I needed to get out of town. Even though leaving my Sydney always makes me sad. But if you could see the circles she runs around me when I get home, you'd want to leave town occasionally too. She is simply ecstatic upon my return.
There is little better in this life than talking on the phone to the urchins (name given by their Mama and Papa) unless of course you can spend time with them in person. Even when they are a bit under the weather they are magnificent.
Whose heart wouldn't melt at the sound of "Aunt Jess, I really, really love you!" Out of the blue, for no reason at all!
At every meal they nearly came to blows about who got to sit next to Aunt Jess. My sister-in-law apologized once for always dictating where I needed to sit - she was keeping the peace by keeping track - I had no problem being told where to sit. :-)
I brought along some things to do - turned out especially good since we were in the house because of health and rain. Coloring books that made mosaics - both of them did an excellent job. But the highlight were the shrinky dinks. We three huddled around the oven watching with bated breath. The curled up so much we couldn't believe they'd flatten out. So we called my brother - what do you think? He shrugged his shoulders. We decided to have faith. Sure enough they began to flatten out. The oohs and aah's emitted were outstanding.
We read lots of books. I now have something to ask Katie about on the phone - I want to know how the Boxcar Mystery of the Houseboat ends. And Tristan likes to 'read' his favorite books to me, too. We made it to the park before dinner on Thanksgiving day. A short trip, but oh so fun - Nana, Opa, Aunt Jess, Katie and Tristan. And post-Thanksgiving we went to the Deep Cut site on Manassas Battlefield for a walk in the woods.
It was so very much what I needed. Time with my family; time away; and time with my favorite little urchins. Although maybe not quite so much food :-)
1 comment:
how wonderful! i love your narrative voice.
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