I know, I know

Yes, I should be telling all about my trip to Paris, but I'm tired so I'll just share this wonderful story from today's Dallas Morning News. This kid was in my AP English class last year and I wrote some of the recommendation letters that helped get him into Rice and MIT. I'm so proud of him--I hope you will be, too.

We're all God's Children....

Just a quick post today, but I thought you might enjoy reading this story. I certainly did.....

Describe the process your family used to get a Christmas tree when you were a child...

This is another of those loooonnnnggg time ideas I've had that have taken a while to commence. Several (more than a few, you see) years ago, a friend gave me a mason jar filled with strips of paper. Each one had a question or prompt on it. The instructions say:

Write your personal history the easy way--answer one question a week, and in a year, you will have a (fairly) complete history. And, be honest--remember--this is for posterity.

So, I'm going to be writing about these prompts every week--if not more often. I'll use the prompt as the title to each blog entry, and you are more than welcome to borrow the ideas for your own history.

To today's topic--Christmas trees........

When I was a kid, we spent every Christmas in Fairfield with Nannie and Papa. They lived on a farm and relatives gathered there to celebrate the season. Sometimes when we arrived, Papa already had a tree up in the living room, but a few times we were early enough that we got to go with him to pick one out. Now, Texas is not known for it's lush fir trees; in fact, the only evergreens we had available were cedar trees. So, that's what we used. I actually never knew any other kind of Christmas tree existed until I was an adult. And hey, when you cover them with silver icicles and lights and treasured family ornaments, they look amazingly good. Of course, cedar trees do induce terrible allergic reactions in sensitive people, but they smell good and we just kept plenty of tissues on hand. 

Since cedar trees grow all along the ditches and roadsides in that part of the state, we would drive along the back country roads, looking for just the right tree. It had to be the perfect size and shape. Eventually, we made our selection and Papa cut it down. Then we dragged it to the truck and wrestled it into the back. All the way home, we talked about decorating it and all the presents that would be stuffed underneath. 

For some reason, a cedar tree always seems to have a "bad" side, so we would have to position it in the corner of the living room just so, to hide the less lush spots. It sometimes listed a bit to the side as well, so Papa or one of the uncles would wrap a bit of string around the trunk and nail it to the wall for stability and better aesthetics. But we didn't care. We flung icicles all over it, decked it with strings of old-fashioned, multicolored, big-bulb lights, hung the ornaments and rejoiced over its beauty. No expensive fir tree could ever have looked any better to us.

Bohemian

My ancestors came from an area called Bohemia in what is now the Czech Republic, and I've long been curious as to why people with eccentric, or offbeat lifestyles were called Bohemians. Certainly all odd people did not come from this one tiny corner of the world. This season I'm going to see the opera "La Boheme" and it's about artists in Paris, not people from Bohemia...plus, the musical "Rent", based on the opera, is much loved by my daughter. Anyway, for whatever reason, I've been puzzled. So, today I looked it up and am now here to enlighten us all.....Apparently people in Europe thought that the gypsies, with their unconventional ways, came from Bohemia, so they took to calling all unconventional people "bohemian." There--questions answered, puzzle solved.

New York, New York

(hmmmm....I tried to put these pictures in the middle of things in the post, but I can't seem to figure it out yet...)

Chrysler Building                               Times Square

For a long (loooooonnnnngggg) time, I've been meaning to write about some of my travels. Well, now appears to be the time. So, if you're interested, read on; if not, take a break (or a nap, or whatever).

In June, 2007, Mike, Lauren, Kara and I spent a week in The Big Apple. Yep, New York City. It was amazing, but it almost didn't happen. We had a terrible night-before-the-trip and barely made our flight. Still, we did get on and off we went. We had booked a hotel in Queens, one that was reportedly near a subway station, because rooms in Manhattan cost the earth. So, we flew into the Laguardia airport (I'm sure I spelled that wrong) and a nice shuttle driver from the hotel picked us up. From the plane we were able to see the city as we were landing, and let me tell you, it makes Dallas look miniscule.

We got settled in to the hotel, found the subway stop (a several-block walk away) and headed for the big city. Since Kara gets migranes, and then gets sick when she doesn't eat regularly, and airlines no longer serve food, and we (like idiots) forgot to take any snacks along, our first order of business was to find food and a bathroom. Luckily, New York seems to have lots of pocket parks in their neighborhoods and we spent a couple of hours there resting and recuperating. Then we took our first stroll through Times Square. 

What a place......I have never seen so many people in one place in my life. And the lights, and the buildings, and, and, and....It was overwhelming.....Lauren loved it. When we came up from the subway, she took in a quick, deep breath and said "this is where I belong." As for me, nice to visit, but don't want to live there. Dinner was at an Irish pub and it was delicious.

The next day, Monday, we spent most of our time on the trip to the Statue of Liberty. It's impressive and everyone who goes to New York City should see it. I felt very proud of my country. We also visited Ellis Island, where immigrants were processed during the late 1800s and early 1900s. It, too, was very interesting. After getting lost in the warren of streets that covers lower Manhattan, we found the World Trade Center site. I was moved by the bronze relief sculpture on the fire house next door, but the site itself just looks like a giant construction project now. Still, I'm glad we went. 

