Who Needs a Sleigh When There’s a Scooter?

We’re under a bit of a blizzard on the east coast and I want to send some photos so here there are. It takes me forever to do things these days. I keep feeding teenagers and trying to write papers in between. While shoveling and chasing fleas.

We’re all fine and, in some cases, thrilled by the “bank” rolling in, well earned through heavy shoveling. My favorite image is the scooter. Teenagers will try anything.

Hope everyone else is warm and safe. (I will post separately about conditions in Kyiv, which are neither!)

Christmas Shipping

Throughout my childhood, I heard stories about glamorous dinners over silent shimmering waters, with pranks equally as present at the ladies high heels and men’s tuxedos. Dad’s stories of the fun and elegance of crosses sparkled in my imagination as I tried to imagine a teenage Auntie Tots demurely flirting with suitors while her dashing dad scared them off with a bit of mockery. Meanwhile, my own dad, in his long shorts and socks pulled up to his knees, watched and learned.

Now my own daughters are 18 and 17 and absolutely gorgeous, and they danced with Poppy as the Vision of the Seas glided smoothly over the Atlantic between Baltimore and the Bahamas. In a modern-day version of cruise culture—and there is almost a cult-like culture among the faithful cruisers—I even enticed Kevin to brave the dance floor in a “silent disco,” in which each dancer wears headphones and can toggle between two settings with different songs and dance like there’s no tomorrow. Those watching can’t hear a thing—are they listening to Boot Scootin’ Boogie or Gangnam Style?—but they see some enthusiastic jiving, while we the dancers had so much fun.

Kevin and I were prepared to find a cruise a bit cheesy, but we truly enjoyed it. It was such a nice mix of elegant—especially the nightly dining with a three-course meal served beautifully to us—and relaxed and engaging. We attended several trivia games; listened to live piano music (Beatles, jazz, Bruce Springsteen) in the Schooner’s Bar, or Shooner’s Bar, as Tatum called it; and read on the deck. There was an Enrico’s movie screen but it was too cold and windy at night for more than a hot tub run for me. The morning coffees there with the wide open ocean beside us were pretty glorious; it was a treat for Kevin and me to have unrushed quiet time together.

We also had some excursions as land lubbers. We signed up for a walking tour of Charleston on Day 3, and it was excellent. Even Poppy agreed. We all loved (again) Charleston’s southern charm, unique blend of British, French and African cultures, deep history, cool, quaint boutiques, and fat willow trees. A bus tour of Nassau was as dismal as the Charleston tour was great, but Hugh and I were amused to be reminded of Ghana there. We visited the Kennedy Space Center, but it was a little underwhelming.

All in all, it was a fun week that brought a lively mix of dancing, dining, theater, ping pong, trivia, clubbing, touring, tanning and old-person deck walking. The only thing we missed was shuffle board. I didn’t cook a single dish, drive a mile or wash the sheets. What a gift!

Highlights:

Finn – hanging out with my friends, volleyball on the beach

Kev – mornings on the 9th deck with a cup of joe, Charleston and the feel of the city, dinner at the tiki bar with the family in Florida

Poppy – being with the family, dancing, playing chess with Hugh and ping pong with Finn, dinners and talking over the day with everyone, playing volleyball with Finn in the Grand Bahamas

Clara – meeting John, going to Charleston with Finn, walking around with Tatum in Nassau, going in the Yorktown

Hugh – the grilled chicken, hanging out with Kevin and Heather in the Schooner Lounge

Tatum – “

Dear Poppy,

Thank you so so much for taking us on the cruise. I had so much fun at our dinners, playing trivia, and especially when I (finally) went to see the show with you. I wish we could go back and do it all again! I’m so glad I was able to be there 💖

Love,

Tay”

Heather – the tour in Charleston, dancing with Poppy in general and with Kevin at the silent disco, morning coffees on the deck, stockings and revealing the Indonesia trip, sitting with Kevin on the top deck in the sunshine

With apologies for the mad amount of photos, because I will never post this if I delay any longer, here are lots of good moments shared through the lens.

Cemetery Songs and Starbucks for Josie

Today was Josie’s birthday and one year anniversary of her passing on December 2, so her family and a few of us friends gathered after church to say hi to her. Family read scripture, and we sang Joy to the World and happy birthday (Sophia’s idea).

Clara’s coat didn’t match her outfit—I don’t know what to say to that—so Georgie loaned her her coat and then someone draped a blanket over her. She still shivered, but nothing a good hot chocolate wouldn’t cure.

Several people showed up at the reception at Debbie’s and Donny’s house with a Starbucks mocha in honor of Josie, but I had the egg nog option, followed by maple fudge. Not ideal to have both, but Josie would have joined me.

In other news, we got our Christmas tree up yesterday—not in time for Patrick Hughes’s delightful visit, but in time for two weeks of holiday vibes before we leave for said holidays. In that time, all three of us in this house plus Tatum have projects and exams to face and ace. And I have unruly adolescents to guide and grow in wisdom. Exams might be easier.

Kevin just has a war, missile attacks and daily blackouts to deal with. Ho hum. Another day, another challenge.

Weird Fix

I love our home. And by that I mean, I love my tree-house porch, our revolving-door kitchen table with its sunflowers, rose sprays or peonies, and the miles of leafy trails along the creek in my backyard. I love my friendly neighbors and fluffy neighbors—can’t get around the block without a conversation and a nose-to-tail hello—the annual trivia competition at Clara Barton Community Center and the Strawberry Festival at Redeemer.

I love that Finn has biked to Great Falls and walked to Georgetown, Tatum and Clara can take the bus to Bethesda or metro down to the American History museum from Friendship Heights, and Kevin can drive along the river, park and be in his office in less than half an hour.

And he works right next to the White House in a light-filled, modern, artful building in the nation’s capital. I love Washington, DC, my home-base city. It is beautiful, designed on the concepts of Paris, and has for 100 years been called the City of Trees. The sturdy, sparkling Potomac anchors us and invites everything from graceful cranes to JFK’s beacon to the arts, the Kennedy Center, to make a home here.

No one would call it a perfect city, but it’s a lovely one, filled with mom-and-pop restaurants as well as Michelin-starred ones. It still needs to be less segregated and safer, for sure. But since my childhood in the 80s, it has become increasingly safer, cleaner and more peaceful. The data back up what we can see with our very own eyes; crime rates are at a 30-year low.

To call in the National Guard to clean up crime in our mostly peaceful city makes as much sense as to let a Bannockburn elementary student use chalk to fix scratches in Monet painting.

Why not use our precious federal funding to provide more mental health services, help people overcome addiction, improve the pay for high school teachers, provide paid parental leave and free and high-quality preschool so young dads and moms can get steady jobs, and buy back automatic assault weapons? Those approaches are known to reduce crime rates.

Bringing in young, patriotic and altruistic American soldiers to point guns at or intimidate other Americans, even petty thieves, is a horrible feeling for everyone. Those trained troops must be at least partially uncomfortable being asked to see us as the enemy…that’s not what they signed up for. They bravely signed up to defend our country from true danger, whether that’s a 9/11-style attack by al qaeda or people aiming to kill our elected leaders and incredible policemen in the Capitol building.

Bringing in a violent approach to improve a mostly peaceful situation introduces the very violence it purports to fix. Weird.

So those were my thoughts on my morning walk along the sturdy and sparkling Potomac yesterday, as I snapped images of this city and this country that I love.