A Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) Appeal

For those of you living in the United States, I know that it is hard to get past the religiously-saturated political quagmire, and in fact much easier to avoid the subject of the conflict in Gaza altogether. I hope that you will watch this appeal, though, and give the conflict some thought from another angle or two...

Waking Up, Smelling the Coffee

fyi - pictures have nothing to do with the text

We woke up on Inauguration Day to the usual radio voices. Or rather, we were waking up to them, when I heard a voice chirrup from the boys' room, "They said, 'Barack Obama!'" and then, "They said, 'Barack Obama' again!" and then, "Oh! They said it again!" And then another wee voice piped up, "Why-y-y?" And the first one answered, "Because he's The Good Guy!"

Later that evening (Washington, DC time + 6 hours), we settled into the couch with apples and oranges and lots of blankets, and I pleaded with the boys to keep their questions to a minimum and low-pitched until the end, so's I could hear the voices on the TV. They complied the best they could. And they spontaneously held my hands and cuddled close. At one point, one boy raised his hand. I called on him, and he leaned in and whispered, "Mommy?! They're talking at the same time as Barack Obama! I can't hear him!" The translator's wishy-washy, loud job was bothering him, too! ha! ha! (continued below...)

smoking at the diner - thanks, Disney

(continued from above...) Then the other boy stood up and said, "Can you pause it? I have to pee-pee!" My boys aren't used to watching TV (though they do watch movies, and with gusto). Later, when a visibly moved Bernard Kouchner spoke about his impressions of the day's events, the boys asked, "Can he see us?" At first I was a bit flummoxed, but then I realised that they've only really ever watched stories, and not actual events or people answering questions from off-screen. It was funny; made me think of the scene in O Sullivan's Twenty Years A-Growing, when he's arrived in Dublin, and his friend takes him to the pictures. (Oh my gosh. I just found it on the internet. If you're interested, click here.)

But back to Washington, DC and Strasbourg, France, on the 20th of January, 2009. The boys and their mom are still in front of the TV, watching an extraordinary, historical moment unfold before their eyes. And at the end, when the Obamas and Bidens were standing on the tarmac and waving, one boy knit his brow and held up his palms, asking, " "Why are they waving?" I explained. He asked, "Why are they doing that for so long? They can go now! The other guy, he's a BAD GUY! [And] he's GONE!" I had to cede the point. But was forced to explain the idea of decorum, nonetheless.

I am so relieved. But still, of course, anxious to see how things pan out... Eek!

Happiness, Health and a Warm Hearth

All of the above to all of you from all of us -- though if you're living somewhere warm, we wish you a variation on the theme; say... an Iced Drink?

We rang in the newest year high up in the Vosges with our beloved parents/grandparents/parents-in-law, seeing the old year out with a hike into the heights and the snow; a round of Riesling and pie wedges in a chalet way up thar (not pictured below); a walk back down through the mountain's layers of snowflakes, then snowdrops, then rolling fog; a well-earned return to the warmth of the farmstead; a light and luscious meal; a dance to the lively music the radio's classical station offered us up, and which Tomi inspired us all to take up on; the crémants we'd got at the organic winemaker's in Andlau the day before; and (also not pictured below) a bouquet of fireworks as the fog closed in at midnight, turning the last page of another year's chapter in our lives.

Here are a few images from the above-described last day of the year: