CHRISTMAS 2009
Well, here we are: nine years of this new millennium completed; or as I call them, the “ought-naughts”. I thought I had started a “log” of sorts, recording things I wanted to remember for this letter; however, looking through my files, I find one labeled “notes for 2007 Christmas letter”. Time does fly.
Ainsley spent her Spring and Fall semesters in Madrid, having more fun than God, as far as we can tell. She gets home at about the same time as we do – although she is 6 hours ahead of us. Still, her academics appear to be in order, and her scholarship continues in force – what can we say? She was able to visit friends in Bulgaria, Copenhagen and Helsinki before she spent her summer back in Chatham. We look forward to having her at home for a week or two when she arrives 23 December, before she moves into her Washington, DC apartment to finish off her time at American University. We are so thrilled to see her and her friends traveling all over the world. Surely, their global perspective gives hope to everyone’s future!
Our AFS daughter from Chile, Carolina, spent two days with us with boyfriend in tow as they were on their way to spend their “summer” vacation working at Jackson Hole , Wyoming. We haven’t seen her since 2007, although Ainsley was able to visit Carolina and try out her skiing legs last Christmas vacation at Jackson Hole.
Jim has been increasingly occupied with the Red Cross this year – he now has a Blackberry and special laptop to provide off-hours technical support. He also is involved in the amateur radio group which supports the Red Cross and was deployed last winter to Worcester and Leominster, MA, to help with the ice storms which blew across the Northeast. He has many meetings and conference calls, and we have to coordinate our calendars more carefully than before.
We were fortunate to take one of the first Bermuda cruises from Boston available from Norwegian Cruise Lines to celebrate our 25th! anniversary. Seeing Bermuda again after 30 years was wonderful. We even ran into a now old man named “Alabama” who I met when I sailed into St. Georges harbor in a “former” life. Although shopping was highly touted, all we could find to buy were some discounted cd’s of Arabic and Mandarin language courses – still undigested – but maybe during the dark of winter…The food was good. To our credit, however, we eschewed all elevators and walked, walked, walked.
My Middle School Drama Club was fairly quiet after New Years, although we began introducing “A Tale of Two Cities” which will be produced in April of 2010 – a daunting undertaking. A small group of “Karen’s Kids” will be doing an afternoon of improvisation for Chatham’s First Night celebration this year. I spent the spring stage managing an Agatha Christie thriller, “Black Coffee”, the summer playing the Nana in a musical version of “Velveteen Rabbit”, as well as reprising “2 Across” from last year. In October, I played Linda Loman in “Death of a Salesman”, which was both wonderful and exhausting. Julie Harris came and hugged me after, as we both wiped tears. That was, needless to say, a real thrill.
On my bicycle, I ran into someone’s opening car door in May, broke my right pinky finger in two places, had some metal installed. In July, riding my bicycle, I hit a bump and in an effort to spare my healing finger, broke my wrist – got some more metal installed. The wrist is fine, the pinky was re-operated on late November to free up some frozen ligaments, and I am working hard to move it back and forth. Not too much riding these days, but I haven’t given up. Jim thinks I should get a tricycle, but it wouldn’t fit in the garage with my other bikes. I have developed a dreadful addiction to dark chocolate M&Ms, which has put a few pounds around my belly while I sit around healing.
I continue to be moderator of our church, a member of the Human Services and Bikeways Committees, coordinator of volunteers in the Middle and High Schools, and substitute teacher. I think about taking a year “off”.
So, as always, I write way more about myself – it’s not so much an ego issue as it is familiarity with my own affairs – it’s more difficult to sift through, so I hope you are not offended.
Both Jim and I wish you the happiest of holidays and a wonderful “Twenty-Ten”.