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My Christmas Letter
By CarolynCHolland(9,534)
| Edited excerpts from my section of our family’s annual Christmas letter: Year 2006 included a “maternity watch,” for grandchild Marcus, son of Nolan and Tammy, born July 8. We arrived in Cleveland right after his birth. Marcus is a happy baby, has a big smile and lots of conversation. Vince enjoys being “big brother,” accenting his job with two-year old exuberance. He attends softball games his parents play in, and his favorite toy is any kind of ball. The year’s events, however, began Christmas night 2005. It involved a 1971 promise my late friend Charlotte and I made to each other. We had adopted our girls, Sandy and Kathleen, at the same time from the same agency. They grew up as sisters. Us mothers agreed if anything happened to one of us, the other would fill the gap. Charlotte died while running a few years ago. Last Christmas night Ernest passed on. Monte and I fulfilled the promise by welcoming Kathleen into our family. She has a husband, Jerry (I threaten him with a son-in-law to-do list on his visits) and three children, Lauren (6), Erik (5) and Alex (2). Alex shares my birthday. The three have called me Grandma since Charlotte’s death. We next sold a small house we owned in a town two hours away from where we retired. The process was mindful of “the good old days:” deals done on a handshake. This sale was accomplished without even the handshake---all the arrangements were made via telephone. We didn’t even meet the purchasers until the deal was closed at the lawyer’s office. Another aspect of the sale: the buyer skipped the deed search. He’d checked out our reputation and decided it was strong enough that he could take our word that it was clear when we purchased the house in 1975, and that there were no other owners. On our two and a half week whirlwind trip to New England we climbed Schoodic Mountain with my niece Erin and her family, then explored “the ovens” (caves) on the Mt. Desert Island, Maine, side of Frenchmen Bay. They fill with water during high tide, and are even listed on maps as The Ovens! We did lots of research and met people we’d only had contact with on the Internet. The surprise of the trip was meeting Sue, a family genealogist from Atlanta, Georgia. We’d never expected to meet each other in person, but she was in Portland, Maine when we arrived in Maine. Visitors to our home included a former foster child we’d in Atlanta, Tanya, and her family. They were returning from a vacation through Canada and New York City when their car broke down---guess where? At one of the two closest highway exits to our place! Their car was dead, and they ended up purchasing another. Needing a place to stay, we settled them into the chaos of our home (we were enroute home from our vacation when they called). We said a final goodbye to friends and relatives---Ernie, Monte’s nephew Ronnie, and Gladys in Vermont. Other good-bys went to some neighbors who moved away from our small community, especially my neighbor Peg. She’s in a close nearby town, so we do visit with her. We welcomed new neighbors, one a temporary one whose sister died while she was here, and another three-generation family with a daughter the age of my granddaughter, Jordan. My photo-journalism work veered in a different direction. The newspaper section I wrote for quit being published so I lost that job. The editor of the other newspaper section I wrote for, Jerry Storey, died October 2 while we were in New England. A former editor suggested I contact the paper he now works for, but it’s too far distant. For now, I’m content not having deadlines, which allows me to de-chaos my home. I’ve already found one magazine article assignment, something I was considering exploring and now have the opportunity to follow through on. Another advantage is the free time I’ll have in 2007 to concentrate on writing my historic romance novel. Last spring a friend, Debbie, and I began the Beanery Writers Group last spring. Its unique aspect is this blog, which invites group members and visitors to post writings. I introduced my cartoon character, Cochran Cornell the cantankerous cockroach here (category: Cochran’s Writings). Highlights of our New England trip are documented in the category Carolyn Travels; my other writings are under Carolyn’s Writings. Other categories store writings by others. Explore the site and feel free to comment on or submit items to it. Surprisingly, the site has over 7000 hits since its inception in August. We attended the Sankta Lucia (patron saint in Sweden) celebration in Cleveland Dec. 9. Roy, a local Swede, went with us. He translates letters I get from distant family in Sweden (yes, I am part Swedish---1/4th). I’ll share more on this subject before Christmas. | |
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Posted to ProBlogs.com on Monday, January 01, 2007
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