Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Happy tails... to you...



Our cat, Hudson, recently passed away and in search of comfort, I went to a book. It is a fairly common practice when someone passes away. Most people find solace in the Bible or Torah or other sacred tomes. I found solace in a quote found in the opening pages of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows:

"Death is but crossing the world, as friends do the seas; they live in one another still. 
For they must needs be present, that love and live in that which is omnipresent. 
In this divine glass, they see face to face; and their converse is free, as well as pure. 
This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their 
friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal."
~William Penn

I feel fortunate that we had a lovely morning with him prior to heading off to church. He even allowed Ani to bestow many post-breakfast kisses upon him whilst lounging about the sofa. He died near his food bowl. I hope he had just finished eating- one of his favorite pastimes.  

My brother, an ardent animal lover and current cat owner, called to offer his sympathies and left me with a comforting thought. When Hudson and I first met, I was newly single and a little lonely on Wittenberg's campus during my senior year of college. After graduation we moved up to Chicago together and moved several times since. Hudson was with me through a major heartbreak, a new job, graduate school, my first years as a teacher, my first home purchase, my wedding, my pregnancy, the birth of Ani and many ups and downs along the way. We went through a lot together and he left me in a far better state than when he found me we found each other.




Saturday, August 11, 2012

Christmas in July and beyond...

In July I sometimes find myself humming a song from an elementary school play, "Christmas in July, there's no reason why, we can't have a Christmas tree so high, oh yeah!" This year July and beyond became an extended Christmas for our family. Vacations. Presents. Family. Friends. Oh my.

We started July in Ohio for the annual "Fourth on the Farm." Asadourians descended upon the farm from Chicago, Mahwah and Nashville. Friends arrived from all over. We ate, drank, were merry and blew things up all weekend long. Last year we were celebrating the fact that Ani was able to leave the confines of Chicago... this year we were praying that we had the strength to keep up with her!



Next we found ourselves jetting off to the East Coast. We spent a lovely night in NYC with even lovelier friends, Avishan and Omid. We ate pancakes at Sarabeth's, explored Central Park and had a lovely albeit short respite before heading to the Jersey Shore...






where we played with cousins and Babkas, ate and ate and ate, scouted out Princeton as a future safety school and of course, dipped our toes in the ocean.





Then Ani and I headed back to Ohio for a vacation from our vacation. Mommy got to relax her favorite way- antiquing and Ani got to "drive a tractor" and hold a piglet.


We finished our whirlwind Christmas tour with a visit from the Babkas Terrell to celebrate their anniversary and Tractor Babka's __ birthday! By this time, July had morphed into August...


And finally every Christmas needs a miracle. Our little "miracles" met for the first time over pancakes and bacon at Fox & Obel.




Happy Christmas in July and beyond!