New Year time

A Note From Laurey

Oooh WEE! 2009. Amazing. The news is filled with gloom and doom. There is a tension in the air. What is going to happen? How’s it all going to turn out? What’s to become of us?

I’ve just spent a lovely few days with my family in Kentucky. We have the three sisters, for starters. One sister has one daughter. That daughter has a husband and together they have one son and one daughter. Those children are youngsters: The son is 2 ½ years old and the daughter is 10 months. They, to me, are the future, the light, hope, love, fun.

One day one sister and I went to take care of the little kids. My niece and her husband had plans for their day: returning things that weren’t quite right, going out for a quiet dinner, and then taking in a movie. We, on the home front, were baby tenders.

When we got there, Jones, the 2 ½ year old, was on his way to his nap. Seeing us did not make him any more excited about napping than he had been before we got there, which is to say, not very excited at all. But with some encouragement from my sister, who acquiesced to his requests and went to his room and sat quietly with him, he was sound asleep soon after.

That left Bailey to roam around freely. She tottered from table to sofa to chair to, occasionally, no support at all. Without Jones’s concerned attention, she was able to touch and play with every single things she encountered: his cars, his puzzles, his games. She poked and chortled and sputtered, laughing and happy.

After while she, too, went off to nap land. My sister and I settled in for an afternoon of travels with Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel, both of us nodding off on our respective soft couches. The kids slept. We did too.

Later, almost 3 hours later, everyone woke up. Diapers were changed and then everyone ate. I got to deliver tiny spoonfuls of turkey and vegetables and rice and milk to Bailey while Jones picked up his chicken, poked it onto his fork, and put it in his mouth by himself. Kids full and cleaned, my sister and I ate a bit, helped by the little ones.

Games, play time, and then bedtime came. Rachel and Dustin came home, calm and happy and relaxed. Store exchanges done. Dinner good. Movie fun.

Lucinda and I bundled up, drove home, played some of our own new Christmas games with Heather, who had spent the day alone nursing a cold, and then went to bed.

All that day no one mentioned an economic downturn or unemployment numbers or daily sales or prospects for the future. The future, solidly and dependably, was in those two little babies. I have their pictures on my computer, on my desk, and in my thoughts. With them, all is bright. Happy New Year to you and yours. Thanks for being a part of this little world that we are creating here at 67 Biltmore. Thanks a whole lot.