We walked a lot during the trip, and one hike took us past the courthouses that we see all the time on Law and Order. It was kind of a deja vu moment, even though I really deja didn't before. We ate dinner that night in Chinatown at a Malaysian restaurant--yummy.

Tuesday we visited the NBC studies and shopped in their store, tried to go up the Empire State Building, but had to put if off because of lightning storms, had dinner at Macy's and went to a Broadway show--"Spamalot--" at the Shubert Theater. It was hilarious. You should definitely see it if you have the chance. One of the big production numbers is all about how a show can't succeed on Broadway if it doesn't include Jews. Well, at intermission we had met the kids from a Jewish school sitting on the row behind us. Their presence, and laughter, made the whole thing even funnier. After the show we toured Times Square by night--even more impressive than in the daytime. And even more crowded (if possible). 

Wednesday we did the complete tour of NBC and got to visit the Today studio. Kara has decided that she wants to study broadcast journalism and eventually work in New York. Why not??? She's certainly smart enough and pretty enough to do it.

We also made it to the top of the Empire State Building where the view is stupendous. Since Macy's is next door, we had to shop, and Mike bought the wonderful Belgique cookware that we'll probably use for the rest of our lives. (the store shipped it home for us). For dinner, we met Lauren's old teacher, Holly, who now lives in NYC, and ate at the Cafe de Charbon. Holly teaches at a high school in the Bronx and lives in the East Village, and we had a good visit with her.

On Thursday, we started out by walking down Fifth Avenue. It's an impressive place, particularly for shoppers. On one side street, we came across the Jimmy Chou shoe store and Kara had to have her picture made outside it. We walked through Grand Central Station, gawked at the gorgeous Chrysler Building (I would love to go on an architectural tour of NYC with a well-informed guide), ate hot dogs from a street vendor, admired the jewels at Tiffanys and the clothes everywhere, and finally arrived at FAO Schwartz, the famed NYC toy store. I was exhausted and one of my travel rules is: whenever you find a bench, sit down. So, I sat and Mike and the girls shopped. Soon my phone rang and Kara said, "you've got to come in here." I could not imagine why I needed to come in, but she insisted, so in I went. Lo and behold, there were two of my students, from my Texas high school, standing there in the middle of New York City! It was amazing. They had seen Kara, recognized her from when she visited my classes, and asked "Aren't you Mrs. N's daughter?" Yep, she was, and we all had a grand reunion in New York. They were there with a church choir group. Before the visit was over, another student appeared (along with a student I would have that fall) and they all had to take pictures to prove they'd seen me in New York City. It so much fun. I had been feeling a little down, being in such a huge city and realizing that I didn't know a single soul outside my family. But indeed, the Lord does watch over us, and I knew several wonderful Texans in that giant metropolis.

We then wandered through Central Park for a bit.....it was lovely and peaceful and a welcome oasis in the big city.

That evening we ate in a section of town called Chelsea and then visited Times Square--yet again.

On Friday, we spent the morning in Chelsea, visiting the building where The Food Network has its headquarters. We also tried out a highly-recommended brownie shop there--The Fat Witch. The food was good, but not as good as Kara's brownies, and (like most things in NYC) it was expensive. The building was once a factory for Nabisco, and it's old and quirky and fun. We also went to Union Square, Lincoln Center (where the kids relived scenes from "Center Stage") and the LDS Temple (across the street from the Lincoln Center). It was a great comfort to see the Angel Moroni up on top of that temple, there in the middle of crazy traffic and the controlled chaos that is New York City.

And of course, we had to take the subway over to the Brooklyn Bridge and walk at least half-way across. And, we had to see the New York Public Library and its famous lions out front. We had our final dinner in Little Italy (and it is little these days, as most of the Italians have long since left Manhattan), then made one last night-time visit to (where else) Times Square. My family became addicted to that place. For me, it was too crowded, and I spent most of my time watching Mike's back pocket, trying to make sure no one took his wallet......Actually, I spent most of the trip at the back of the pack, just making sure everyone was together and accounted for. Watching them all have a good time was priceless. Lauren, of course, had to call everyone she could think of to share the experience.  Walking, gawking, talking, we were the quintessential tourists.

I am really glad we made the trip. I wish I had been able to convince somebody to visit a couple of museums with me, but I guess that will be my good excuse for going again--I still need to see the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art (can you believe no one would go to see Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night" there with me????) and several other collections. I could spend weeks just visiting museums in New York, so I'll have to go back.

Happy New Year!

Had a great New Year's Eve with family and friends. Lots of friends joined us at the Institute Building for an evening of games and food (delicious and lots of it) and bonding. For many years we spent New Year's Eve with a group of friends, but sadly, their mom passed away last year and the rest of the family has moved. So, we had to start a new tradition. I miss my old pals, but we did have a good time Wednesday night with members of our family and our ward,  and hopefully we can build on this. There seems to be activities for the youth and young adults, and plenty to do for the drinkin' crowd, but for us sober folk, not so much. So, we're creating our own and having a marvelous time.....

One of my resolutions involves exercise, so yesterday I took a nice walk with the twins. I'm going to try to continue this at least every weekday if not more often. They enjoy being outside, Julie gets a nice break, I get some much needed exercise--a winner for everyone!