Citizenship Week ~ Day 3

On Friday, two days after David became an American, we went to Plymouth, where, for those of us of European and especially English descent, it really did all begin. 

David enjoys just looking out over the ocean that brought his ancestors to this new land. Whether he came to America or not, I do not know. I do know that David's ancestor, Captain John Willis, was captain of the Cutty Sark (yes, think the ship on the front of your Scotch bottle). White Hat Willis himself!

It was also very important to dangle his feet in the water of the Atlantic, a first for him and he did it first as an American.

New England lunch. Fried clams and lobster rolls at the Lobster Hut.

Walking the breakwater.

Plymouth Rock

A very helpful and interesting park ranger told us again some of the story.

Not really impressive until you realize it used to be as large as the surrounding basilica. People chopped and chipped for souvenir pieces until it was finally rescued by the Park Service.

The harbor was shallow. The Mayflower was anchored further out and the people rowed to shore in little boats.

Mayflower II.

We were late in the day and there were no others on the ship. Chris, who was in character as the first mate, told us story after story of the crossing and of other crossings the Mayflower made. There were 102 pilgrims who started out. After two births (and I cannot imagine giving birth in the hold of that ship), 104 people landed at Plymouth. This was in November, 1620. Although it was a hard winter, they survived and in April when the Mayflower returned to England, they all chose to stay in the new world. We were also fortunate to encounter a staff person not in costume and character who took us below to where the passengers lived for the 90 day crossing. It is a very tiny space ~ everything on this ship is small when you think of carrying a crew and 102 passengers.

A proud, new American who relished the history we discovered this day.

And jumping forward 150 years, we closed the day by watching 1776, a favorite of Meredith's and mine and now a part of David's American heritage.

Citizenship Week ~ Days 2 & 4

Even Citizenship Weeks include Stuff and Things days. The morning after the Big Event there was at least one thing done that every citizen understands: Meredith paid her quarterly estimated income tax. Yeah, it comes with the territory.

Saw this sign in Concord and knew it fit the week. Why? Because what David didn't yet know was that his gift from us was going to be a grill.

He had written to his brother-in-law that steak and hot dogs were America's true and amazing contribution to international cuisine. Little did he know when he wrote that that the grill would be delivered the day after he became a citizen.

The grill master and his first meal, chicken and veggies.

Another day a truck was rented, all the moving boxes were moved from the shed to the dump and a futon was bought so there would be something to sit on in the living room. While Meredith and mom (but mostly Meredith) put together the futon, David made another dump run ~

~ and while the futon was finished,

David made lunch.

One night he grilled lamb chops and zucchini, with a little couscous on the side.

All stuff and things days should end as deliciously as this one did!

Citizenship Week ~ Day 1, Part 2

The title of this post should probably be "Food, Glorious Food" given that one way we celebrated David's becoming an American was by eating ~ over and over again. 

First of course there was the joy of the fact. 

David is now an American.

As we left the crowd, saying 'congratulations' to everyone we saw with a certificate in their hand, we headed for Concord.

Concord, where the shot heard 'round the world started the whole revolutionary thing.

We lunched at a lovely cheese and wine place and David chose several delicious cheeses for us to take home and enjoy later.

After a nap and a few minutes of just being, we headed out to dinner.

Fun! Excitement! Joy! and the love of each other just pours from these two even when they don't know the picture is being taken.

David enjoys a card made especially for their "American uncle" (Trinity's phrase) by Akira and Trinity.

We ate the all-American dinner of STEAK! And yes, that is a 24 oz steak in front of David. 

We all ate on it the next day as well.

Seeing David's boutonniere, Greg, our waiter, asked if we were celebrating anything and we of course told him. He shook David's hand and expressed congratulations. He brought David's steak first, explaining that he usually brought the ladies' dinners first but tonight David was the center of attention. We agreed. After dinner Meredith and I ordered dessert, David a flight of Scotch. Greg brought David dessert anyway with the word of the day written around the plate. 

Congratulations!

Citizenship Week ~ Day 1

June 10, 2015, we declared Citizenship Day in the Mix/Willis household. It grew into Citizenship Week, but I will get to that later. For now, here beginneth the day when Canadian son-in-law David became a United States Citizen. 

The sky was blue and even their balcony declared it to be a special day.

David was excited and ready to go. What better way to start the day than standing on your balcony surveying the country that will soon be yours. 

Flags over the streets in Lowell, MA where the ceremony would take place. It is Massachusetts so the flags may fly all the time, and we like to think they flew today because of the very important celebration of new citizens.

Traffic in town was tight so Meredith dropped David to get in line. Then she said, "Mama, get out and go. Someone has to witness this." And so I joined David. It was not long before Meredith had found a parking place and joined us. The line was long and filled with excitement.

Meredith had given David a rose boutonnière

and we pinned a little American flag beside it. 

There were lots of little ones dressed in Red, White and Blue. They too became citizens when their parents did. I am glad this dad let me take his daughter's picture.

Judge William Young was amazing and told both personal and judicial stories in his very brief remarks. One was that he had presided when his daughter-in-law became a citizen. When asked to raise her right hand, he watched her switch her baby from her right hip to her left in order to be able to raise her hand. 

Family and friends were in the balcony. Directly across from us against the back wall (leaning forward next to a man in a white shirt and tie) is David. Our positions allowed for waving, smiling and of course lots of texting until the ceremony began. At one point those becoming citizens are asked to pass their invitations to be there to the end of the row. Then someone comes by and takes their green card. Meredith turned to me and said, "he is nervous with no papers." Immediately she gets a text from David, "this feels really strange, having no papers. The man next to me is really upset." They were in limbo, having neither declared their allegiance to the US nor having any papers that gave them legitimacy. 

