easter

The first warm days of the season are behind us. For Tua and Pippa, four days straight of playing in the hot sun was enough to warrant a sabbath day nap in the back yard. Tua loaded up her basket with the essentials (dog, monkey, two bunnies, two blankets and a pillow), donned her shades and attempted a nap amongst the menagerie. Pippa, less concerned with creature comforts, just slept where she lay.

Sweet

The sap is running at the neighbors maple sugaring operation. Below are photos from this afternoon at Lorien Woods.




Rick stokes the wood fired arch, which keeps the sap at various stages of a steady boil. It takes 40 gallons of sap to make a gallon of syrup.

Don looks on while Jerry pours raw sap into the final boil, thinning the product to a perfect density.

The first pour is less only a few tablespoons, into a grade jar.

The grade jar is then held to the light and sight matched to one of the four standards. The sap today was yeilding a very light fancy grade.

Pouring off the final product.

chop chop

Bug has not altered her hair length since 1989. It was altered yesterday.

young at art

The girls spent the morning at Edie and Harriet's.



Below- Tua is all aboard, as a game of dress up ensues.

Pip and Harriet at the colors, where taste is just another medium....

the short days

Below, Tua and Martha put the laundry out to dry.

The girls take a moment out of their hectic schedules to smile.

The following shot are of Pippa out for her first ski. She did fine. She learned the correct method of falling down and seemed to have a sense of balance which rivals her sister's.

Some Assembly Required

Christmas Day has always carried with it the semblance of the paradoxies we hold most dear. We celebrate the Savior of the world come born in a stable trough. We celebrate the birth of a King whose gift of eternal life was manifest in His own death. And we celebrate the birth of this new life on one of the darkest days of the calendar year. A recently discovered paradoxy of Christmas day is the unassembled "gift".

We are all gathered in Illinois this year for Bug's family gathering. The girls are eating up every second of it. Our friend Freddie is here from Albania, by way of Boston where he is studying at the Fletcher School at Tufts. The authentic vanOrman Christmas will occur tomorrow, upon the arrival of the rest of the family, but today, for good measure, Tua and Pip were allowed to open two presents. They came unassembled and Freddie and I spent most of Christmas day flummoxed. The directions were written in a dialect of English which was foriegn to me. At the end of the day though, there was a new easel and kitchen set which were both met, like all new gifts on Christmas day, with about as much sheer joy as the indifference that followed.

pre party party

It's December and we've got lots of birthdays over the next few weeks. Tonight we got underway with a practice session. Tua and Pip's joint pre-party party at Grandma & Grandpa Whiteford's house. The girls were thrilled. They got to hang with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc. Pippa got to blow out her first candle with the help of her sister.