Holiday Planning

Holiday planning and preparation is so much easier than it was years ago.  My daughter and daughter-in-law settled who would host Thanksgiving and who would host Christmas.  I asked what we could bring but did not get any definite answers.  Our traditional fudge?  Dan said he would make it using the lessons he has learned from The Great British Bakeoff.  My usual sweet potato and cranberry dish? No.  Last year I wrote a reminder to myself that Jim and I were the only ones who really liked it and the leftovers lasted a long time! 

I will try to make a cheese and fruit platter that looks like a turkey.   I bought some asparagus this morning.  Last Saturday we saw a turkey cake at McCaffrey's but I didn't buy it thinking it was too soon to purchase it.  So today we went back, hoping there were more.  And there were loads.  I even got to thank the bakery manager for her efforts.  The cashier, an older man, wondered if we could stop the line, get coffee and dig into it!  

Every year I ask one of the grandchildren to read Psalm 100 before we eat.  Several of the older ones reminisced about how it was their turn over the years.  It was a rite of passage.  The child I asked to do it this year may be reluctant but his older sibling has already made plans to take over if needed.  I felt so good that the tradition was remembered by others besides Grandma.  

Then there is Christmas planning.  For years, planning for work at Family Literacy took effort.  It meant buying lIttle gifts for the children, finding someone to be Santa Claus (I always successfully recruited someone who was African-American), organizing food to be served and a place big enough for parents and children and staff to sit down and eat.  But those days are done and I remember them fondly but with a measure of relief too!

Gift-giving is a joy but also a source of stress.  I want to give just the right gifts but am at a loss for what that can be.  This year I have already purchased gifts for the women in the family.  The men and boys?  I have no idea but I am collecting suggestions.  I will remember to buy chocolate letters from VanderVeens Dutch Store--early enough so that they can be mailed out in time.  One year it was a crisis when I was too late.  The same child who remembered Psalm 100 has asked about the letters in the past.  Another tradition that I want to keep going!   

Everyone will remember when one grandson opened his gift last year and found Jim's puzzle book under his gift that I thought I lost.   My Amazon boxes got mixed up and Jim got his puzzle book after all.

It is a joy that we will travel four miles and not 700 miles to spend the holiday with our family.  Everyone should be there--several hours home from college in D.C.,  several hours from work in Maryland, an hour from Gladwyne, Pennsylvania, and 2 1/2 hours from Wallkill, New York.  Plus two others dear to our family from New York City.  How many of us?  16 I think!  What a blessing!  I am thankful!  ( I was corrected--18--I forgot Jim and myself!)

-----------December 21  All gifts are purchased and have arrived.  All shopping was done online which seems a bit sad to me, but was easy. The chocolate letters have arrived.  I can't do the banket because I still have the end of a cold.  I hope we can go to our family party at the Conway's.  I will probably be over the cold but Jim's is four days after mine and he is really coughing a lot.  

A Saturday in Princeton

 

Most Saturdays involve a morning of errands and shopping.  There is almost always a trip to McCaffrey's for groceries and often a stop at CVS for prescriptions.  Sometimes we make a trip to the library to pick up my requests. And later in the day we cheer for the Irish when there is a Notre Dame football game on TV.

But this week there was no game.  We made just a one stop trip to McCaffrey's. And then we had an afternoon and early evening of adventure.

We drove ten minutes to Jeff and Susan's house and they drove to the Princeton campus on surprisingly busy roads.  They had tickets to the 5 pm PUB show--Princeton University Ballet--in which Katie was dancing.  It was so good to have them know their way around and for us to be able to follow their lead. Katie was in only one number this semester due to her busy schedule as a Mechanical Engineering PhD, living off campus, and teaching a class.  But as always, it was a great show of amazing dancers and the best number for us was the one in which we got to see Katie. (modern dance, not ballet and very lively!)

From there we walked across campus to Birdivirsity--an opening reception for photos of birds in which Susan had two photos accepted.  It was great to see the enlarged photos with her descriptions. We were proud in-laws!

