Happy House-aversary!!!

ONE YEAR AGO TODAY we moved into the new place.

The rescue house.

Well, at least we moved our bed on that date...

Because... the day before...

ONE YEAR AGO YESTERDAY

We had received the final inspection and approval. 

The certificate of occupancy...

Finally... we could occupy - and so we did.

The rest of our stuff followed soon.

***

FIVE YEARS BEFORE THAT we had acquired the old place from the land bank and Bob began the rescue.

And the restoration.  

What a journey it was.

An amazing transformation!

...

EIGHT YEARS BEFORE THAT... 

The house had been scheduled for demolition…

But... a neighbor stood in the way.  

...

And now here we are.

Home, sweet home.

 

Home for the holidays, sure enough

Last year I wrote about my disappointment at not being able to be in the new place by Christmas. 

It was good to remind myself that we can survive disappointment.

And to ponder how blessed we are.

And now we ARE in the new place - and very much enjoying it. 

And it's not just the two of us, but we are able to share the hosting fun with our daughter who brought her annual Christmas party home with her when she moved from Chicago.

What fun to all be together!

Lots of hanging out... 

And talking...

And eating...

And napping...

And reading...

Sure enough, there's no place like home for the holidays.

Traditions!!!

 Around this time of year my mind regularly revisits a boat-load of holiday memories and the traditions behind them.

Sometimes I take time to trudge way back to my childhood and walk across the road to Grandpa Frank’s house for Thanksgiving Dinner. I suppose we often had turkey with all the trimmings, but I especially remember the times when we had duck.  That has to be one of my favorite flavor memories.

Or I go back to Sunday mornings and find myself in the car with my dad as he drove his usual circuit to pick up a load of kids - and Mrs. Washington - for church. Mrs. Washington was a quiet little lady who worked as a house keeper for our bachelor neighbor over on the next corner and I remember her giving me a new pair of white socks every year for Christmas.

Thinking about Mrs. Washington's gift reminds me of two other old ladies in our church who also gave me little gifts.  I think it was Vera Cannon who lived on the corner across from our one-room country school...  or maybe it was Mrs. Johnson from the little burg of Snover - who gave me the dainty little hand-embroidered handkerchiefs through the years.  I still have a wonderful collection of lovely hankies - which take me back to those days and those sweet ladies.  I also still have a sturdy collection of the bigger and much more practical red bandana style manly handkerchiefs that my farmer dad used.  Now there's another tradition that created a significant memory!

Or I might find myself on Christmas morning once again discovering an orange in the toe of my Christmas stocking.  Those "stockings" were simply our real socks that we wore regularly - clean ones, of course.  In later years I made fancy stockings with names of each family member - which could contain lots more goodies!

There came a time when I realized that we might have to let go of a cherished tradition - or at least change it up a bit.  Like after big brother Dave met Becky at college and of course they wanted to spend Christmas together with both of their families - which meant it might not be on December 25 anymore.  Instead they figured out what dates they could come to the farm and we adjusted celebration calendar.  We simply had new dates for our family Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.  Same traditions, new dates.

Then came little ones of the next generation and more new traditions.  For example, even though we lived just around the corner from our family home, it was decided that we should all be there to hang our stockings on Christmas Eve - no matter the calendar date - and to celebrate the fun of Christmas morning together.

Our own daughters now remember when we started to change the dates on OUR family calendar to accommodate THEIR new family connections.

They also remember the year when a new foster daughter was placed in our home on Christmas Eve - which meant yet another great shuffle - not just dates and times, but maybe even a re-distribution of gifts!  Yikes!

Yes, during the foster kid years, there were lots of variables in holiday traditions. And several new stockings added to the collection.

Then came the day - after 40 years in that big house with the giant Christmas tree and any number of stockings hung on the mantle - when we would no longer celebrate in that place.  The tree farm was sold and we would move our traditions to other sites.

It was really hard to let go of that amazing place and all of the traditions there - for all of us.  The girls consoled us by saying that we could take the memories and the spirit of the place with us.  That we would find new places to follow our traditions - a bit like we had shifted our calendar - moving Christmas Eve and Christmas morning to new dates.  And so we did.  

Actually we had already done that - for one year when we lived in the Dominican Republic.  There would be no real Christmas tree but somebody gave us a fake one. We wouldn’t have a fire in the fieldstone fireplace Bob had built so the girls made a paper replica and taped it to the wall. We had not packed the fancy Christmas stockings in our suitcases, so we reverted to using real socks.  Our beloved traditions evolved into new ones.

Life changes.

We adjust our calendars and create new traditions.

What a wonder it is to have so many beautiful memories to cherish.

Photo cred: Bob Sims, Santiago, en la Republica Dominicana, 1989...

Turkey Dinner

It had been a long time since we had 

our entire family around the table together 

for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner... 

so it was pretty important to me this year.  

What fun to pull out the brownstone dishes from 55 years ago...

I am terribly grateful for the opportunity and the fun.

I sure do love these people!

Anniversaries

 I tend to notice dates.

Significant dates.

Like anniversaries... of good things or not so good.

It was on this date in 2014 that we let go of something dear.

A cherished place 

Our Christmas tree farm

Our homestead

Our dream house we had built as newlyweds....

...

But now

For the last few weeks

I’ve been noticing something

Some good feelings

That I am starting to feel settled

Feeling at home in the new place

I seem to be feeling inordinately excited about the approaching holidays - and specifically about hosting our family celebrations once again.

This is the first time we’ve had a dining room in a really long time… since we moved out of the big house.  And to again have a fireplace where we can hang the stockings.

Plans are being made.

The menu is coming together.

The turkey has been chosen and is thawing in the fridge. 

Potatoes are being dug from the kids’ garden.  How cool is THAT?!?

...

Somewhere in the midst of the preparations and the good feelings I realized that this was the date of the that closing. That letting go… when we sold the Christmas tree farm.

Back in those days our girls would tell us things that really helped our perspective.

Things like the fact that we could take the good parts with us.

The spirit of the place.

That we could plant life in new places.

We knew they were right.

And now we get to enjoy yet another step of that wonder.

Another phase.

I also find myself remembering last year - the 10th anniversary of that letting go - when we were wishing, wishing… that we could be in our new home for the holidays… waiting for the final approval...  

But that didn’t happen.  

Well, EXCEPT for that one family dinner - and yes, it was take-out because of no working kitchen.

...

But now we are here and feeling at home.

We did it.

Sure enough, we brought "it" with us... that spirit of home.

We’ve planted life - which is already bearing fruit. 

A sense of community, connection, peace, welcome.

…

RIVENDELL

“That house was a perfect house,

whether you like food or sleep or storytelling or singing,

or just sitting and thinking,

or a pleasant mixture of them all.

Merely to be there was a cure

for weariness, fear and sadness.”

- J.R.R. Tolkien

…