November 27, 2011
Thanksgiving on the Vineyard
and the ...
BEAST: Washed up on the beach. Walrus? Seal? Sea Urchin?
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November 21, 2011
POUND RIDGE PAST -- count down! Upcoming book signings
Pound Ridge Community Church Holiday Bazaar 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
Pound Ridge Library Family Holiday Happening 1:30-2:30 p.m.
(271 Westchester Avenue)
November 15, 2011
Don't Hate Me But ...
My wedding dress from 25 years ago fit me. All 31 handmade satin-covered buttons down the back were fastened ... some not easily, but we (and I say "we" because one of the reasons we have remained married for 25 years is that I learned using "we" is better than "I") did it!
After going in for the kill by trying to fasten the buttons all at once, within minutes my husband said (yelped?), "I need to take a break. My fingers are numb."
"Is that supposed to be funny?" I chortled (a sense of humor is also essential in a marriage.)
"I just need to get the blood running back in my fingers," he said.
Ha. Ha. Very funny.
My husband wore his wedding day bow tie. He grabbed a tuxedo jacket from the corner of his closet (even though he wore a morning suit for our wedding), and donned a crisply starched tuxedo shirt, complete with the ebony and pearl studs, and elegant patent leather dress slippers. Oh, and pants, of course. He decided to shake it up with black jeans (that he actually had worn on our first date).
Why the tizzy? For what reason would I pull the sacrosanct wedding dress from its fancy-shmancy storage box in the attic? And why would dear husband go formal with his finest?
Dearest friends and family hosted an intimate wedding party redux to celebrate our 25th happy wedding anniversary. The front steps of our hosts' house were strewn with white rose petals. As husband and I pounced over them, the door opened and the cameras started flashing. There was something absolutely wonderful and irreverent that everyone was honoring our wedding union with both seriousness and humor. I absolutely treasure them all the more for it.
The hosts had Bee Gees and Barry Manilow love songs oozing from the speakers. On the mantle, were wedding day photos of all of us 25 years ago. A mini-wedding cake was the centerpiece of the dining room table. Every detail of the gathering was a combination of love, long friendships and a wisp of hilarity.
The advice from this Mrs. is: stay in the game. Weather the storms. Make the commitment to try again and again and again (and again) to make your marriage ever better, and you, too, may have the blessing to be with the love of your life 25 years later.
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Cozy Home Gets Spooky After the Halloween Storm
We drank wine, ate chocolate and, from a cranky transistor radio, listened to the repetition of the news on 880. Every hour on the 8’s, we got traffic and weather. Over and over again. And with this unexpected, unseasonal blizzard, it was as if we needed to hear the weather report more than once since it was unbelievable that only days before Halloween we were getting 16-inches of snow, howling winds, falling trees and snapped telephone poles.
As it turned out, inside our house was not much better: it looked like my son’s fraternity. Empty wine bottles lined the mantle of the fireplace because Andrew and I were too lazy and cold to bring them alllllll the way from in front of the fireplace to the freezing kitchen.
Furniture from all corners of the living room were now clustered in closer for warmth by the fire. Dishes from days and days were scattered all over the kitchen counters. The sink was piled with mucky coffee mugs from the Saturday of the storm. Still on the stove was a half-finished macaroni and cheese casserole (which had not one iota of decay since the house was like a freezer for three days.)
Not so on Tuesday night when the electricity finally came on and I could see in the light that I had destroyed the pan. The skewers, which we had cast aside next to the fireplace—didn’t bother putting in the sink—were now a crusty mess.
Wait … was that the cheese I had served on Sunday night? Why yes! It was!
For just a few days, nothing mattered but the basics: food, shelter, warmth … and having enough chocolate to weather the storm.
November 6, 2011
A Wedding Dress & Matron Hipness
My husband and I are about to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary on November 9th. Here's the thing ... close friends are hosting a Sunday afternoon champagne gathering in our honor and the dress code is: "Wear your wedding dress."