4 posts tagged “niece”

Yesterday we said hello to the new year, and goodbye to my nephew Ryan, who reported for duty today, and will spend the next three months at Ft. Hood, preparing to go to Iraq. My brother Dick, father of Ryan and Rich, his SO Libby, and Ryan, had just returned from a trip to California to visit Rich, his wife Gina, and their baby girl, Bea. We sat in the kitchen and got a whole slide show of photos of Bea, and when my 2 year old great-nephew Andrew got up on his cousin Ryan's lap, I introduced him to his new little cousin. "Andrew," I said. "Thats your cousin Bea." Andrew responded, "Sss, Bea." Ryan proceeded to tell him that she lived in California, and that she was his (Andrew's) cousin Rich's baby. I don't know how much he understood, but he knows Bea's name, and they're never too young to start learning about family. It will be a year before we see Ryan again, but at least his niece Bea got to meet him before he left, and his baby cousin Jonathan, and hopefully Andrew is old enough that he will remember him when he comes home. 

My brother Dick told us something yesterday that I had never known. The reason people eat pork on New Year's Day is that the pig is the only animal (that we eat, anyway) that can't look back. They can only look forward. And for a moment, I, who have not eaten red meat or pork for 30 years, wished for just a little bite of that stuff.  

What's on your holiday wishlist?

I assume this means besides the standard desire for world peace, an end to global warming and a satisfactory end to the WGA strike?

I want a safe, happy and healthy delivery of my new great-niece, who is due this week.

I want the foodbanks of this state, and even this country, to be filled again by the generosity of those who may not be aware that, while they send aid all around the world, their neighbors are going hungry. 

I want speech to really be free again.

I want an end to war. And if it doesn't end soon, I want my nephew Ryan to come home safe and whole from Iraq when he goes there after the first of the year.

So much to want, so little time. But each of us must do what we can do, in our own little ways. And never give up trying.

Ryan, Melissa and J.T.

One of my favorite photos from this past summer...My niece Melissa takes a breather while her cousin Ryan tries to figure out which end of the binkie goes in her son's mouth.  

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 Bo is my niece Lindsay's Boston Terrier. He loves to jump. And run, and retrieve, and jump and run some more. He is the only dog I know personally who will back up on command, except maybe if you have food in your hand.