Two years ago today, I woke to find my dear, precious Joe Wood dead in the bed beside me. Aunt Betty, my model true believer, would call this Joe’s Glory Day. KK and I decided that today should be a party since we decorated Kelley Ridge for Christmas for the first time this year. So we sent out Open House invites (you can see one on her Enlgand Blog site), fixed lots of eats, and waited for people to come. I was worried about the space (Kelley Ridge isn’t overly endowed with square footage), but it was perfect, except for the fact that I kept my apron on all night so that no one could see my sexy Christmas party outfit. We didn’t have a fire in our little woodstove, because it was too warm, but it was comfortable. Lights on the gate greeted people as they entered, and some even noticed the candy cane shaped evergreen wreaths on the “TW” barn. We put big lights on the deck railing, little colored lights on the grey twig dogwood and crepe myrtle bushes (one was mostly red), and white lights on my favorite lilac bush. In the living room the 9 foot pre-lit skinny artificial tree that Joe would have nixed glowed to welcome everyone (I’m so glad I had Janet’s suggestion for purchasing it and KK’s shopping energy to track it down.) We had red-ribboned wreaths on every sun-welcoming window, garland on the sills and around the door, and a Grandy-bo grapevine wreath on the olden-day jail door that everyone entered. KK had made mulled wine and mince pies to add an English flair. Maria and Brendan donated many goodies, especially BCA’s signature chocolate chip cookies. When John, Dana, Lea, and David arrived, they added peppermint cocoa and wholesome cookies. Michele and Frank appeared with a poinsettia stained glass piece, Beth and Jim with her now signature Irish soda bread, Joshie with party mix, and the crew from Chapel with bourbon balls. Patti came, too, and I know she handed me something. Maybe she brought the bourbon balls. Ian came late, but he got there, safe and sound, having rented a car with Simon to drive in from New York. Andy came, and Kyle was there way ahead to help with everything and to hang my beautiful new original painting of Kelley Ridge at dawn from Jerome and Janet. They tell me that if I ever leave, I can still take this place with me. I will anyway, in my heart.

My dad’s dog, Razor, died yesterday, in the yard, under a blanket. James and Susan had gotten him for Grandy-bo after his former dog, Pirate, died. Razor was at least 18 years old. He was really sick, but it won’t seem the same to come up to the Hall without him greeting me. The end of an era. Don’t you want to believe that there are dogs in heaven?

Caitlan made it home safe and sound. Brendan and I picked hr up at the airport, and then Brendan, Maria, Kyle, and I all took her out for Mexican at Sol Aztecas. She didn’t have her luggage, but the airlines delivered it to Brendan’s apartment later that night. She did have a hair-raising moment or two in Charlotte when she was on the wrong plane and almost went to Charleston, West Virginia, but I’ll let her tell you that story. But, speaking of West Virginia, for Kyle’s sake, I’m glad they won.

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Santa wraps

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? White

4. Do you hang mistletoe? Always

5. When do you put your decorations up? Whenever I can find the time

6. What is your favorite holiday dish (excluding dessert)? Turkey and dressing and mashed taters with gravy

7. Favorite Holiday memory as a child: St. Nick coming to take our Christmas lists and leaving a bowl of candy

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I was probably about 10. I found presents in Mom’s closet and I still didn’t know, but when I asked Mom about it she told me.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? Sometimes

10. How do you decorate your Christmas Tree? White lights and all the ornaments from when the kids were little

12. Can you ice skate? No

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? My doll Diane

14. What’s the most important thing about the Holidays for you?
Knowing that Christ was born for us– and that all our togetherness and blessings we share are because of the gift of HIM!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? Any kind of pie

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? Christmas Eve dinner and Midnight Mass

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Giving, of course

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? I’ll Be Home for Christmas

20. Candy Canes! Yuck or Yum? Yum if used as a stir stick for hot chocolate

Now I have taken the Yorkshire Estate dogs for a very high tech walk. At first, if I came home before Jerome and Janet, they would hide under the bed (the dogs). Now they know me, and Winston even expects me to play ROOSTER or MONKEY with him ( that’s when I chase him around the house while he is carrying either a ROOSTER or a MONKEY in his mouth). So tonight Jerome and Janet both had meetings so I was to walk the dogs. Here is the order of events (it is raining or sleeting out, and it is dark):

Put on fleece vest.

