Merry Christmas, 2007
Joy to
the World!
Our BIG news is actually rather small, and all the
credit goes elsewhere. To be precise,
we have two small editions of big
news, thanks to Bert, Emily, and their spouses.
Hail -
Bert and Alison made room for their second son, Alexander August, born
on September 11, in Lansing, 6 ½ pounds. He was a bit early, which led to a
worrisome week in the Neonatal ICU, but he soon got breathing figured out, and
now we’re looking forward to learning what this charmingly solemn little
blue-eyed guy thinks is funny.
Three-year-old Robbie is a dear big brother, very gentle and caring
toward the new center of attention.
Lily
Amelia Erfani showed up at Emily and Farhang’s Washington DC house two
weeks later, all 9 ½ pounds of her. At
two months, she’s turned into quite the delicate pixie, which makes her husky
alto voice startling. Lily has silky ‘lotsa-black-hair’ as specified in the
original order, sparkly brown eyes, long fingers, and a most appealing Mona
Lisa smile. SO cute!
We’ve had a grand time getting to know both adorable
newcomers, and being delighted anew by Robbie’s whimsical imagination,
mischievous sense of humor, and whirlwind level of cheerful energy.
And farewell. In sad news, we lost our treasured friend Mary Speakman, mother
of Hannah, one of our exchange students, to multiple myeloma recently. How we’ll miss her funny dry observations in
newsy emails from England, and her zest for whatever life tossed her way.
Heaven is sure to be a livelier place with her arrival.
For a retiree, Rob’s been
spending a lot of time at work. His
occasional weekend covering for Edenton’s pediatric office, and the one weekend
a month for the clinics down on the Outer Banks have (temporarily?) expanded
into at least half-time. This has made boat-building much slower than expected,
but still, the progress seems dramatic enough, with walls up, and roof going
on. Will NEXT year be the maiden voyage? We say that every year….but now we
really mean it. Maybe.
The little airplane got an instrument-panel
face-lift this year, which brings the bird into the 21st century,
and now we need to think of someplace exciting for it to take us. Despite soaring av-gas prices, it still
gives the occasional excuse to write a flying article, and the opportunity to
go see dear relatives. Travel highlights included Mardi Gras in Mobile, and a
week wiggling our toes in Gulf Shore’s sugary sand with Mimi’s family. There
was a good visit in Orrville catching up with Rob’s sisters and their families,
and the annual Reiheld gathering, this year held on an Atlantic beach not too
far south of us. Of course, we also saw a good bit of Lansing and Washington
for grandbaby fixes.
There’s been entertainment
here in Edenton, too. Our usual July
4th pig-pickin’-followed-by-fireworks seems to get bigger every year. We later
heard that the crowd at the waterfront park downtown was considerably
diminished, because everybody who was ANYbody was in our backyard. A week or
two earlier, we’d watched housemovers move the 19th century
lighthouse that was next door, onto a barge and a half-mile across the bay to
the park, where it’ll be restored as a tourist attraction. Interesting bit of
logistics, that was. You can’t say there’s never anything to do in this town.
We were overjoyed to welcome old friends and beloved
relatives here this year to share our pleasure in this good place, and hope to
see more of you all in the coming year.
As always, we look forward to hearing all the news
from you and yours.
May 2008 bring you joy and peace in glorious
abundance.
Love,
(252) 482-0624
and for those with good internet connections -
http://reiheld.home.mchsi.com