Christmas 2018

What a year it has been!

Starting with Ainsley: she finished the requirements for her MBA at Cambridge University in August, returning to this side of the pond in September. We will go to Cambridge in April to see her graduation. While studying this past year, she also found time to visit Kenya (where she fostered me an orphan elephant, Enkesha, in March), Nigeria, Ghana, and Uganda in Africa, and France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland (and probably others) in Europe. She also made it to Scotland, Wales, and other British areas. She IS a global citizen and we are so proud. She also competed on the Varsity Gymnastics team! Upon returning to DC, she continued working for the World Bank, teaching yoga, and just closed on a condo in NW DC, which we look forward to seeing at Christmas.

Jim continues with his ukulele lessons, and plays with a community group in Harwich. He also has kept Red Cross communications antennas atop the John Hancock Building in Boston working. In October, he went down to Tallahassee and Panama City to help deal with the ravages of Hurricane Michael. It was ironic the day he called me to help him get from point A to point B because there was no cell availability for him. My computer skills somehow got him where he needed to be. This event seemed a particularly difficult assignment – sleeping on cots in school classrooms, etc. I SO admire what he and other Red Cross volunteers do. He reads – and reads, and keeps the local library in business. We are thankful for all they do. Together we followed the excitement of the Boston Red Sox as they successfully chased the World Series Crown once again.

As for me, I will NEVER do a year like this again! I realize it’s what I always wanted, but it got out of hand this year. Starting with a short play in January, and Jesus Christ Superstar in February and March, there were 6 full-length, month long runs, 2 formal readings, and another short play. I was a 95-year-old woman from Maine in May and June, and right now am a child beauty pageant winner, slathered in glitter from head to toe in a spoof of early 60’s Christmas TV shows. My mind is on vacation. I haven’t been home for dinner all year, and we have taken to eating a “late lunch,” which I have come to prefer to dinner. After an ensemble part in “The Wizard of Oz” with the Cape Cod Symphony in February, I have nothing planned theatre-wise until the second half of 2019.

Jim and I had a wonderful time with Ainsley in London and Cambridge last Christmas. It was my first time there, and I was entranced. In July and August, Jim and I actually got away for 2 weeks to Nova Scotia. We did the circuit on the Cabot Trail on Cape Breton, which we did

several years ago, took lots of walks, and heard wonderful music. Our planned activities sometimes fell through, only to be replaced with wonderful and even better times. We discovered my new, favorite folk singer, Buddy MacDonald, when we happened in to his set at the Keltic Lodge.  I learned SO much about Alexander Graham Bell and his wife, Mabel, at the museum in Baddeck. Having worked with the deaf in the 60’s, I was surprised I knew nothing at all about his and Mabel’s work with the deaf, or his work with early flight.

I was so excited to go with Jim to NYC to actually see a play on Broadway, “Come From Away,” which I have wanted to see for quite a while. It’s about 9/11, when all the U.S. airspace was closed and planes had to land in Gander, Newfoundland. The music and story are wonderful. It was another longed-for experience for me. We then moseyed up to Westport, CT to visit with my niece, Dori Nissensen, and her family, as well as my sister, Freddi and her husband, Alan Elton, for and wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.

In August, I was able to carry on the “tradition” of taking my nieces to see a play at the outdoor theatre in Brewster, when they visited with their families.

In June of 2019, Ainsley and I will visit Uganda to go mountain gorilla and chimpanzee trekking, something that has been on my bucket list since I read “In the Shadow of Man” by Jane Goodall many years ago. Stay tuned to next year’s letter for a recap and photos.

So, yes, it has been a wonderful, if somewhat too full, year. I hope your year has been equally good, if not quite so frenetic, and that 2019 will bring you joy and peace.