Merry Christmas!
JC told me, when I broached the subject of a Christmas letter, that all I needed to write this year was, “We moved again. See previous years’ letters.” While he may be onto a good idea there, I have forsaken the easy way out—and here I am.
True to JC’s shortened version, we HAVE moved again. You may remember that, in our last move, we claimed to be looking for a down-sized, single-level house…? And ended up with a four-story townhouse. This time, we have indeed downsized, and are in a 3-bedroom condo—still in Alexandria, still stuffed to the exploding point with books and maps and my own collections. Fortunately, the townhouse sold quickly (3 days on the market!) and the purchase here went smoothly. Only after we moved in did we recognize the issues that our so-called ‘home inspection’ failed to identify. BUT those are stories for another day. We are (after a couple months) well on our way to a functional household—though we still have a lot of de-junking and furniture disposal ahead of us. It keeps us busy.
The family continues well. Sarah is still with the City Attorney’s office here in Alexandria, and appears to be enjoying the work. Kay and Paul and the lovely granddaughters are still in Tucson—tho they have added a dog to the household. Morty, a black and white pit bull mix, has entered the weekly FaceTime call to demonstrate his newest tricks, and to be admired for them and his general cuteness. Claire is headed for middle school next fall, and Audrey to high school—except that we are not old enough for those events to happen quite yet. They WERE just babies last year, weren’t they?
And speaking of babies, we have a new great-niece: Camilla was born to my nephew Eric and his lovely wife, Tiffany, last spring. COVID has delayed our initial meeting, but I am assured that she is as cute and as smart and accomplished as all her cousins. I do not doubt it.
As for this past year… We WERE vaccinated early enough that we made a trip west in March and stayed till May, when we returned to embark on our summer plans: Chautauqua (which we canceled) and our yearly pilgrimage to the Contemporary American Theater Festival in WVa—also canceled. COVID had us backing out of October plans for a tour of the National Parks of the Southwest, and so we embarked on our previously-noted real estate adventure, which was as physically and mentally taxing as any trip. If not more so. We are getting too old for this.
Some of the good things that came out of this abysmal year were the Grolier Club’s ‘show and tell’ Zoom offerings which took us into members’ homes to see and hear about favorite bookish items; other opportunities to participate in distant learning events; renewed (virtual and in-person) contacts with family and friends—we saw my sister and BIL more in this past year than we have in a long time! If nothing else, COVID opened up a wealth of possibilities that we might never have seen otherwise.
And so, we stand on the verge of 2022: older (of course) and hopefully, wiser in some ways. We are starting anew—yet again—in a new location, with new challenges and new adventures ahead. We hope to find ourselves equal to them—and look forward to sharing them with all of you, whether in-person or online.
Have a fun-filled holiday season and the most rewarding of new years! (And come see us at our new address: 2050 Jamieson Avenue, #1216, Alexandria, VA 22314. Phones and emails remain the same…)
Mary and JC
December 11, 2021
