's first Christmas holiday from college. We simplified even more and it felt good to focus on the spirtual and family traditions and not the material aspect of Christmas.