Again, we were happy to have transportation provided as we headed to Nassau Diner, a restaurant right across from our church that we had never noticed.  With breakfast served all day, there was a variety of good choices and we all had delicious suppers.  

Jeff and Susan have been so good in welcoming us to their home town for the last four years and we are grateful to be able to share in their lives here.   

A Visit to Shawangunk (and Dan and Alexandra)

 

We are home from a short overnight visit to see Dan and Alex in Wallkill, New York.  It may have been a bit past peak leaf peeping time but the ride there and back was lovely and the view from their home was spectacular--looking up at the Shawangunk Ridge (I think that is what it is called--Gertrude's Nose was one rocky cliff).

We began our visit with a walking tour of New Paltz's Huguenot Street in which our guide Eddie told us the history of the first settlers with an emphasis on debunking the usual theories of their fleeing religious persecution.  He included accounts of the Lenape Indians who were there first and the slaves who lived and worked in the homes of the patentees. 

We had a very nice dinner at One With Land, a new restaurant that had taken over from one called Owl and paid tribute to its predecessor with its new name.  After dinner, Jim and I were introduced to the Great British Bake Off so we feel we are now more culturally aware.

D

This morning we did a bit more sight-seeing beginning with a look at the extensive garden Dan and Alex have created.  Then our first stop was the Shawangunk Reformed Church founded in 1730.  The church doors were open for visitors.   The cemetery was huge--with almost 300 years of burials.  

The next stop was the Shawangunk Grasslands National Wildlife Refuge where Dan and Alex look for birds that are native to the diminishing grasslands in the USA.  I was fascinated to see what grasslands look like--not just reading about them in the memoirs I've read recently about prairie life.  The grass is taller than I imagined and waves in the breeze.  Dan and Alex feel privileged to live so close to a national wildlife refuge.  They spotted fellow birders Tom and Jane (a lot closer to our age!) and exchanged ideas of what they could see in the area today.  (cattle egret--not usually in Ulster County)

It was an easy ride home and we are glad that there is no evidence of our mouse invasion--no smell.  We shall see if it is quiet tonight.

Our children have always enriched our lives with their interests and activities and they continue to do so as adults!  We are thankful!

Warfare with a Mouse

 I noticed that I posted on the mouse issue already a few weeks ago.  Sadly, the saga is not over but we may have moved into a new stage in the battle.

After the spraying did not eliminate the nightly scratching sounds, Adriano set traps in the attic. Jim said that he heard a new sound that night--one that seemed like thrashing and banging around.  He assumed the mouse was caught and was trying to free itself.  Amazingly, I slept through that episode. 

When Adriano and his colleagues came to inspect the traps, they said that two of the seven traps were missing and there was no mouse dead or alive in sight.  So what could have happened?  Adriano looked all over the attic but with blown-in insulation, it was hard to find the missing traps. 

We did not hear a mouse last night.  I fear the next evidence of a mouse will be the terrible odor of a dead one.  Adriano said that the odor should rise up and not come down to us.  I hope not.  He said he is going to come back to check on the status of the traps again today.   Didn't see him today--maybe tomorrow.

We have been so happy with our apartment and with maintenance here.  But this has been frustrating.  We pay too much money in rent to not be able to get an uninterrupted night of sleep.  

To be continued....(The available mouse photos are so cute--but not appealing to me right now! So no photo on this blog.)

----------November 3--no mouse sounds for several nights now.  Shhh.  Hope this doesn't start it up again!

Home for a Week

We have been home for a week and we are happy to be home.  I have been thinking how it is a good thing to like being home and not wanting to be on the road or busy all the time.  We like our routines.  We like our apartment and our frequent sports watching.  I am not fond of meal planning or preparing but I like to eat so it needs to be done.  Two weeks of frequent meals out gave me a weight gain of three or four pounds that have to go!  

This week has been one of terrible news coming out of the Middle East with thousands dead and injured--both in Israel and in Gaza.  Our hope and prayer is that it doesn't escalate.  The news out of Washington DC is also chaotic with the House of Representatives unable to choose a speaker and thus unable to accomplish any goals.  And then the news continues on the several indictments for former President Trump with the latest bit that one of his lawyers has pleaded guilty just before her trial in Georgia;  we wonder what her cooperation will mean for the others.

