Mariposa Holiday
Christmas at the Dixons in Mariposa is usually full of excitement. The big family gathers in various mixes, beginning on Christmas Eve with Sandie’s family attending Church services at Ponderosa Basin Chapel. Next is the ritual of opening one gift: new pajamas and posing for pictures in front of the tree, followed by a movie–often It’s a Wonderful Life..
In the morning, Sandie’s kids (who are really young adults) start the next round of festivities by opening their stockings. Then Aunt Cindy passes out gifts to her parents and her sister’s family. After a delicious Christmas breakfast and another Christmas movie (this year it was Fred Claus), the rest of the extended family begins arriving for more gift giving and Christmas dinner. This year snow began falling about 11am, so there was also sledding and a beautiful rainbow visible through the trees.
The Dixon’s like to go, go, go, so the day after Christmas we traveled to Fresno to paint pottery which took longer than anticipated and so we didn’t have time for dinner at an Italian restaurant as planned. Instead, we ate at a family eatery called Pete’s and loaded our plates with fries and onion rings and hamburgers before going en mass to the movies to see Seven Pounds (we filled 2 full rows). The movie which was about a heart transplant was a bit emotional, and we lingered in the lobby afterward, tearful and hugging.
Saturday was spent trying out gifts like web cams and friers and, for me, reading the new books I received.
Sunday was Ashley’s birthday, so we met at the cemetery to recall the wonders of her all too brief 18 years. Then we went to Angel Falls, one of her favorite places on earth. We slipped and slid climbing through snow to the falls and then tossed pink roses into the rushing water in her memory. A snowball fight on the way back to the cars was the perfect touch! No doubt everyone recalled her gleeful and contagious laughter as the cold snow dripped down our faces and necks.
Happy Holidays, Dixons!
Mary Autumn, Nell, and I went on a luncheon date to celebrate Mary Autumn’s 4th birthday. We had lunch at the counter at Diamondback and then walked down the street to Out of Hand to paint pottery. Mary Autumn chose a rabbit to paint and Nell chose a cat. After painting, the girls played for a while in the play area. Then we strolled back to the car. It was the sweetest of afternoons, spending time with these two girls who are so companionable.
This note at 9pm from Wendy A.’s sister Robyn who is at UCSF with the gals:
Good News! All went very well with the surgery for both Wendy’s. They ended up with THE best team here: W P’s doc has an outstanding reputation, and W A got the HEAD of the transplant department, Dr. Ascher. Google her – she’s pretty impressive!
W P’s doc reported that she had a beautiful kidney, and she was doing very well post surgery. W A’s doc said everything went very well, and now they are waiting for a post op ultrasound to check progress. They’ll both be in recovery for another 2 to 3 hours before coming back up to their rooms. We won’t know anything more until then, and tomorrow will be a day of watching reactions, getting fluids back into their bodies, and beginning to walk.
Thank you all for your support and positive energy that you’ve been sending to them today. On the part of Wendy Archer’s family, we are so thankful to Wendy Pound for being willing to become part of our family!
In February 2007, my dear friend Wendy A. was diagnosed with kidney failure. At the time of her diagnosis, doctors declared that she was already at end-stage failure and eligible for dialysis.
Wendy A. met this diagnosis head-on. Terribly weakened by the kidney failure, she nevertheless garnered her incredible personal resources and stamina for she was determined to NOT do dialysis until it was absolutely necessary. She conducted Interntet research and quizzed doctors and nurses about her condition. She adopted a diet that would keep her kidneys from working hard and reduce the side effects of high blood pressure and high cholesterol that resulted from her failing kidneys. She made regular massage and accupuncturue appointments and spent time in her hot tub warming her body and relaxing her spirit. She let people help her–she who was always, always, forever helping others. And she assumed a reasonable and moderate exercise program the helped her regain the strength she had been steadily losing for months. The exercise program worked so well that she was able to do some hiking in the summer, one of life’s greatest pleasures for Wendy A.
She also went through a rigorous screening to see if she was a good candidate for a kidney transplant. She was! And her sisters began testing to see if they could donate a kidney to her. Neither of them were viable donors, but on a momentous hike during the summer of 2007, another friend– Wendy P.– told Wendy A. that she would like to be in-queue as a potential donor.
Two years later, having avoided dialysis by an incredible regime and healthy life style changes, and after a roller coaster of medical, mental, and physical preparations, TODAY is the day that Wendy P. will give Wendy A. a kidney.
Please hold these two women gently and easily in a circle of prayer and love. See them both hiking in the high Sierra next summer: noble friend Wendy P. and fully recovered Wendy A.
We took over 300 pictures with our new camera at the Christmas Party, but I’ve narrowed it down to a slide show of 31 pictures that offer highlights from the rich and wonderful day! My favorite parts of the day were: Listening to my boys jam on banjo and guitar; watching Cody and August shoot pool; the amazing array of food; the circle of kids around the tree patiently waiting their turn to open gifts; chocolate fondue joy; Huck asking for a job at clean up time, and each kid climbing the ladder to take down decorations to a background of music by Culley, Raleigh, and Cody as we ALL cleaned up.
