The Annual Christmas Letter

Thought I'd add the annual Christmas letter here:

Ah, yes, it is that time again. Time to deck the halls and take stock of the year for auld lang syne. The hall-decking is a bit delayed at our house since at the moment we are in the middle of finishing out the garage and so all the decking material is locked up in a storage container!

Nick received his Doctorate in Optometry in May and decided to spend a year in a pediatric residency at Nova University, in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. He loves the great experiences he is having there. And Jamie, Andrew (5) and Sadie (3) are enjoying the year-round swimming pool weather. We were lucky to have them home for a month between school and residency. And of course it is our dearest hope that they will be back here permanently by next year.

Natalie is back with the catering company she worked for several years ago – they pleaded with her to return and offered her a small ownership interest in the company. She works very hard and for long hours. She plays hard, too at softball and darts. She recently adopted another kitten, which brings her total fur baby count to 3.

Chelsea finished her Masters in Special Education. She was hired in February as a special ed teacher at an elementary school in the same school district she grew up in. She loves the job and they love her. She worried about putting Walker (2) into daycare, but in fact he is thriving. Trenton also earned his Masters of Social Work and is now working as an advocate for foster families. Chelsea and Trenton will be blessing us with another grandbaby this coming June.

Skyler and Sarah are still stationed at Ft. Bragg, NC although they expect to be transferred to Maryland sometime next year. Skyler has been busy with work and Sarah has been busy building her photography business (www.trulysarah.com) and taking pictures and writing for a local magazine. They also are both busy with the young people at church: he as Young Men’s president and she in the Young Women’s presidency. They took a short vacation to Europe this fall and we are looking forward to their visit out here for Christmas.

Martin and I had a fabulous vacation in the spring. We spent time in England – Bath, London and the Cotswolds, and in Ireland – a good portion of that time on the Dingle Peninsula, then stopped in Boston on the way home in time for Nick’s graduation. We both agree that if we were ever to leave this great country of ours, we’d move to Ireland. Almost immediately upon our return home, Martin was called to be Bishop of the Agoura 1st ward. He’s been pretty much going nonstop since then between Expedition Motorhomes and church responsibilities. Of course it hasn’t been all work. In September I attended a conference in Chicago and was able to sneak in a bit of sightseeing in that great city. We made a trip to Florida in October to surprise Andrew for his birthday. It was only for the weekend but worth every minute. Then in November we spent my birthday at the timeshare in Cabo just relaxing and enjoying the sun and sand (and the spa!) for a few days. I also have a new calling in church as Gospel Doctrine teacher. I continue to work for Kaiser and try to find time for quilting. I’ve been taking guitar lessons but don’t hold your breath waiting for music from me anytime soon.

Facebook might be making the tradition of the annual Christmas letter obsolete, but we love the opportunity for us to wish you all the best this Christmas and for a healthy and happy 2014!

Onward and eastward! (Part 4 and final)

Okay, so my last post ended with us headed out from Dingle (sniff, sniff) on our way to Kilkenny.  We didn't do any sightseeing in Kilkenny, but the view out of our hotel window included a view of the castle.  That was cool.  It was a Sunday, Mother's Day, we were tired.  We opted for a nice dinner out which turned out to be in a pretty place, but the food was quite forgettable. 

Here's an interesting factoid: historically Irish towns were not so brightly colored (like you see here and in the photos from Dingle.)  But Ireland has these competitions between towns called the Tidy Town awards.  It's apparently very hot competition and has resulted not only in tidy towns, but prettily painted and decorated buildings! Views from our hotel room in Kilkenny:

The next morning we actually backtracked a bit to see The Rock of Cashel.  The Rock, situated above the Plain of Tipperary, was originally a fortress from the 4th or 5th century and seat of the kings that ruled at that time.  In 1101 AD The Rock was given to the church and eventually it developed into an ecclesiastical center including a chapel and a cathedral (12th, 13th, and 15th century).  Unfortunately there was some renovation work going on which caused there to be a great deal of scaffolding around  obscuring some of our vision, but overall an impressive site to visit.  I didn't get any great shots from a distance of the whole Rock unfortunately.

Sculpture of dancers outside a cultural center at Cashel

Tomb engraved with images of the 12 Apostles

Looking out over the Plain of Tipperary

Hore Abbey seen from The Rock

This chunk of the castle wall was blown out during a storm in 1848.  However the wall had been weakened during Cromwell's attack in 1647

Hore Abbey, again :)

There is a Rick Steve's video on YouTube about the Rock of Cashel with some great footage that gives you a better idea of the scope of the place.

From The Rock we continued our drive eastward toward Dublin.  As we were driving through a small hamlet called Hollywood we stopped and had a very delicious lunch at the local pub.

I'm telling you this story because you would not believe what Martin asked me as we left the town (and after I asked him to stop so I could take a picture of the sign on the hill):  "I wonder what the name of that town was?"  Yes, he was serious.  I laughed for an hour, at least.

We decided to make one more stop before we got into Dublin - it was a place Nick and Jamie had been on their stopover in Dublin on their way to Spain and I had seen pictures: Glendalough.  A monastery set between two lakes founded by St. Kevin in the 6th century, raided and pillaged during the Viking era, destroyed by the English in 1398 and finally abandoned in 1539.  Absolutely gorgeous - and easy to imagine a perfect place for a spiritual and monastic life.

After leaving Glendalough we were ready for the last leg of our vacation - Dublin!  We arrived at the Roxford Lodge in Ballsbridge in the late afternoon.  One of the nice things about being in Ireland which is at the equivalent latitude of Alberta, Canada, is that in May the days are very long, staying light until past 9 PM.  So we were able to do quite a bit of walking and looking well into late evening. 

