RomansChristmas

I've felt the holiday spirit so many days this year, enjoying family and friends and beauty and cookies, the gifts of every day. I wish you the same for the New Year!

A few days from around the calendar, in pictures:

Roman had a snow day this year on Inauguration Day! Good Work on your first day, President O! Roman drew the man himself in the White House. Good Work, Roman.

We walked the dogs and the jeep around Washington Park.See how much it snowed that day? They had to cancel school. Yippee!

We found a fast glassy hill for sledding. See? At the park.

And had all the buddies over for cocoa. How did we get such amazing neighborhood friends?

More and more snow days happened. May we have as much luck this year. In the episode below, the boys preparing snowballs lay in the dark tones of foreshadowing for one of my best and worst parenting moments of the year...

Roman and Owen making snowballs in the moonlight. Photos by Cary Clifford.

...the time when I stood at the sink washing dishes until up on the roof there arose such a clatter that I sprang to the back porch (the porch I built with Shane. Thanks, Shane, building the porch with you gave me a favorite memory for the year, but I don't have any pictures) to see what was the matter. Oh, it's just the boys hurling walnuts up onto the roof, laughing hysterically, and dodging as they rolled back to earth. I laughed hysterically, too, then said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait 'til one falls before you launch the next one, or it's doomsday for your heads!" Then I went back to washing dishes, less peacefully now given the hilarity and walnut racket out back. Have you guessed the outcome yet?

Surely yes, if you read my facebook. Surely yes, if you have a bigger brain than I. Crash. Silence.

Boys await my response. After a pause, I could only laugh...

...and marvel at the perfectly round hole After all, I'd encouraged them.

We spent many memorable days at the farm, with lovely friends and family all around: fantastic times with Alison and my brother Andrew (now engaged!), with my sister Anna, Dave, and the ever-more remarkable now 3-year-old Wren; Owen brought his family, and we had great horse rides;

Owen and Roman enter the paddock. Can you tell Roman loves to play with Owen? Even more than with his new easter-bunny-delivered easter bunny. Photo by Shane

this Photo from another trip-- on the Chattooga with the Groves-Benedict Gang. one of Misty's amazing photos.

Shane brought his family: brother Peter and Misty, and their three friends-of-Roman kids, and we paddled on the mighty new, caught crawdaddies, made mud paddies. Just last weekend we spent long hours repairing fences in the cooooold with a great crew (thanks, Roxie, Carl, Justin, KG, Dave, Anna!), and when we left, Roman admired the mist and said, "It's so beautiful, I wish we could live here!" It is beautiful. We are so lucky.

As if that weren't enough, my mom Jane brought her family and we call that a family reunion! And we had fun!

I don't even need to see the pictures to remember the rewarding crayfish hunts with Isabelle, Isaac and Soren, playful river and horse rides...

... the kids in their new t-shirts at the Independence Day Parade in Independence, VA, the sunset bluegrass with Nana and Poppy at the blueridge music center: the memories will long remain vivid.

As if THAT weren't enough, we got to spend labor day with two of my 'sisters' from growing up at the farm, Chris, and Katherine, as well as my blood sibs, and much of our families. We spent a beautiful weekend there with 'baby' Schei (now three) another of the third generation of farm sibs, playing trains and having fun outside, and could go on and on about farm fun, but will stop now.

Roman got a new bike for his birthday in July. Here he tests it out at the bike shop. We did a 17 mile ride at the family reunion (about 90 % downhill, yay!)

On that ride, Roman's beloved darling cousin Wren caught some air during lunch.

Roman's also learning to kayak (me too!thanks, Shane!), ski, and play soccer, and if you want to know the serious stuff, he's doing very well in second grade, reading beautifully and working happily with numbers. They started a unit on sound yesterday, and Roman said "Science is fun!" in the car. His dad thinks so too; Roman and Mark share lots of amazing times, this year including a cruise to Alaska with Mark's extended family, and building and experimenting and playing basketball and enjoying downtime.

Mark, Roman and I enjoyed pizza before watching Roman give a powerful performance as 1/3 of the purple bag monster at the first play of the year.

Occasionally Roman likes to play with legos! (photos by Roman)

I've had a great year... much of it centered, as the pictures show, on Roman. But...

... also much on my own and with Shane: hiking in the western NC beauty, horsing around at the farm, many paddling events and amazing trip to Nicaragua also with Shane (photos by maria noakes, anna towns, shane benedict, maria again. thanks, guys). Such a remarkable year, that also included lots of fulfilling work at UNCSA, in the little studio, at home...

... exploring new ways of teaching at UNC School of the Arts, continuing work with animals at play in ceramic and returning a tiny bit to painting, pushing myself to tackle construction projects by myself and with help of great friends and fam, and loving being part of a neighborhood full of remarkable people-- what a great experience to have a porch full of grownups watching the kids play soccer or hula hoop or spies.

The porch.

One terrible, powerful tragedy touched our lives so deeply now and for always. We have had such joy in our best friends in Winston: our friends, neighbors, colleagues, kindred spirits,--Owen, Errol, Cary, and Jonathan. So many days of play, conversation, shared meals, ideas, work, tears, laughter. Owen taught Roman the meaning of best friend (what a tremendous concept to learn), Jonathan and Cary showed me such generosity and kinship, renewing my understanding of best friend, and gave me so many of the tools and treats I needed for embarking on a new life, and 3-year old Errol taught me how to slow down and think about how important a smile and a life and a close look at the world could be in every day-- that holiday spirit I opened with-- Errol felt it every day, and sang "In a full-hearted evensong /Of joy illimited." Errol died December 23, after many surgeries to repair his heart. Love of Errol beats strong in my heart.

We will always think of you Errol, and thank you for all the gifts you gave.

While I felt the joys of the holidays in colorado with Roman and Shane and his remarkable, beloved family, I thought of Errol and his remarkable, beloved family. Heart torn and full of love at once. The neighborhood is different without you, and forever changed by you.