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ANDERSONs |
December 19, 2007
Welcome to the annual Anderson novella. Since Jan feels misrepresented by some of my observations, this year she has elected to add a rebuttal so there is even more to enjoy (suffer?).
It’s been a quiet year in Lake … oops. It’s been a year full of activities and changes – in addition to our beach walks and trips to Whidbey Island. This fall, Katherine moved from North Carolina to Seattle. Her boyfriend, Bill, completed his Master’s and they both got teaching jobs in the Seattle area. Katherine is teaching language arts in a Montessori Middle School less than a mile from where she is living in the Fremont district. Bill teaches writing at Green River Community College near Auburn a little south of Seattle. We’re happy that we’ll be able to see her during our treks to Whidbey. We’ll be there for Christmas again this year.
During one of our trips to Whidbey this year, over Labor Day, Jan threw me a 60th Birthday party, inviting over 20 of our friends in the Puget Sound area, including many we knew from Walla Walla but had not seen in many years. It was more of a wonderful reunion than the “wake” I had feared. I got in a little kayaking but spent much of my time on that trip building a bocce court beside the garage. I’ll challenge any of you to a game if you come to visit.
In April, we spent a wonderful few days in Ireland. I had a meeting in Dublin and so Jan came along and we spent two days before the meeting and five after, touring the south of Ireland: Newgrange, Kilkenny, County Cork(Kinsale, Bantry), County Kerry (Ring of Kerry, Killarney, Dingle), County Clare (Kilkee, Cliffs of Moher, the Burren, portal and wedge tombs), Galway, and driving back across the lush Shannon Valley, County Offaly and Kildare, to Dublin. Of course, we saw many of the sites in Dublin, including Christ Church Cathedral, Trinity College and the Book of Kells and took in several traditional music sets in Temple Bar district. The weather was perfect and our pocket books smaller for all the sweaters we bought. The highlight was Newgrange, several ancient (approximately 5000 BC, predating Stonehenge) domed passage tombs. The largest (328 ft diameter) has a passage (62 ft) to the ceremonial chamber in the center which the sun’s rays illuminate only a dawn on the Winter Solstice. Another nearby, Knoth, has two passages with chambers illuminated at dawn and sunset of Winter Solstice. They are decorated with more Paleolithic art than all the other European sites put together.
In May we traveled to Jan’s sister’s house in Tennessee to help celebrate her mother’s 90th birthday. It was a great family reunion, with all the children, grandchildren and one great-grand child.
It was yet another great year for the Andersons and we’re looking forward to 2008 (this April, it’s Rome).
Merry Christmas, etc.,
Jan and Terry Anderson
This Christmas’ Novella: A Sea of Glass
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