Our lives involve frequent doctor's appointments.  Jim had a good and reassuring one this week with his urologist for the six month follow up for his prostate cancer diagnosis of four years ago.  

We had the joy of a dinner out with our friends the Moorheads who treated us at Seasons 52 to celebrate Jim's induction into the AAAS.  And we had the fun of our first Wall Street Journal Wine Club shipment which to my surprise, my husband took charge of ordering.  Our first bottle (Caballie Blanc)was really a winner; the second not as much.  But it is fun to enjoy them and read about them.  

We began planning for the church small group which will meet at our apartment starting next week.  Suddenly the carpeted steps look terrible and needed cleaning.  We will dust and vacuum and clear off the coffee table. We have begun to look at the lesson and have emailed the group.  I have planned the snack.

 Jim was able to get in his weekly golf outing again.  I have spent time with my Goodreads "want to read" list and began downloading some for my Kindle app on my phone.  And as always,  there is our daily Spelling Bee time each morning where we don't stop until we get to "genius" together--usually with the help of the two-letter hints on the site.  And we do a happy hour NYT Crossword puzzle with each one of us on our own laptops. 

Last week Saturday was a great win for Notre Dame football over Southern Cal.  We are watching the Phillies and the Diamondbacks in the NLCS with the Phillies ahead 2 to 1.  We watched the Liberty lose to the Aces in the WNBA finals.  When we complain about the frequent repetition of some commercials, we have to admit that maybe it is because we are spending so many hours in front of the TV in the evenings.

I write about our trips and adventures.  It seemed good this morning to also write about a wonderfully  ordinary week at home.

A Trip to Notre Dame

 

DQ treats!

We have arrived at the Morris Inn at Notre Dame where Jim will be participating in a conference honoring his former colleague Gary Anderson who is retiring soon.  We had a mostly uneventful trip here--almost 700 miles--a trip that we took many times during the years we lived in South Bend.

Last night's stay was at a place familiar to us over the years, the Holiday Inn Express.  Because it was unseasonably cold, Jim turned on the heat in the room.  Smoke billowed out of the register.  He quickly turned it off and opened the door to the hall.  We were given another room down the hall but were hesitant to turn that heat on.  Eventually, I was so bold as to give it a try and all was well--and the room warmed up nicely.

Supper was also at a familiar place--Ruby Tuesday's--just down the road.  We came back to the room for Sunday Night Football.

Today's trip was blessedly routine.  We stopped at Martin's and picked up a few things for snacks.  We were able to check into our room early choosing priority parking--at $18 a night it was a bargain compared to last week's $48 dollars a night in the challenging parking deck at Le Meridien in Cambridge. 

The trip was easy for us but because of the Hamas attack on Israel and then retaliation by Israeli forces, four participants for the conference were unable to come.  We are wondering if they can still join by Zoom.  

-------------October 10  Jim is in meetings all day.  I had granola from home for breakfast with some milk taken from HIE yesterday.  I then got a great cup of coffee at the coffee shop downstairs--no complimentary coffee available.  I was able to meet Linda Hanstra, a friend from church here in SB, and one I've kept up contact with--particularly because she has asked me to vet several pieces she has written.  We had a great chat over another cup of coffee.

Meals are always an issue--but I treated myself to an apple turnover for lunch!  

Last night's dinner at the Anderson's was lovely.  Lisa planned a musical celebration for Gary with several numbers--mostly light-hearted but one very somber canon for four women's voices:  By the Rivers of Babylon We Wept--as we all thought about the war in Israel and the conferees who could not fly to the US.

October 11  Last night we joined a few others for a light supper at the Coleman-Morse Building, a short walk from the Morris Inn.  It was fun to see Door Dash robots roaming the campus. After chatting over supper, Jim suggested a DQ treat--a great idea.

