Allie returned from Australia on July 12. We were delighted to have her back and hear all the stories of her travels.
But no rest for the weary! On August 11, the three of us headed off on a vacation in Italy, starting with a one-day layover in London. See details in a separate post about our London-Italy trip.
We returned August 22, in time for Allie to start 7th grade, her second year of middle school at Glenelg Country School.
By the end of September, I was having enough trouble with the Volvo S60 that I decided it was time to sell. I took a few shots with the thought of selling it myself, but I ended up just taking it to CarMax and accepting their offer. I switched to a new Honda Civic Hybrid in search of better mileage and reduced emissions.
All of a sudden, it was time for Allie’s 12th birthday. We celebrated with a sleepover at our house. Let’s see if I can name all the girls: there was Sydney, Saraniya, Jessie, Ellen, Melissa and Katie.
To celebrate Barb’s birthday, we deposited Allie with Blair and the Dettmers while the two of us headed to the Eastern Shore. We stayed at a waterside B&B in Cambridge, Lodgecliffe on the Choptank (but no longer operating, I think) and then the Inn at Easton (no longer in business) for one night while we had dinner at the Inn’s restaurant. It was a fine little getaway with no photos taken to protect the innocent.
If it’s birthday time then Halloween can’t be far behind. Allie and Melissa were babies, for unknown reasons.
Harry Potter and Georgie got in on the action, whether they wanted to or not.
In late November, the leaves were down and Allie helped gather them into a pile worth jumping into…one of her favorite fall activities.
December 4: Snow!! Allie subjects Harry and George to our rituals.
The next day, pretty scenes.
Playing soccer with Georgie.
Our tree was up and decorated by December 16.
Allie and I went down to Riviera Beach the week before Christmas to spend a little time with Grandmom and Granddad. Barb stayed home, as best as we can tell. While in Riviera Beach, the four of us went to Lion Country Safari one day. I had always thought it was just a tacky tourist trap and it was, sort of, but they had an astonishing variety of wildlife throughout the drive. It was actually far better than Disney’s safari tour. We wore out our cameras taking pictures. These are just a few…
Allie recorded three short videos which mostly capture Grandpop enjoying the animals.
Wrapping up our pre-Christmas trip to Florida. While we were there, we had a slightly early celebration of Dad’s 90th birthday at Raindancer’s, his favorite steak place.
Christmas time back home with and without Harry. Our Holiday letter: Some Memories of 2007.
One of Allie’s gifts for Christmas this year was a One Laptop Per Child computer. This was a nonprofit initiative started by Nicholas Negroponte to get inexpensive computing power into the hands of kids in both the first world and developing world. For every unit sold in the U.S. and Europe, OLTP provided a computer to kids in other countries. I think ours went to someone in Peru. The computer was very cleverly designed and stocked with open source software but it turned out not to be nearly so friendly as a Mac or PC with Windows. Allie hardly used it, and even I could barely make it do anything interesting or useful. It was a noble, well-intentioned initiative both on Negroponte’s part for getting it started and on my part for buying into it but it wasn’t all that great a Christmas present. We still have the computer, though…suitable for a museum someday.
The day after Christmas, Allie went with the Speizmans for a ski trip to Park City, Utah. She arrived and nearly froze in the crappy winter outfits we sent her with…so Faith bought Allie a proper set of ski outerwear along with renting all her gear. Allie had a great time and kept Sydney company for the trip, a very generous gesture from the Faith and Rick. It’s fair to say the Speizmans spent more on Allie’s Christmas than we did. It’s nice to have (rich) friends.
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