East or West, Home Is Best

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To our Friends and Family far and wide,

This year marked the 10th anniversary of our family – a big milestone for us. We hope it’s brought happy times for you too. Here’s what we’ve been up to:

All year long plans are brewing for the kids' upcoming birthday parties - no matter how distant in the future. This year Arwen's character preferences have morphed significantly, as evidenced by the theme of her four-year-old celebration. Given her recent fixation on Star Wars, the origianlly planned Hello Kitty tea party expanded to accommodate Jedi knights. No problem.

We started out with a tea party breakfast with the families of two of Arwen's special friends. (This project was all kinds of fun for me.) We savored chocolate chip scones, carrot muffins, cheese and crackers, and cocoa to the repeated strains of "Can Arwen open her presents yet?" coming from the other table.

Next came Chad's game - it was up to our five Jedi knights to save Hello Kitty from the evil Count Dooku and his sidekick Asajj Ventress. With Gavin's help, the kids followed clues that led them throughout the house, slashing down droids and villains alike on their way to the ultimate rescue.

While Chad retrieved the cake and ice cream, Tim, Ben, and I warmed up our ukuleles. After a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday, Arwen blew out the candles on possibly the most unique cake to date in the Jones family. Where Gavin has been a fan of cakes representing the technology of his latest craze, for Arwen it's all about the characters.

Thanks to our friends for joining us for Arwen's special day!

This week it was my turn to be in the spotlight. Wednesday morning some frosty weather turned out for my birthday, dumping an inch or so of snow on the ground – just enough to delay school 90 minutes. Gavin and Arwen rushed through breakfast to don long-forgotten snowsuits and boots, then raced outside. Gavin immediately dropped to the ground to make a snow angel, then he and Arwen were hard at work building a miniature snow man. They begged me to retrieve their sleds from the garage attic and headed down the street to a tiny hill that has produced minor thrills in years past. After a few minutes it was time to pack up for school. What a fun morning!

After dropping Gavin off, Arwen and I launched a shopping spree at our favorite thrift stores. It was a good day – between the three shops we ended up with three great sweaters and some fun pieces for the kids. Our last stop was Mystic Pizza where I’d been looking forward to taking Arwen for a long time. We had fun coloring, reading about the movie filmed there, posing in front of the Christmas tree, and of course, eating our delicious pizza. It was a fun birthday outing.

That night Chad brought me flowers, made dinner, and hosted a birthday celebration complete with cupcakes and ice cream. Among the thoughtful gifts I received were Peter Reinhart’s Artisan Breads Every Day (I can’t wait to start baking!) and a Hoagy Carmichael songbook featuring a new favorite, New Orleans.

The festivities continued Thursday night with dinner at Milagro in Stonington in honor of my and a friend’s birthdays. The food and ambiance were excellent, as was the company. It’s been ages since I laughed so long and loud – what a great time. Thanks to everyone who joined in the celebration.

In other news this week, we enjoyed some casual time hanging out with members of our congregation at Saturday’s annual ward Christmas brunch. Gavin and Arwen humbly (??) submitted their requests to Santa and came away with candy canes in hand.





After tucking them in bed and leaving Chad to writing a final exam, I investigated a drive-through nativity sponsored by a local church. The sets were beautiful and the messages inspiring, but what touched me most was the people of all ages willing to stand out in the cold for hours to share the story of our Savior’s birth. It was possibly the most poignant moment of the season for me so far this year.

Yesterday both kids wore pajamas to school and climbed aboard
The Polar Express for the afternoon. Gavin’s class sipped hot cocoa and nibbled cookies while watching excerpts from the movie; Arwen came home with a Polar Express bell around her neck. Just one more way we’re enjoying the holiday season – we hope you are too!

Long before Thanksgiving the kids started scheming about this year's Chirstmas tree. Even in the aftermath of the Thanksgiving Day hubbub, we managed to pile into the truck the next mroning headed for our favorite hole-in-the-wall Christmas tree farm just 10 minutes from our house. (I still marvel that we're ablet to drive to the farm, select and cut down the tree, load it on the car, and get it back to our house in the same time it took us to drive to the farm outside the city in Seattle.)

During past weeks when it seemed there was little that merited mentioning on the blog, we were deep in preparations for this year's Choir & Creche event at church. As in years past, we lent our nativity scenes from Samoa and the Dominican Republic for the creche display. Back in October I volunteered to head up one of the trees for the new Nativity Forest. ("We'll just do a tree using stuff from Camp Liberty - it'll be a breeze." Sure.)

But most of all, we were deep in music. Back in September an ensemble comprising members of five congregations began rehearsing. It was a grand experiment including three directors, four accompanists, and 18 vocalists. We started out with 13 pieces and a projected 14 hours of rehearsal, which stretched to many more for some of us. In the end we sang a rousing 35-minute program both nights of the event. The music was fabulous, and it was so fun to be part of such a wonderful choir working with such excellent musicians.

In addition to managing the ensemble I worked with my friend and excellent soprano Karen on three pieces. What a pleasure to accompany such singing!