October 11  Jim gave his paper today.  Four of the presentations were via Zoom with folks who could not leave Israel.

I met with Lisa, Madge and Andrea, friends from our South Bend church, for coffee this morning.  We stopped at the grocery store on our way back to the Inn and I heard "Mary!"  It was a student from Family Literacy days--the kind of meeting that would occur more often in South Bend but never in New Jersey!  I had to ask her name but then I certainly did remember her--and her toddler from those days is now 20 years old!  

We met John and Lois who drove two hours to meet us for supper at Villa Macri where we had a leisurely dinner.  After getting back to the Inn, we decided we could still make a short walk to the Grotto. I lit a candle and prayed for all those on my nightly prayer list.  

It was a Phillies win tonight --10 to 2.  Leaving the restaurant we saw a few moments of it with Bryce Harper's three run home and then Trea Turner's later.

I think I'll end this posting now with the hope that it will also be an uneventful two day ride home--with an overnight stay at another HIE, another familiar one in Donegal, Pennsylvania.

October 12  Donegal, Pennsylvania Holiday Inn Express--407 miles--bought supper at nearby McDonald's which we have done before.  With a bottle of wine from Martin's we were all set!  Time to watch the Phillies who are ahead of the Braves 2 to 1 games amazingly!  

We began the day with coffee at Martin's with Dan and Jody Machiela--a great visit with them--and a gift for Jim of Dan's latest book.  

It was a good trip but we are eager to be home--maybe about 5 hours tomorrow.

--------------October 12--home at 1:30--easy driving today--about 700 miles total.

Jim is Inducted into the AAAS

 

We are home after a three day trip to Cambridge, Massachusetts where Jim was inducted as a part of the class of 2022 and 2023 into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.  He joined a long list of scholars, artists, performers, leaders, philantropists, etc. going back to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin.  His class included Glenn Close and Abraham Verghese who gave a short speech as the representative of his group of the humanities. 

Our trip did not start well.  We almost forgot my dress clothes on the floor of the bedroom.  The weather was terrible and the five hour ride was dangerous with poor visibility and trucks spraying us with water.  We found our hotel easily however (Le Meridien) although getting into a parking space in the hotel garage was a challenge.  We enjoyed our kind of supper--MacDonald's and we bought  a four pack of wine for later.  The opening event Friday night featured John Lithgow and a conversation with David Rubenstein and Sheila Johnson.  Coincidentlally Jim's sister Terri and brother-in-law Ken had visited us the previous night in Princeton after their stay at Johnson's Salamander Hotel in Virginia.  We briefly joined the hotel reception afterwards but it was noisy and crowded and we were happy to escape to our room.

Saturday morning we found a great coffee shop, Mariposa, on Massachusetts Avenue and enjoyed pastries and dark roast coffee.  The afternoon was the highlight of the induction ceremony.  The AAAS provided shuttles to Kresge auditorium on the MIT campus. Jim had a reserved seat with his Humanities Group Section IV Religious Studies 7.  I found a seat on an aisle in the mezzanine--after looking for restrooms knowing it was going to be a long program.  And it was--three hours of short speeches and then each inductee called up by name and affiliation to sign his or her name to the membership rolls.  After the session there was a really nice reception in a tent outside the auditorium and then a shuttle ride back to the hotel.  Jim said he was delayed in meeting me because of the many folks who wanted a selfie with Glenn Close.  Jim was not among them!

Signing the membership book

And then--the Notre Dame football team won a very tense game over Duke in Durham.  With less than a minute to go, Audric Esteme ran for a touchdown--surprising everyone who expected a last ditch try for a field goal for a possible win.  

Leaving the hotel this morning presented a few more challenges.  We almost left our suitcase next to the car with each one of us assuming the other had put it in.  And then we had to get help to open the exit gate of the parking deck when the access card was a challenge.  And there was a 5 K race closing off some streets.  But we made it! And now we are home again after a much more pleasant ride in dry conditions.  

I was very proud of Jim and so glad he could be honored in this way. When the inductees were first asked to stand for applause on Friday night, it made me tearful!