Category Archives: Family

Found Items: Happy Birthday Dad

Family, Memories, Things, ,

My mom must have kept all these letters and notes — typical. Here’s a note written sometime after we moved to Alexandria.

Dad --

I am really sorry for being so late in sending you a card. Believe me -- I had quite a case of the guilts -- especially after talking to you. I have no excuse except procrastination.

Dean and I went to Annapolis, MD and got you this shot glass (they didn't have any martini pitchers). Hope it got there in one piece.

Well, the stove is hooked up, the dishwasher and garbage disposal are ready for an electrician to get electricity to them. and I've used the washer already. We will probably wallpaper ("ooh ick" you say?) over the weekend, then paint. The kitchen will be done soon! We will send pictures.

How was your birthday dinner? And the "golden ball" afterward at the Moose? Hope it was fun.

We ordered cable tonight. Our antenna was trashed in the most recent snowfall.

I've also enclosed my most recent school photograph. I don't have a use for it. Feel free to lose it! I'm looking my age -- wrinkles and all!

Even though I am a grown up and married, I get so lonesome for you guys sometimes it hurts.

Love,
Dona

I don’t remember writing or sending this, but I remember the shot glass — it had a Naval theme. I remember working on the kitchen in our first house. We put in very late nights wallpapering, I remember that.

SoCal Christmas: Palm Springs

Family, Travel,

Last year I blogged that I was afraid we’d never again celebrate Christmas in our house on Christmas day. That post caused Alex’s mom, Lisa, to call me and we had a nice chat about how to share Andrew and Alex for Christmas. We speculated that there would probably be a time when Andrew and Alex would want to spend Christmas at their own place. We also joked that maybe the parents (John, Lisa, Dean and I) would go to a warm beach somewhere.

That happened… Sort of. Since Dean and I spent Christmas with Andrew and Alex in Atlanta last year, we decided to spend this Christmas with Clare — but not in chilly Olympia. Somewhere warm, we thought. We decided on San Diego because we heard the weather was perfect much of the year. Then I read a book that mostly took place in Palm Springs and thought it seemed like a fun, quirky town, so suggested that to Clare. She liked the idea, especially since it was close to both Joshua Tree National Park and the Salton Sea, places she was interested in visiting.

When Andrew and Alex heard our plans they hinted they might like to go too. Then Alex’s folks and brother thought it might be fun. So, on December 22, the eight of us converged in Palm Springs.

Our Airbnb was nice. Not in Palm Springs proper, but about a half hour north, in Desert Hot Springs. The house (marked with a red star in the image below) was half a block from several mountain trails.

map of the area where our Airbnb was located

The Airbnb had a pool and connected hot tub. The view from the nearby cabana was spectacular.

Palm Springs was fun. We took a long hike at Tahquitz Canyon, paid our respects to Marilyn, and walked around downtown.

Clare, Dean, Dona, and Andrew pose in Tahquitz Canyon
Clare and Andrew pose in Tahquitz Canyon
Looking out over the canynon
hiking in the canyon
Statue of Marilyn Monroe by Seward Johnson
Rupert and Chum pose on Marilyn's toes

Christmas Eve was spent exploring Joshua Tree and visiting Pioneer town where we found a lively bar that was built by Gene Autrey and Roy Rogers! After that we relaxed in the hot tub at our Airbnb.

Christmas Day was spent preparing a festive dinner, and of course hanging out in the hot tub.

Lisa, Alex’s mom, made her traditional wassail, Eric, Alex’s brother, made two delicious pies. Andrew and Alex played Santa and filled our [clean] socks with fun treats after making a vegetarian lasagna — the centerpiece of our dinner.

Mothers and Daughters

Family, Musings, Reading,

For reasons I will keep to myself right now, I’ve been thinking lately about relationships between mothers and daughters. So much so that it seems to have subconsciously influenced what I’ve been reading and watching.

Some of these books were chosen for book group, so they shouldn’t factor into my subconscious book choices, but I’ll mention them anyway, because I definitely focused on the relationships.

  • In The Rose Code (bookgroup choice) three women with varying levels of closeness to their mothers become friends. One is born rich with a distracted and often absent mother, one is born poor with a mother who has more children than she can care for, and one whose mother is physically, verbally and emotionally abusive and beyond overprotective.
  • In We Were the Mulvaneys (bookgroup choice) the mother is so ashamed that her daughter has been raped, she doesn’t blink an eye when her husband sends the daughter away and never wants to see her again.
  • In Pieces of Her (my choice) a widowed mother and her daughter’s close relationship is threatened after they witness a mass shooting at a cafe in a mall and the daughter slowly learns that her mother is not who she thought she was. (I also watched the Netflix series based on this book)
  • In The Last Days of Night (bookgroup choice) an actress and professional singer and her seemingly domineering mother have a [necessarily once you learn their secret] close relationship.
  • In With Love from London (my choice) a daughter whose mother abandoned her at age 12 is surprised at age 35 when her mother dies and leaves her a bookstore in London.

The one book that I have not read that I should have read in February is You’re Wearing That? Understanding Mothers and Daughters in Conversation. It might be too late, but I’ll add it to my must read books in this year’s reading challenge. It couldn’t hurt.