Put on winter coat with hood.

Put on hat with headlight on the top, then take it off to turn on headlight, and then put it back on.

Put on reflctor vest so I look like the safety patrol boy.

Put fancy retractable leash on Winston.

Put fancy retractable leash on Whitley.

Clip flasher light on Winston’s collar, then take it of because I have in on light rather than on flasher, then put it back on.

Clip flasher light on Whitley’s collar while he complains in his big dog growl coming out of a little dog throat because he hates the flasher and thinks it makes him look girlie and all the other neighborhood dogs make fun of him when he wears it.

Unlock and open front door.

Walk around as Yorkies pee on as many things as possible.

What a wonderful world!

My Uncle Joe has died. My godmother, Aunt Dede, and I have both lost our “Joes,” and it is very sad. I wish I could have gone to California to the funeral last Saturday, but Uncle Bobby and Dan flew out and represented us. I am glad. Uncle Joe was a part of my formation. When I was little, I spent a lot of time on Wayland Avenue where the Sullivans lived. I also spent time in Hyde Park in their big old Tudor house in Cincinnati, but not nearly as much. Since Memes lived with the Sullivans, I was there to be with her, and to be with my godmother, and to help with my little cousins since Aunt Dede had some serious problems with back trouble. After we were older, and Aunt Dede began teaching in the Catholic school in their neighborhood, we traded teaching stories. I’ve been thinking about Uncle Joe a lot and wonder if some of you have some of the same memories. If you have others, email them to me, and I will publish them here in another entry.

1. Uncle Joe was a master carpenter. He built many things in the house on Wayland Avenue, especially finishing off the “attic” into bedrooms with all kinds of built-ins.

2. Uncle Joe as an adult could see play through a child’s eyes. He built wonderful things for play. I was amazed to go to his house (and a little jealous) to see a child-sized railroad which extended around the perimeter of the back yard. There was a child-sized train to ride in.

3. The girls had a little kitchen complete with stove, refrigerator, sink with water, table and chairs, and hutch cupboard for dishes. I was fortunate enough to receive a hutch of my own, and for years I kept Mombo’s little blue tea set on it. It was also a dress-up cupboard. It has had many coats of paint and is still in my downstairs bathroom at Kelley Ridge. Now it holds Caitlan’s things.

4. There was a magic booth in the basement at Wayland Avenue. It could be anything–an airplane cockpit, a machine control booth, a rocket ship–I think there was some kind of steering wheel, and every light, switch, bell, buzzer, and dial imaginable. It was indeed an imagination stimulator simulator. Long before the day of role-playing games, Uncle Joe created a role-playing machine. I loved it!

5. Uncle Joe could not eat onions. Whenever Mombo made her potato salad, she had to make a little bowl full without onions for Uncle Joe.

6. Uncle Joe was the originator of the Dixonary entry on “Real neat–Want some meat?”

7. Uncle Joe was a master gardener. He distinguished himself, however, as a rose gardener. He shared his love of roses with Aunt Dede who loved to display vases of the fragrant blooms in her home. She would also take them to the cemetery sometimes. Memes also shared this avocation with Uncle Joe. I think this hobby was more of a Cincinnati thing and then continued in California. I loved the garden off the stone deck on Erie Avenue. I never got to see the one in Laguna Niguel, but Janet tells me it was magnificent.

