…for friends and family. There’s just nothing better in life.

A big day tomorrow, that is. But I couldn’t resist this picture for the double entendre value.

Everybody got to listen to Alex’s heartbeat tonight!

We’re here in New Hampshire – it’s cold and the air is biting…I love Thanksgivings like that. We drove up the long driveway to the House at the Top of the Hill, a drive I’ve made for 40 years – and we ate sandwiches and lentil soup that Aunt Sara had ready and that said to us: “Welcome.”

Families are great. Family traditions are great, too – like the familiar silver pheasants on my Aunt’s Thanksgiving table.

We’re here (we being my mom and my dad and I) at Armour & Tanya’s in Delaware.  It’s a great house, warm and inviting. 

Tanya is expecting *my niece!* Alexandra in late March.  I don’t think “excited” covers it for me. 

I went running today – a long, slow run – with my little iPod Shuffle on, and as normally happens with a long, slow run – there is plenty of time for thinking.  Delaware is hilly.   As luck would have it, the 30 minutes out was mostly uphill (that is lucky…because the 30 minutes back was an easy series of downhills!) 

I wasn’t thinking much beyond “one-foot-in-front-of-the-other” on the way out…but on the way back, my thoughts wandered.  I thought about how happy my brother is, and what a wonderful welcoming place he and Tanya have made here – and how I can’t wait to meet their little girl.  That made me think about what kind of father my brother will be, and how I am looking forward to that evolution…Life can be so Beautiful, you know?

It made me think about my own dad and my earliest memory of him – which oddly enough involves running:

I was little – maybe 2 or 3 years old, and we were stationed in Germany.  My mom and I were up at the top of a cobblestone hill, and my dad was at the bottom.  I wanted to *get* to him…like, fast.  So I started running. 

My legs were carrying me fine, but nearing the bottom, I panicked.  My dad’s face, looking at me, was also panicked.  What I could not have known at the time was how worried he was; my mom told me later that if I’d fallen, my face would have been crushed beyond repair.  My legs were just moving too fast – gravity, inertia – it would have all overtaken me if he hadn’t been there, poised like an NHL goalie, ready to catch his little girl. 

But he did.  And my first memory of my dad was that he saved me.  

That’s a great legacy for Alex.

I’m driving from Florida to New Hampshire for Thanksgiving.

I’m just going to let that sink in.

*******************************************

On the way up, my mom and I stopped to see my aunt and uncle at their Riverhouse.

My uncle built a new addition, right on the riverbank, dedicated to my grandmother – my mom & my aunt’s mother – who liked to sit right where the pavilion sits now, with her glass of water (paper napkin wrapped around it) and her cane pole.

We had a fire the night we arrived, with hot cider…

…and a fire the next morning, when we had breakfast.

The morning was cold and foggy.

Perfect.

But we were missing John, especially considering the duck hunting to be done.

I sure miss all three of them…sure wish John weren’t gone for a year, and sure wish I lived closer to Dad and Armour.

Those of you who live close to family?  I guess it might be easy to take it for granted, but I would seriously cherish that gift, if I were you.

You know…I love this blog. It’s a great way to “announce” to friends and family when I have mundane … (or in this case…monumental) …details to share….

Anyhoo…

Just a little taste of what I owe ya -

some detail on the event of the year for the Craigs -

Yepper.

Arms got married.

And he’s happier than ever.

Which means that Tanya Pino CRAIG is my new favorite relative.

Love. You. Two.

This picture was taken at Armour’s wedding to Tanya, June 12th, a short week ago.

Armour’s buddies (two couldn’t make it) came in for his big day – and it was great to see them – all are responsible, caring, terrific men I’m proud to know.

Armour had two men speak for him that day – Dad, and Todd Carpenter.  During his toast to the couple, Todd mentioned how the bonds of that close group of guys in high school (the Posse) had formed him into the man he is today.  He made those of us who know him, cry.  It was a tribute to true friendship.

At the end, he said that Dad had a lot to do with that transformation too – during the weekly poker games at the Craig house with a bunch of teenaged boys.  Goes to show that the smallest things have influence.

“We learned a lot of Life Lessons around that poker table, Mr. Craig, “ he said.

So here’s to great friends traveling long distances for one of their own, poker, and my dad, Jim Craig. 

Thanks to all the wonderful men in my life who are father figures to me – among them Pete Conway, Bill Prohs, Bill Silkman, Rusty Sachs, Loren Mallory, John Oleson, Morris Thomason, Bill Marty, Bro. Jim Henry, Bunny Beeson and Pete Ballantine.

But mostly, props have to go to my dad.  He’s a mentor to so many, including me.

…and that would be…Margaret Adele Ball Craig.

She was my grandmother (and Armour’s, and Andrew’s, and Sara’s, too…)

I attribute my love of cooking to her!

She gave the best presents – always from a silly character that had a small reference to the gift she was giving you (like “Oliver Twist” the year she gave me a beautiful wooden spoon) and she loved Julia Child before it was cool.

She knitted complicated sweaters (saying she liked knitting because it was ”like doing a puzzle”) and loved peonies, a good mystery novel, and a dry martini.

Gin, please.

She would have been 94 yesterday.

I miss her.

Well, the countdown to Armour and Tanya’s “Save the Date” event has begun in earnest…and it will all be taking place here:

Is it the whole “happily ever after” thing that is making them so productive?

Probably not.  (They’re ready!)  But whatever it is, they’ve been busy, ya’ll.  And their house is looking great.

Tanya took the time to arrange my brother’s study with his I-Love-Me paraphernalia – which is a gesture that I love…because Love’s what her gesture represents.

Nice ManCave, bro.

And here’s a space I’ll be enjoying spending some time in…with a fresh coat of warm-hued, paprika-colored paint that ties in nicely with the front and back doors…

I also like (really, really like) that I can see a cook book here that is stuffed full of what I can only assume are recipes they’re waiting to try:

…and a back door that coordinates with the front! I think it only needs one thing…

…a doggie door for Rufus!

See you in about two months, you two!