East or West, Home Is Best

A couple of years ago when giving notice that he’d be out of town for the weekend due to one of our getaways, Chad was advised by a church leader that we should be staging such getaways quarterly. We took that seriously and now try to get in an overnighter sans kids in January, March, June, and August each year.

This weekend we combined our getaway with a trip to the Boston temple, snagging a bed and breakfast in Stow, not far from the homes of Louisa May Alcott and Ralph Waldo Emerson. While we didn’t make the time to visit either of these on this trip, we’ll definitely be staying out that direction again. The hosts of the Amerscot House Inn were possibly the most thoughtful we have encountered in our 12 years of bed and breakfasting. The 1734 inn was amazingly preserved, breakfast was amazing, and every detail of our stay was well thought out and presented. The addition of a heavy blanket of snow (the first of the season for us) made the trip especially mystical.

Many thanks to our friends who made the time fun and memorable for Gavin and Arwen too!

For the past several years I’ve chronicled our traditional Martin Luther King Day feast. This year's observance continued with the usual Southern spread, this time in the home of our friends. As we enjoyed barbecue pork, homemade mac ‘n cheese, biscuits, greens, and cole slaw, I realized that this tradition blesses us in more ways than I had before realized. Where we tend to share the traditions of the more prominent holidays with different people every year, Martin Luther King Day has become the one holiday we spend with the same members of our 'extended family' every year. As such it has come to mean more than even the magnificent cause of social justice and equality that it first represented for us.

When we moved to Connecticut four and a half years ago, the most-repeated prayer in our home was that we would find friends to share our lives with. For a few years we struggled through a series of firsts, not having anyone local with whom we shared any history or significant memories. Sitting around the table together last Monday, I saw how far we have come since that day with four years of MLK tradition and all the other moments shared with these wonderful friends. While not at that particular table, there have been many others as well, some of whom are still here and others who have already moved on. Whether our paths have crossed briefly or are marked by years of memories together, whether you are among our currently local friends or are among the many we keep in touch with across the miles, we appreciate, cherish, and forever value you as answers to our prayers.

The beginning of each new year brings for me a need to get things in order. Perhaps a bit of a reaction to the frenzy of the holidays, I look to the return to routine as an opportunity to revisit personal and family rhythms and set the stage for the new year.

The last few weeks while Gavin and Arwen have been at school and I have not have given me a chance to inventory our home storage, sift through the past few years of the kids’ school papers, and look over the calendar for the coming year. Not so exciting to chronicle, but good to have done.

With shelves refilled in the basement, a few more boxes cleared out of our library, and camping reservations made (sad experience has shown how quickly favorite spots fill up!), I could venture to say that I’m ready to start class again tomorrow. Or would that be fibbing?

Does anyone else out there feel the need to organize in the new year? What projects do you tackle? I’d love to hear about it.

As usual, the shepherds added some dramatic flair:


The next morning was a first - we actually had to wake the kids up so they could open presents before we had to leave for church. They weren't too hard to convince . . .