8. Uncle Joe went to Patterson Co-op for high school with Mombo.

9. Uncle Joe was a master educator. He taught at Stivers High School in Dayton. He was an award-winning gymnastics coach, and long before gymnastics for young people came into vogue with Olga Corbut, Uncle Joe was a tumbling and trampoline teacher extraordinaire. I can hear him calling out commands at the backyard trampoline at Wayland Avenue (long before every other yard had a trampoline), “Knee Drop! Seat Drop! Swivel Hips!”

10. Uncle Joe was a renowned researcher in the field of learning disabilities as related to large and small motor development. When he was at Xavier University, I went to visit him. This was after I was into my education studies big-time (perhaps even my masters degree work in reading education), and he amazed me with his knowledge and ground-breaking research on the relationship between the ability to learn to read and neural pathways forged by the repetitive large and small muscle skills learned (or not learned) by young children at an early age. He gave me some rough draft documents that I read and used in my classroom. I never really knew if he followed through with any kind of publication.

11. Uncle Joe was instrumental in establishing the intermural sports programs at Xavier.

12. When Uncle Joe started to lose his hair, his combed the long ones all the way over the top of his head from one side to the other.

13. Uncle Joe had an incredibly marvelous sense of humor. I’m not sure that Grandy-bo ever got it. I didn’t get it until I was older, but when I did, he kept me smiling or laughing whenever I was around him.

14. Uncle Joe was in love with his grandchildren.

15. Uncle Joe was Catholic. I believe he was Jeffrey’s godfather and either John’s or James’s Confirmation sponsor.

16. I like to think of Uncle Joe in heaven, tending the roses, sculpting wood, cracking dry jokes. My Joe and Uncle Joe met at the last Dixon Reunion at the Valley (thank goodness we had it), and they hit it off. Maybe they are building together. Maybe Uncle Joe has introduced Joe Wood to Memes and Grandy-bo. I hope so.

Well, I was in the pit for a while and I hade to climb out, but now I’m better. It was weird because KK was sick in England, too, and so at first I thought I had gotten her germs over SKYPE, but then I decided it was just sympathy illness. Actually, I probably just caught Marion County Public School germs that I’m not immune to yet. Also I had to have my own book fair at Lebanon Elementary, and since I had never done it before, it was a real challenge. I’ll know a lot more when I have to do it again in the spring. It was a lot of hard work and long hours, but it was worth it because I made over $1800 in books for that library. We really need them, but now I have to deal with cataloging them all–another monumental job, and I have a backlog at the school, so it’s one of those things that I can’t look at as a whole or I become overwhelmed. Just a piece at a time. That is a lesson I have learned from Michele and from Jeff and Lea. It is a good lesson.

I HATE bus duty.

(“Sir, I must do my DUTY!”—hee!hee!hee!)

Putting up posters in the hall

Telling kids to watch the advertisement video

Giving them stickers with monkeys on them

Handing out tabloids about the books

Rescheduling bus duty from the library to somewhere else

Getting volunteers for chili supper

Getting teacher wish lists

Wondering why I have to do this to make money for books for kids (the kids are spending their families’ money)

Knowing that the kids won’t have enough money to buy books ($3.99 is the cheapest)and so they will buy junk–erasers, pencils, bookmarks instead

There’s something oxymoronic about all this.

Today was another productive day. I woke up early so got a shower and worked on e-mail for a while. Then when Deb got up she brought me coffee, o.j., and a Deb McMuffin. Alice had stayed at 4th St. and I stayed at Deb’s, so Alice came back to pick us up, and we went to church at the Newman Center at U.K. (since non-college students aren’t allowed to go to the one in Richmond any more). We went to 9:00 Mass, which was very nice with beautiful music. Fr. Larry Hehman was the celebrant. He was the first priest I met when Wayne and I moved to KY–he was at the UK Newman Center then and that’s where I went to church a lot. He is retired now, but he looks great. We came back and dropped off Deb and then went to 4th Street to do more wall prep. We also worked on the staircase. Then Alice and I grabbed something at Frisch’s before she headed up the highway. I went back to Kelley Ridge and put a few more things in order before heading down to the Valley to sleep.