Christmas visit

Hello,

When we landed in DC we tried calling Miriam since their plane had a scheduled landing just two minutes after ours. We found them landed already, but “Where are you?” we wanted to know.

Luckily we were in the same terminal. After about a ten minute walk we saw each other. Olivia stretched her arms wide and ran the rest of the way closing the gap between us. I gathered her in my arms as Nora struggled to get there too. Hugs and more hugs, what fun!

Sarah had said she would meet us so we called her to learn where she was. She was still on the Metro so we waited inside in the warm for her to get there. Leroy and I could have navigated the group through the train routine, but it was nice to have the real expert be there. Then it was on to a short walk to their house where Stephen, Lexi, Brian, Jen, and Sophia waited with more hugging, eating, singing, laughing, talking, and playing.

We considered it fortunate that DC did not get the snow that much of the east coast received in abundance. It was, however, cold and quite windy one day. We walked to the library with children in or on the back of a stroller. Before we left the house it was a bit of a struggle to convince some of them that they must wear hat and gloves with coat zipped and a small blanket wrapped around their legs. On the way home there were no arguments. Nora again did not want the blanket wrapped around her legs, but was quite happy to hold it on her lap and for much of the walk she put her face down in the shelter of that blanket.

Olivia asked why some people were brown. I started to think about a good answer for a three year when genetics seemed like too much to get into. I talked about how people were many different colors. She asked the question again and then in a bit she said, “I know, it is because they were born that way.”
Now why did I not think of that as the perfect answer?

Paula