Archive for the ‘Holidays’ Category

Sophie’s car

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

Sophie’s car

Originally uploaded by Allen Gathman.


Sophie hit an ice patch on Highway C on Tuesday and went down a hill and into this tree. While I wouldn’t invoke divine intervention, I am very glad that she was lucky enough not to get hurt. The car, on the other hand, is toast. Sadly, certain idiots (me) didn’t make sure that she had comprehensive auto insurance, so it’s a total loss. Aargh.

It was so far off the road that the tow truck couldn’t get it out. I just went down this morning with Larry Leimbach, who owns the land, and he pulled it up close to the road with his tractor. A very nice guy. On Monday I’m going to get it towed to the junkyard. Sigh.

Nevertheless, she’s fine, we’re fine, Cabell just got home for Christmas, and Hannah is supposed to get in tomorrow.

Posted in Family, Holidays, Weather | 3 Comments »

That week between Christmas and New Year’s

Saturday, December 29th, 2007

It’s about 8:30, and Robin and Hannah are still in bed.  So I’m having a cup of tea and thinking about what I need to do today.  Fortunately our friends Don and Janet are coming over for dinner, giving me some tasks for the day (clean up living room, cook dinner).  This helps distract me from being post-Christmas depressed.

We normally leave the Christmas tree up until New Year’s day — it makes sense, since we don’t usually get a tree until pretty late, around the 20th or so.  I have a rule that if the tree is up and I’m in the room, the lights on it must be turned on.  Otherwise it looks forlorn, especially after the gifts are gone.

Cabell got back to Madison safely; Hannah’s here until the 31st.  I just sent an email to Sophie, but she seems to get in touch maybe once a week, so I don’t expect to hear anything soon.
Meanwhile, I just got a new stem for my touring bike that raises the handlebars by a couple of inches, putting me in a more upright position.  Bad for wind resistance, but I think better for my back — and for that matter, I’m wondering if being bent way over for many hours didn’t cause the blood clots this summer.   It’s supposed to be sunny later today, and I plan to take the bike out and try the new arrangement, maybe do some adjustments.  More keeping busy.   I think I need to go back to work.

Posted in Bicycling, Cooking, Family, Holidays | 2 Comments »

Christmas 2007

Wednesday, December 26th, 2007

Well, here we are shortly after opening our stockings — we all got rainbow glasses.

Christmas with rainbow goggles

And here’s Christmas morning viewed through the rainbow glasses:

Christmas through the rainbow goggles

In the afternoon, as always, we went to the Lillys’ house for dinner.

Dinner at the Lillys'

I made roast stuffed pork loin with apple-cranberry chutney. Diana made bread and twice-baked potatoes and broccoli and appetizers. And for dessert we had apple/cranberry pie, cherry pie, fudge, two kinds of cookies, and fat-free sugar-free chocolate cream pie. I was too full to eat any dessert, but we brought plenty home.

All in all, a merry Christmas, although we missed Sophie, who is still in Costa Rica. As is my habit at this time of year, I kept having little mini-panic-attacks all day. Especially at big family occasions, I start to think about all the past holidays when the girls were little,

Hannah with her stocking Sophie gets a cat bookCabell in her new clothes

And then I get this tight feeling in my chest and short of breath and kind of weepy.  It doesn’t make any sense; I’m having a good time with them now, and we had lots of good times before, but it hits me that way anyway.  I guess because they’re only little once, and holidays make it so clear that, while we try to repeat things with ritual, they always change anyway.  Okay, enough of me being a drag.  I hide it by keeping busy and trying to have fun now.

So, I hope everyone had a merry Christmas, and here’s wishing us all a happy new year.

Posted in Family, Holidays | No Comments »