The party was everything I hoped for! THE BEST GIFT ever: a family gathering!!
For another, slower option of viewing the slideshow click the picture below:
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| The Christmas Party |
Today we put up our Christmas tree. Since we got the tree late and will be leaving on Christmas Eve, we decided on a little tree that we put on the dining room table. After we decorated the tree, we ate our dinner from plates set on festive red and green braided place mats in front of the tree. We had been decorating the clubhouse all afternoon for the big party tomorrow, so it was fun to extend the experience into our own home.
I grew up in San Francisco where going to the Nutcracker ballet performance was part of the Christmas tradition. Though I didn’t go every year as a child, I went often enough that the music and the magic are deeply woven into my experience of Christmas. When Jennie Lou was a little girl, I wanted very much for her to have a Nutcracker experience, and now that I have a number of girl grandchildren, I’m determined to get everyone of them to the Nutcracker during the Christmas season at least once during their childhood.
So it was with great excitement that I headed to San Francisco and the ballet with Jenny, Taylor, and Candice this week. The Opera Hall itself was simply stunning, from the red and green lighted nutcrackers tucked between the balustrades of the exterior to the glitter and sparkle of decorations inside. One can’t help but look upward at the amazing chandelier hanging in the grand assembly hall. And no matter how many times I see the Nutcracker, I am moved to tears by the Snowflake dance at the end of the first Act and the Pas de Deux at the end of the second Act, just as I am awestruck by the Christmas tree that grows to a magnificent size, gleeful at the appearance of the Russian dancers, and delighted by the Dancing Bear.
But best of all is sharing and enjoying the unmitigated pleasure of newcomers to the San Francisco ballet performance of the Nutcracker. I’m confident that Jenny, Taylor, and Candice enjoyed the performance as much as I. Plus we had a great post-performance dinner at the famous Max’s on Van Ness. What a marvelous day!
Cindy has the opposite relationship to shopping from me. She takes her time and enjoys the process, patiently visiting multiple stores and price checking until she finds just what she wants for the right price. I’m an in-and-out kind of gal with about a 30 minute ceiling on the time I can spend shopping (That’s why Black Friday worked well for me.)
We quickly recognized this difference in behavior and have taken it into consideration when it comes to shopping. When I must go along, I always bring a book or my journal so I can retire to the car when I “hit the wall” which is how Cindy describes the glassy-eyed zombie behavior that signals I’m done shopping. Mostly I just don’t go shopping. She either goes by herself–sometimes late at night, like after 9–or with her mom, who has a similar shopping style.
This past weekend we went to Mariposa, and I stayed home with Cindy’s dad by the fire while Cindy and her mom headed to Merced–an hour away– for Christmas shoppping. They left in the early afternoon despite a winter storm warning for low elevation snow. While I napped and read Harry Potter, they shopped. They didn’t buy a lot, but it was clear when they checked in by phone that they were enjoying what Cindy called “the investigative” stage of shopping. She was researching on her Blackberry at the same time that they looked at items in stores. Her voice was filled with happy good cheer.
When they left for home, they drove directly into the storm. Six miles from Mariposa, they struggled to crest a hill, fishtailing in Cindy’s two-wheel drive Dodge Dakota pickup, and slid into a snowbank on the side of the road in a place where they had no cell phone coverage. Stuck in the snowbank, Cindy flagged down a passing motorist and asked the driver to call her dad for help when she got to town.
When we got the call, Cindy’s dad, Fred, and brother Jimmy left to rescue them. Jimmy’s son-in-law went too, and he and Jimmy got Cindy’s truck out of a snow bank, driving it over a hill that the Highway Patrol insisted they could not make without chains. Cindy argued with the CHP while her brother headed forward with the truck with the son-in-law bouncing on the bumper to offer necessary traction. Then Cindy and her mom hiked over the same hill to get to Fred who was waiting on the other side.
The truck was almost out of gas because they had sat with it running for 2 hours, so they could have heat while they waited for Fred and Jimmy to come. Since they had sent word with someone in another car, they had no way of knowing if the people had called us and if Fred was even coming. They got home at 11:30, wet and freezing.
It was an adventure that years from now will be a family story, but it’s one adventure I’m happy to have missed. Cindy thought I should have exhibited more concern, but I was admittedly feeling a little smug about being warm and comfortable rather than weathering the adventures of Chrismas shopping.
At my brother Andy’s retirement party, someone asked him how long he had worked. “My whole life,” he replied.
It’s true! I remember Andy working diligently to pack the car for family trips to Twain Harte when he was 8 or 9. A few years later he was getting up early in the morning to go to work with my dad in dark and dingy theaters. He’s been in business for himself and worked for others, built his own home in part from salvaged materials he collected himself and invented improved methods for his most recent job at Modesto Irrigation District, the place from which he is officially retiring. There is no doubt Andy will continue to work for the rest of his life, but now he has the daily option to choose what he will work on and when.
It was a pleasure to celebrate Andy’s retirement with family and friends on a brisk December night in the lovely home that he and Connie have built and designed with such attention to detail. The cozy orange glow of this picture speaks to the warm celebratory evening. Welcome little brother to the next stage.
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