Family
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Thanksgiving, Past and Present
photo found here The first few years that Ted and I were dating, he would go to his family’s house for Thanksgiving, and I would go to my Grandma’s house. I had a lovely time at Grandma’s house, even with the talk of diets and the dry dry turkey and the taste of cigarretes, and it was nice to see my family, as I was living in San Francisco now, and saw them mainly on the holidays. But as time went on, Ted and I decided we wanted to spend our Thanksgivings together. So, one year, I invited Ted to Thanksgiving at my Grandma’s house. I think he was in…
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The Ghost of Thanksgivings Past…
I’m sure that we must have celebrated Thanksgiving when I was a child in Alaska, probably with lots of friends, music, and laughter, but I don’t have any specific memories of Thanksgiving during those years. Halloween and Christmas, yes, but not Thanksgiving. My memories of Thanksgiving are of holidays at my Grandparents’ house. My Grandparents’ house was a place where you had to walk on eggshells & be careful what you said, because my grandfather (whom I loved dearly) had a very sarcastic tongue, and a perfectly innocent conversation could quickly turn ugly. Add to that some pretty divergent political and social beliefs around the table, and it’s a recipe…
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(Not) Wordless Wednesday…Vernal Falls Edition
I was prepared to write up a long post all about our weekend in Yosemite, but Ted beat me to it. He did such an awesome job, you can read all about the bears, etc., here. I got our pictures developed…since we THOUGHT we had forgotten our camera (it was in a side pocket, which we didn’t check. NEWMAN!*), we bought a disposable camera to use…and we only took pictures on the hike up to Vernal Falls. No pictures of any other camping stuff, I’m sorry to say. Anyway, if you read my post on Saturday, you know that hiking to Vernal Falls was the one thing I REALLY wanted…
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Wordless Wednesday – Baby Edition
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New School…
Melissa wrote a few days ago about her kids’ first day of school…and about how glad she is that they have great teachers, and that she’s looking forward to volunteering again this year in the classroom. Her post made me nostalgic for Maya’s old school, Eagle Peak Montessori. Maya started Montessori school when she was 2, at Springfield Montessori, where she went through Kindergarten. We are big fans of the Montessori method of teaching, and were thrilled to find out that she could continue her Montessori education, because one of our local school districts was opening a public charter school. Public = Free. (as free as any public school is…
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Vacation Wrap Up
Maya on the lake, enjoying the view of blue, blue water We’re home now. We had a lovely time in Tahoe, though we were limited in our activities by Ted’s leg. (The antibiotics are doing their job, and he’s much better now.) So Ted couldn’t swim, not really up to hiking, that kind of thing. Thought we might see a dinner show at a casino, but there weren’t any while we were there. We did rent a motor boat and go out on the lake one afternoon, which was FUN. It was a pretty powerful boat, and we were going pretty fast, which was fun, though Maya and I got…
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY MA!
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Miscellany
OK, first things first. Chrissy, Scarlett, and Curiosity Killer have all decided that I’m a Rockin’ Girl Blogger! Tres cool! I think that I am now supposed to pick 5 rockin’ girl bloggers, and nominate them myself. Or award them, to be more precise with my language skills. But here’s the rub…how do I decide, from my many female blogging friends, which ones are rockin’ girl bloggers? How do I say to some, ‘hey, you’re a rockin’ girl blogger’, and not others, who are equally rockin’ in my book? So I’m breaking the rules. No paying this one forward. I suck like that. But you know what? If you are…
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Wordless Wednesday II
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Happy Father’s Day!
To all the dads out there, but especially to the three best dads I know, Ted (this picture is him the day Maya was born, and I’m thinking by that smile, he’s one happy, happy guy, huh?), Dad (My dad, Maya’s Gramps) and Danny (Ted’s dad, Maya’s Granddad). To all the dads out there, I hope you know how special you are, and how much you are loved by your families.
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Separation Anxiety
This is Maya on her first day of preschool…before she realized that Ted and I were leaving… Ms. Mamma and her Snowflake are going through one of the more painful and poignant times in early childhood…first daycare. He’s missing her terribly, crying and sad, and she’s feeling like a horrid mother, guilty and like she’s doing something that will scar him for life. I remember that time all too well with Maya. When she was about 1, we started sending her to her Grandma’s house a couple of days a week, so Ted could work on his dissertation. Maya loved her Grandma (“Ma”), and loved going to her house…and even…
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Sad tales of ears…
(See the tasteful little earrings on her ears? Not the ones in question today…) Anybody remember how Maya got her ears pierced back in August? How I struggled with the decision, because I wasn’t allowed to pierce my ears until I was 16, and here she was, 10, and I had to decide whether this was one of those things where things had changed since I was that age, or not? How we decided to pierce the ears, but only little studs, no hoops or danglies to make her look older than she is? OK, so now you’re up to date. Well, since then, her ears got infected once, so…
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Congratulations to Big Sis!!
Today, Laluna’s eldest daughter, Big Sis, is graduating with her BA from Berkeley. We are all bursting with pride, as her hard work, dedication, and all around smartness are clearly paying off. Go, big sis, go! You rock!
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A Witch!
(Picture from Salemweb.com) I’ve told you before of my famous and semi-famous relations, the cousins of ancestors, who turned out to be Presidents, Poets, writers, scholars, and adventurers. My straight lines of ancestry, though…those that don’t branch off into cousins and second cousins, are fairly low key. There are a lot of farmers, some school teachers, salesmen, construction workers, oil men, whatever. On my father’s side, the illicit rumor is that the Marquis de Lafayette had his way with one of George Washington’s slaves, and she had his child – one of my ancestors. Hard to prove without exhuming him and checking DNA, and I sort of prefer the rumor…
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What a Weekend!
Our weekend started on Friday, when we went into San Francisco to attend an Ivy League mixer at a club bordering North Beach. We found pretty good parking on a quiet street just three blocks away, and we set off looking for a place to have dinner. There was a fancy looking restaurant right on our street, Myth, and since I was hungry enough that the golden arches were starting to look pretty good, and Ted says no WAY he’s driving into San Francisco and eating THAT crap, we decided to see if we could get a table. Well, all of their tables were booked, but they had room at…