Temple Bar district of Dublin

Bru na Boinne

We had the rental car one more day so our last car trip was the next day (Tuesday the 14th) when we headed to Newgrange - easily one of the most fascinating places we visited during our entire trip. Newgrange is more properly called Bru na Boinne and I will simply copy and paste a description from the World Heritage website rather than try and explain it myself:

"Brú na Bóinne, which means the 'palace' or the 'mansion' of the Boyne, refers to the area within the bend of the River Boyne which contains one of the world's most important prehistoric landscapes.  The archaeological landscape within Brú na Bóinne is dominated by the three well-known large passage tombs, Knowth, Newgrange and Dowth, built some 5,000 years ago in the Neolithic or Late Stone Age. An additional ninety monuments have been recorded in the area giving rise to one of the most significant archaeological complexes in terms of scale and density of monuments and the material evidence that accompanies them. The Brú na Bóinne tombs, in particular Knowth, contain the largest assemblage of megalithic art in Western Europe."

We did not have the time to visit both Knowth and Newgrange so we opted for Newgrange.  This tomb is older that the pyramids by 500 years, and older than Stonehenge by 1000.  It is amazingly impressive.  It was buried by time until discovered in 1699 by a landowner moving rock and dirt.  Unfortunately after discovery it was left open and unprotected for about 200 years.  During that time people left plenty of graffiti inside.  Here are fast facts from the Newgrange website:

The man made mound is 85 metres in diameter and 13.5 metres high, an area of about 1 acre.

The main feature of Newgrange is a 19 metre passage which leads to a chamber with 3 alcoves, the passage and chamber form a cross shape.  

The passage and chamber are aligned with the rising sun at the Winter Solstice. (So the rising sun actually shines right into the chamber through a special opening.)

The 12" Triple Spiral engraving in the chamber is the most recognizable symbol of Ancient Ireland.

The base of the mound is surrounded by 97 large stone called kerbstones.  Some of the kerbstones are engraved with megalithic art; the most striking is the entrance stone K1.

 12 standing stones from the remains of a circle that may have had 37 stones are still in existence.
  

The Celts didn't build Newgrange; it was built about 2500 years before the first Celt set foot in Ireland.

 Newgrange entered Celtic Mythology as a fairy mound. Newgrange was the home of the god Dagda, his wife Boann and their son Aonghus the god of love.

The Winter Solstice Phenomenon was re-discovered by Professor Michael J. O'Kelly in 1967.

The roof of the inner chamber is of corbelled construction, it hasn't leaked in 5000 years.

The rest of our time in Dublin was done mostly on foot; although we did take a hop on hop off bus to get our bearings.  One day we took a walking tour led by a history graduate from Trinity College.  We got a lot of interesting political history about Ireland.  We also saw a street called Fishambles which was the site of a viking settlement.  We spent a great deal of time in the National Museum of Archaeology which was fascinating.  We saw many artifacts that had been excavated from the Fishambles street site that were of viking origin.  We also saw several "bog bodies" which were bodies and other artifacts found perfectly preserved in the oxygen deprived bogs of Ireland.  Those finds, including many gold hordes left by who-knows-who over the millennium are still being found on a regular basis in Ireland.  It pays to have a metal detector when you life in a place like Ireland! We also had an opportunity to see the Book of Kells - one of the most famous illuminated manuscripts in the world.  Even more impressive was the Long Room library at Trinity College.

Two of our favorite activities:  we spent one night at a pub called The Brazen Head (the oldest in Dublin, c. 1198) having a dinner event called "Food, Folklore and Fairies."  We sat in a private dining room with people from all over the world (our table had  couples from California, Virginia and Australia) and listened to a very interesting and entertaining speaker tell us stories about the history of Ireland and in particular the evolution of the storytelling tradition and the folklore and fairy traditions of the land.  We enjoyed it so much.  Did you know that the Irish once believed that fairies particularly liked to take male babies?  So they dressed their male babies and toddlers in dresses to fool the fairies.  Hence the gowns worn by infants for blessings or baptisms even today.  It was good food, good company, and great storytelling.  The other of our favorite activities was a night spent doing a musical pub crawl.  We followed two traditional musicians through several of the "real" pubs (translated, not tourist spots) and learned all about the traditional Irish "session" and got to hear some great trad music.  At their recommendation, we followed up the next night at another "real" pub and sat in for a session which was truly a delight.  At these sessions musicians gather to play and people in the crowd will simply start singing.  You don't have to sing well.  People listen and encourage. It's spontaneous and lovely.  

The Long Room in Trinity College

Dublin Castle

Pub Crawl

Marion Square

Finally we had come to the end of our stay in Ireland.  People have asked about the food.  We had some very good food, particularly the stews and soups.  I was absolutely crazy for the Irish soda bread and ate so much of it!  I'm not a big bread person unless it is really good bread. Let's just say I'm glad it's in Ireland and I'm here or I'd weigh a ton.  I had these great fish cakes which were basically potato cakes with fish in them.  We found the food quite tasty.  And if you order a ham sandwich you get a real slice of ham - no flimsy little cold cut let me tell you.  Ireland is utterly charming.  Go if you can.  Frankly, I think you could keep your visit to Dublin quite short and spend the bulk of your time on the west side of Ireland.  We'd like to go back someday.

Friday the 17th found us on the plane to Boston.  Last stop before home was to go to see Nick graduate from his doctoral program.

Well, if you've read all this, more power to you and thank you.  At least by blogging all of this I have some chance of actually remembering the stuff we did and saw.  Thanks for letting me share it with you.