Hi, y'all--
We celebrated our Thanksgiving yesterday (Saturday) up at Jane's house. As
Ruth Ann and I recall, 29 guests attended. They came from six states
(New
Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Texas) and one
foreign country (Germany).
Here are the attendees: Mike, Kathy, Evan, Adam, Tim, Beth, Holly,
Spencer,
Jane, Sam, Emma, Julie, Kent, Asa, Hanna, Walker, Mima, Tracy, Becky, Kelly,
Mel and Eddie Brez with adult children Alexandra, Zachary, and his wife
Jennifer. Judy Harper came up from Maryland with her son David who came up
from Houston, Texas. Ruth Ann and David X were also present.
Here are a few notes gathered at the party.
Mike and Kathy came down from Middletown with Evan and Adam. They all have
current birthdays. Adam on November 20, Kathy on the 22nd, Mike on December
2, and Evan on the 5th. Adam, as you may know, is now attending RISD. His
class is 1/3 male, and 2/3 female. Adam doesn't mind the imbalance. Mike,
Kathy, and Evan are returning Adam today to RISD which is in Providence, R.I.
Evan, who is just turning 17, has his own car--Mike's old 1983 Cadillac, and
enjoying it. He works 20 hours a week in a record store. He also has a
share in a new recording company. So he's pretty busy. It was good
that he
could get together with his cousin Adam.
Tim and Beth's daughter, Holly, who will turn 11 in December, just received
her school report--straight A's. Her 5-year-old brother Spencer is a real party
animal and very outgoing. He and Holly had a great time playing with their
visiting cousins.
Kent has been busy with his Vertical Access business, but since 9/11 he had
been swamped with more work than he and his three employees can handle. Dx told
him he should raise his rates. He said he already has. Dx told him
he
should raise them more. Today (Sunday) Kent is taking the
family to the
Norwalk Aquarium and perhaps its Imax Theater as well.
Julie and Kent brought with them a foreign-exchange high school student, Mima
(a nickname for Miriam). She will be staying with them until May.
She's
from Germany, but her English is perfect. Absolutely no accent. I
asked
Mima how the U.S. matched up with her preconceived notions of how it would
be. She said, "The friendliness of the people was my biggest
surprise."
Mel and Eddy Brez brought their two adult children with them--Alexandra and
Zachary--and Zach's wife Jennifer. Alexandra is photo editor at
Architecture
magazine. Zachary is a lawyer. His wife, whose parents coincidentally live
in nearby New Canaan, is in her second year of medical school. She is a
slender Finnish-heritage blonde. In contrast, Zach is a big, husky,
dark
brunet
After 30-some years of writing bigtime TV soap operas, Mel and Eddy are each
writing novels.
Judy's son, David, who came up from Houston for the party, is a lawyer.
His
practice is half criminal, and half civil cases. He likes the balance. I
asked if he had any political ambitions. He's been thinking about it.
The
U.S. Congress would be in the future. First he'd have to win a seat in the
Texas State Legislature.
David's young brother Jonathan is in Israel. He likes it, and might like
to
settle there. I'm looking up the long list of family members who live
there. I
have a ton of names, but no addresses.
What did we eat at our turkeyless feast? It was pot luck. Ruth Ann
provided
two of our traditional walnut loaves with mushroom gravy. Others brought
mashed
potatoes, butternut squash, salads, cheese puffs, tomato-eggplant rounds.
chili pies, pumpkin, apple, and cherry pies, wines and other stuff and
beverages galore.
There were phone calls from Paul in Washington State, and Jon and Connie in
Minnesota.
And a good time was had by all. If you weren't there, we wish you had
been!.
Dx and Ra