The program also gave me an excuse to dust off a piano piece I learned for last year's event - Silent Night in the setting of Debussy's Clair de Lune. I first heard it played two years ago by a now former member of the ward and fell so deeply in love I had to play it myself. It turned out to be more challenging than I'd imagined, but so worth the work. One of my favorite memories of this piece is having Gavin and Arwen beg me to play it for them over the baby monitor as they're going to sleep.

But the biggest Choir & Creche excitement for me was the seven hours of continuous live music. Like last year, we had soloists and small groups, vocalists and instrumentalists from our own congregation, as well as the Pfizer Singers who add such energy and variety to the program. This year we were thrilled to add JuBELLation, a bell choir from St. Luke's Lutheran Church, as well as the Ledyard Carolers from Ledyard High School. Both delivered magnificent performances, the bell choir with the most gorgeous tones and graceful choreography, and the Carolers with their beautiful harmonies, divine messages, and delightful costuming. Plus our friends Nancy and Ben of Rivergods fame shared a wonderful number. Thank you all for joining us!

Boy, was all that fun. Maybe I'll get around to thinking about the family Christmas card next week . . .

We’d been looking forward to a day of hiking with Ben and Nancy and their family for several weeks. Saturday dawned clear, though windy, and we were all excited for the prospect of some time together outside. We enjoyed the drive out to our rendezvous spot then passed another 15 minutes winding past centuries-old houses, short stretches of forest, and cornfields put to rest for the winter. Finally we took the turn onto the dirt road leading to the trailhead, only to find a fallen tree bobbing on a sagging power line. We were crazy enough to wonder if we could drive under it but it didn’t offer much wiggle room. (So much for that adventure!)

As we were about to turn around, a guy in a sports car came from the other direction and passed right under the tree. We decided not to ride out his deliberation over pulling out his chainsaw and instead set off on an alternate route to the trailhead. After another 25 minutes of meandering we were relieved to be approaching the trailhead when we encountered two men in camouflage gear and orange vests with shotguns standing next to their car. As we soon learned, it was opening day of deer season. And while Arwen’s pants and Gabriel’s coat were orange, we decided not to risk it.

We fired up our engines one more time, set to seek out an alternate hike when what should come down the dirt road but a tractor ridden by two fellows decked out similarly to our shotgun-toting friends. And it wasn't just one tractor – another, and another, and another followed until it was apparent that this was a Parade of Tractors. We weren’t certain of the purpose of this parade, though it struck us as some kind of ancient yearly ritual. Given that the tractors passed us before we began our departure, we were destined to become part of the parade, in which we participated for a good ten minutes before reaching a stretch of road wide enough to pass them.

By this time we were laughing all over the place, the tension of too much time in the car dissipated by the rearranging of the occupants of both vehicles. We finally reached the new trailhead, stuck our heads tentatively out, and decided we were too close to civilization to worry about getting caught in the crossfire.

The hike itself was uneventful compared to the approach. Gavin and Gabriel delighted in running up ahead, then jumping out from behind trees in hopes of terrifying the rest of us. Together with the girls they climbed on high rocks and posed for photos. We adults tagged along, immersed in conversation about autumn yard work and movies we’ve watched.

Back at the car, we had to pry the boys away from the stream and the inevitable rock-tossing. As we packed ourselves and stuff back in for the trip home, three shots rang out in the distance. A fitting benediction to our hiking adventure.

What a feast, and what a fun lot of friends! We decided to take the plunge this year and host a big family Thanksgiving at our place, despite our lack of large living spaces. The excitement began in early afternoon as friends arrived with turkey, stuffing, salads, and pies in hand. (Actually, it started much earlier with the rolling out of seven dozen rolls, the mashing 15 pounds of potatoes, and the breathing in pure of heaven in the form of Martha’s Chunky Apple Cranberry Sauce and Chad’s homemade-pumpkin pumpkin pie.)

The 11 kids did great in the dining room while the eight adults and two tots gathered around three card tables quite comfortably in the living room. For a few moments of uninterrupted bliss we immersed ourselves in familiar flavors that revived memories of Thanksgivings past. Then the kids started hollering for more mashed potatoes and things got back to normal.

After dinner the men settled down to a serious game of Dominion, followed by an even more serious game of Puerto Rico. Meanwhile the kids ran up and down both sets of stairs and made mayhem out of the basement. Once the cleanup was done and the ladies immersed in conversation, the dads lured the kids outside for a game of football in the back yard. And what an amazing day for a turkey bowl – complete with 55-degree weather, it couldn’t be beat.

Once everyone tumbled back into the kitchen, it was time to pull out the pies, the cookies, the pies, the Jell-O salad, and – you guessed it – the pies. No matter how many times we went back, there was always more. Yummy!

While there were lots of fun aspects to our Thanksgiving, the best of all was to be surrounded by friends – some of whom we’ve spent a lot of time with during our stay in Connecticut, and some of whom we’re just getting to know. Especially after uprooting ourselves from familiar friends, family, and places not too long ago, we are so grateful to have people to share these special days with in our East Coast home.