It was a good year

Early November light makes magic in the kitchen. Note the shadow of Tuck's hand lower left.

Remembrance of things past. Four cards sum up a year in the life of (left to right):

1. Just the corner of a formal thank-you note from Susie.  The box of notecards came from "Barney II" Chris last Christmas. The wise and witty note carries on the gracious tradition of sending formal thank-yous, inculcated in us by our dear mother at a tender age.

2. A stunning gold-embossed thank-you card from Sarah, elder daughter of our beloved brother Ben.  She's the one that graduated in May from George Washington Unversity -- her mom, Ellen, taught "the girls" to carry on the thank-you-note tradition -- (little sis Heather is still plugging away as a GWU undergrad).  Just after that, our nephew and godson Matthew (Susie's elder son -- aka "The Professor" --married the love of his life, Regan, in the heartland.  Tuck and Susie and we took the opportunity to make a memorable cross-country road trip to join the party.

3. Third card from the left is a Larson -- "Danook shows off his Swiss Army Rock" -- a birthday card from Mabs, Peter and Lauren, the battleground-state houseguests par excellence of just a couple of weeks back.

4. Our Christmas card of December 2003 shows the house lit up with a thousand-plus points of light.  It was the subject of our very first blog post ever last December 12, The tidings that dare not speak their name.

Enter, stage right:  Sweet Tiny Pea selects the red ball from her super ball collection.

Comments

[pam]

I loved "St. George slays the dragon"! [sorry, it's your earlier post] :)

Why is it so many mothers don't teach common civility now? Well, some do. My Mom had me doing it before I could write, but it seems a lost art - or are we too email driven?

My step-daughter was never introduced to thank you cards by her Mom, so now HER children are not learning about them. This drives me crazy. I can hear my mother's voice in the background of my mind... "...now sit down and write Aunt Helen a nice thank-yew for that..."

LOL!!

[Sissy Willis]

Nice note, Pam. Thank you so much. :) I can't help but wonder whether the coarsening of society -- as represented by the loss of such habits of civility as writing thank-you notes -- may have something to do with what's wrong with those Bush-hating relics from the sixties who are now beside themselves with violent resentment because they didn't get their own way in the election.