The Oath itself is administered by the Clerk of the Court. It is an interesting oath and is given to all regardless of gender and age. I say that because much of it has to do with bearing arms to protect the country if so ordered. Following the Oath we were led in the Pledge of Allegiance by a young airman. I was a little disappointed because his English wasn't too good and he was hesitant. We all knew it though and said it. When the ceremony was over, the Judge announced that the airman was receiving his certificate of citizenship and he (the Judge) was honored to present it to him. Wow!! So much for being judgmental, Susan. 

After the Pledge, we sang the National Anthem. You can see the retired soldier in front of us saluting. That was when the tears came. We live in an amazing country and 881 people said, "Yes! We want to be a part of this country." Their desire has nothing to do with political opinions, but rather with the ability to be able to express those opinions openly and freely.

And so the first thing David did was register to vote. We thought he would have to go the next day but the registrar was there and David filled in his papers. Having worked here for as long as he has, this was first on his reason for citizenship, being able to vote, to have a say (even one vote's worth) in his government.

He even thinks once he retires from flying, he might run for city council. 

Congratulations, to David Willis, one of our newest citizens and Patriots! 

(Stayed tuned for his continuing saga)

We Were Determined

Friday the deck furniture came up from under the house and the deck was set for summer. Saturday our next door neighbor said she had some scallops she would bring over for Dean to grill ~ with salad and rice, the perfect light summer meal to open deck activities at our house. And then it started to rain.

Although it has been raining off and on during May, we are still not complacent about water and are grateful for every precious drop. Besides, it doesn't rain much or for very long. So we had drinks and Dean would say, let's wait another five minutes, the sun is coming. The sun would come, we would head for the deck and the rain would start again. Finally the sun stayed around long enough to get the scallops started, but not long enough to finish them.

So the intrepid cooks grilled in the rain.

Dean wanted to make sure I had a picture of the scallops.

We lit a fire, pulled it over next to the table which is under the eaves and sat down to a delicious dry dinner in the rain. The fire kept us warm and about half way through the meal, the sun came out again. Our determination paid off: dinner on the deck.

I don't believe Dean has Ever had to hold off grilling because of rain. Later in the evening we had thunder and lightning and about 10 minutes of drumming rain before the skies cleared, stars shown and the morning blue is with us. For all of it we are grateful.

Best Graduation Ceremony Ever

I have two college degrees. Rex had two degrees,  both ceremonies of which I attended. We have two daughters who both graduated from college. Rex also taught and was chaplain at a college so I attended a number of graduations because he wanted me there especially when as chaplain he had a prayer to give or something to say. Everyone of them was wonderful of course. Dean's family has a number of degrees scattered among them and one son-in-law is head soccer coach at a university. The point being, we had all attended a number of college graduations in our day. The vote was unanimous: we attended the Very Best graduation ceremony ever last month at San Diego State University.

Dean's granddaughter graduated from the honors program and was given a choice of three ceremonies to attend: one for just the honors program, one for her school and one for the whole university ~ or all of them if she wished. She chose the smaller one for the honors program so that the family could come and then go back home to have an afternoon of family visiting and a family dinner.

There were 9000 graduates at San Diego State that day and only 48 of them had finished the honors program. Forty-eight out of 9000 and our Kaitlyn was one of them. The room was set with tables of goodies down either side for the first 30 minutes and after. While we visited and took pictures there were huge tv screens showing pictures of the 48 during their four years in the honors program. Kaitlyn brought her cap and gown so we could take pictures ~ although for this ceremony they wore dress clothes with their honors medal around their necks.

With only 48 of them, as their names were called we were told a little about them and then what they would be doing next. This was an amazing bunch of kids. They were headed all over the world to jobs, graduate schools and traveling before making those decisions. Graduate schools included places like Chicago, Johns Hopkins and Kaitlyn's Germany. One young man was returning home to Africa to become involved in his country's politics. We were able to learn all of this because they were 48 out of 9000. This was a very special ceremony for a very special group of students ~ the best graduation ceremony ever.

Christmas in May

Ever since I was a young woman beginning to set up my own house, I have wanted a small room (a large walk-in closet) dedicated to dishes. Christmas china on these shelves, spring china on those, fall china on others. You get the idea. I wanted to set seasonal tables with seasonal china. 

Years went by. There was no room in the houses and I had beautiful formal china and good every-day china so why did I need more? I didn't. And I sure did want at least Christmas china. 

One day I bought 8 dessert plates and 8 compotes with a Christmas pattern. Last December I found a Christmas tea pot at one of our thrift stores and bought it. All lovely. I certainly didn't need any more. Until I walked into our Hospice thrift store on a warm May afternoon last week. 

There on a lower shelf among the dishes was an 8 piece place setting of Christmas china. Dinner plates, cups, saucers, soup bowls, creamer, sugar, small platter and serving bowl ~ all for $18! 

I suddenly realized that I had room. Not a room, but storage room with the Christmas things. When Dean's daughter's house burned, she lost all the Christmas ornaments she had brought from her mother's collection. We still had some things that as a young, single woman she had not wanted. Now with two little girls and her own home, they were very appropriate and appreciated. We took them to her ~ and I had space for a box filled with an 8-piece set of Christmas china. And all for $18. I am So happy!! It was hard to close the cabinet on them and I will be just as excited when Christmas comes and my Christmas china comes out of the box to help us celebrate my very favorite of all the holidays. Merry Christmas, friends - just a little early.