Wow, what a November

Early in the month Helen and William visited. What a great time we had. Weather had been alright but on the 12th we had a little snow. Luckily it didn't stick. I get nervous when I see a snow flake because I have no business driving on it.

It must have been the big full moon. Too bad my photo did not turn out as lovely as it had looked.

Caleb is turning 6 this month. Sarah said that he had wished for a surprise party. So she arranged for that on Saturday the 16th at 10:30 am. Sarah throws incredible parties. This one was a Nerf ball event in the basement. 

She had created several different activity stations. The children loved it.

Oh yes, of cause there was cake.

Sunday November 24 - the next Richmond Opera for us. We had no expectations because we had never heard about it but boy, were we surprised. Of course as always Dr. Glenn Winters' pre-curtain talk “Opera Up Close” forty-five minutes before the performance was an informative and entertaining insight. 

This event was another one of those examples that we might not have gone to see if we didn't have the season tickets. What a shame it would have been. We enjoyed it so much.

And since it was a matinee performance we had decided to do our anniversary dinner after it ... even though it was 2 days early. James had made reservations for "Bookbinders".  Oh, what a treat that was too ... and not just the "World Famous Snapper Soup".

Next day (November 25) brought a huge surprise due to some strange coincidences. We had ordered a new car for me on August 16, a KIA Telluride. We were told it would take about 6 weeks. Then we were told it would be mid December. We were getting impatient. The news was that KIA could not make enough cars for the demand. Thursday before the weekend after some shopping on the way home James had strong feelings to stop at the dealer to inquire about what was going on. I stayed in the car and when he came back he was quite upset. He almost didn't want to give me the bad news. Our car was now scheduled to arrive February 9. 

But we had had that nice weekend. Monday morning though very early James declared that he would drive to the dealer to find out what was really going on. 10 minutes later he called me that I needed to come right away too. A car had just come in which was not spoken for. It was exactly what we had ordered but just in a different color. It was the only one available in all of Virginia and two different people already wanted to come from neighboring states to get it but we had first option if we made a quick decision. 4 hours later and still not fully dressed (no socks on) we were owners and took the car for our customary meal in a Chinese restaurant. (Only once we didn't do it and somebody crashed our new car within days.) Well, what were the chances that James had such strong feelings about what to do. Without that we still would be waiting for February 9 to come.

PS: I love driving it!

To top the day off as if it wasn't already a great day ... this was in the mail when we got home. I wrote about it HERE. That is my advent calendar on the front page. The book was published by the German Lacemaker Society and this is my complimentary issue. I am so happy about it.

November 26

It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1975 when we went to City Hall Manhattan. 

We starting the anniversary day by having a real breakfast. I had never tried making Eggs Benedict, not even poached eggs. Happy to report that it was a success.

It was a brisk but sunny day, perfect for a walk. Around the ballfields ...

and around Meadow Farms.

For the evening we had tickets to see "Hamilton". How fitting since this was the day when my last name had changed and the other major roll in this musical (besides Alexander Hamilton) is that of Aaron Burr (vice president of the US 1801-1805). On a day several weeks earlier James had gotten up very early to go to the box office to stand in line several hours to try to get tickets for us. That event was in the news that day and photos of the long line in the newspapers. And he had not even been keen on seeing it. But I was. He got the tickets for our anniversary day. We both agreed that it had been so worth it. It was excellent. Something to remember. The singing, the acting, the dancing ... all first class.

But then I always say that beauty and happiness can be found in many places. Look at our flowering camellia.