Willow and Juanjo's SplashBlot

On impulse last week, I decided to use miles and come and see my dear old friend and her family. I have a couple more weeks before I get really busy with school again, and needed a change of scenery from the summer fog in San Francisco. So I hopped on a plane and came to their beautiful home in Vermont.

Our days have been full!

We have gone swimming.

We have taken walks.

We have played at the park, and watched the boys go down a very tall slide.

We have looked out the window at a sudden rainstorm.

We have spent time with another dear friend up from Boston, talking, laughing, and making food (and a boat for a small boy).

We have sailed the boat on a pond at grandpa’s house.

We have worked in the vegetable garden, harvesting beans, beets, carrots and much more.

And we have relaxed on the grass, under a warm sun.

What a delightful time! The only thing missing is JUANJO next to me on that grass! Next time…

We had lunch with César and Teresa in Madrid yesterday, and as usual had a blast with the kids. Cesar vacummed after the made a mess of their dessert, and they all three wanted to be “vacummed” up. It caused quite a ruccus on the couch. And then when we got there they were building a fort in one corner of the room. Ahh the delight of building forts when we were little. I realized yesterday that my little brother and sister and I were similar in age as these three. We had older siblings, but the three of us were closest in age, and played a lot together. Forts in the living room were common in our living rooms in the winter!

We’re in Toledo now for 10 days, drove here Friday and are staying through Christmas. It’s a lot colder than usual right now across Spain, though we probably won’t get a white Christmas (it only snows once a year at most in Toledo, and there was a big snow last week). It was clear and sunny today, and we did get out for a walk, which felt great.

Cesar and Teresa hosted us last night for a weekend Thanksgiving dinner. Hot apple cider, Turkey, cranberry sauce, a delicious stuffing, and I made apple and pumpkin pie for dessert. The food was delicious!

The afternoon was a blast playing with the kids, including a family round of Bingo. The kids are full of energy, curious, active, and cuddly (especially the littlest girl). They’re also beautiful, especially the two girls who got haircuts yesterday. Good friends, a wonderful family, inspiration for how to raise our kids when the time comes!

A close friend of Juanjo’s from the Spanish crowd that met in California got married yesterday in the town where his wife grew up, a tiny place deep in Castilla in the heart of Spain. The whole group of old friends was there, two tables’ worth of us (and important people were missing, like Alberto!). The wedding was in the town church, and then the banquet was at a winery way in the countryside.

We had a lot of fun eating, dancing, talking, and laughing. And we loved the town where our hotel was, called Valdepeñas, it was a good place to get together and socialize between wedding events. No more weddings now until next summer (though hopefully we’ll see these friends before that!).

My last college girlfriend was married on a beach in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The setting was spectacular, the bride stunning, the food delicious, the dancing a ton of fun, and the couple wonderfully happy.

We also had a really wonderful time spending time as our college group of friends, two weekends in a row. All married now, it feels like a transition, a new chapter.