Christmas 2022:
The annual report from Gideon Lawton Lane

Annual Christmas letters get a mixed reception: tossed unread, browsed lightly, responded to. In the aggregate, though, they have some historical value, some bits of information about who’s doing what. So here’s the archive.

December 15, 2022
The Third Stollen of Advent

Dear Friends,

We haven’t made it halfway through December and we’re already awash in joyful good news. Waiting for us at breakfast Wednesday (12/7) was email announcing that Olivia Eirene Crawley Kantikou (Kantikou Crawley in the American format), Dan and Aliki’s first child, had arrived that morning in Madrid, serene and beautiful. Olivia’s birth came five days after her cousin Adriana Sánchez Baquerizo arrived (12/2), the first child of our niece Elsa and Abel, also in Madrid. And three days later (12/10), their American cousin Leia celebrated her second birthday with friends and cupcakes on a Saturday morning in Brooklyn. Everyone is home, healthy, very happy, and resting a bit. (We are too.) It’s been a wonderful December.

Zoom and Facetime are no longer new technologies, but we are still amazed, not just at the news, photos and conversations from Spain, but at how easily and naturally digital technologies have worked their way into our evolving household routine. A little bedside gooseneck holds Alli’s iPhone for audio chats; a steadier floor stand puts her iPad at just the right spot for video Zooms and Facetime sessions. Our three HomePod minis answer questions, provide intercom service in the house or between house and car, consult encyclopedias when necessary, and, as grandson Archie demonstrated for us, will tell jokes on request (with considerate warnings before offering any truly wretched puns).

All of this — the technology and especially the calls and video sessions it supports — has helped Alli maintain a positive outlook in her third year of living with MSA. So have the ramps, which make the entire first floor accessible, connect to the deck through the kitchen sliding door, and guarantee all-weather access to the whole world by running from the laundry room through the garage and down to driveway level, where the Honda CR-V awaits.

And then there’s what we call the Studebaker, an all-terrain wheelchair (French technology) that’s low-slung, collapsible, recumbent, supportive, and customizable — a birthday gift from Alli’s siblings. We’ve joined the Norman Bird Sanctuary, explored its hiking trails, and met deer, turtles, Monarch butterflies, assorted birds, and the resident great blue heron. We’ve hiked dozens of times at the Sachuest Wildlife Refuge, both the 1.5-mile Ocean View Trail and the 2.5-mile version, which adds what we have dubbed the Mink Trail, after several encounters with the eponymous little weasel. We seem to cut quite a figure, often drawing compliments on the Studebaker (“Hey — Love the wheels!”) and even one on Mark’s pushing technique. One fellow hiker ran out to the parking lot as we were packing up, examined the chair, got the model number, vendor’s email address and phone number, and set off to order one for his wife. Exactly what they needed, he said.

It was a fairly big year out in the garden: a bumper crop of succotash, buckets of cherry tomatoes, a freezer full of blueberries, plenty of popcorn, enough basil for a dozen jars of pesto, lots of rutabagas (“Enough is too much,” as Popeye said), herbs in abundance. But the big news is our two little heirloom apple trees in the front yard. One is a Newtown Pippin, Thomas Jefferson’s favorite (which he missed while on a diplomatic trip to Europe: “They have no apples here to compare with our Newtown Pippin.”) The other is a Northern Spy, a New England favorite since about 1800. They arrived as mere twigs but had a healthy first year with good leaves and strong growth. We hope for fruit in three years. (I see that Trees of Antiquity has sold out of both for the 2023 season.)

Stollen number three is in its first rising, continuing a Christmas tradition that dates at least to 19th-century pre-emigration Germany. We’re now looking forward to holiday family visits from Brooklyn (Anson, Reva, Archie, Leia) and Richmond (Susan, Thomas, James) and our first face-to-face with Olivia later in the spring. Meanwhile, the household continues to evolve as age and MSA require — smart plugs running room lights here and there, railings on both sides of staircases. Visitors here will have met our mother-daughter team of certified nurse assistants, who have added a much appreciated Jamaican brightness to the daily routine, Monday through Friday, for nearly the entire year.

On the whole, we’re doing well, making adjustments as necessary, and exploring some new interests. Among them is the development of a fascinating small ecosystem just outside Alli’s window that centers on a squirrel-proof bird feeder provided by Dan and his cousin Molly. We observe a constant parade of little birds (finches, chickadees, sparrows), who yield to the larger cardinals, jays, and woodpeckers, who in turn clear out quickly when the large, flashy northern flicker cruises in for a meal. And down below, the hated squirrels, always a threat to gardens, make restitution by cleaning up any seeds and grains the birds may drop onto the deck. Even the wide-body mourning doves waddle around pecking and keeping the place tidy.¹

We hope this finds you happy, healthy, creatively engaged, and able to take a step back during the holiday season for much needed rest and reflection.

With love,

Alli and Mark
Reach us both at mark-nickel@cox.net    401-835-1913

¹ We are so au courant. This morning’s online NY Times reviews a new book, Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard, by a Washington University biology professor and animal behaviorist. Life lists and competitive birding are so out of date; our style of extended observation is the new trend.