2011, the Year In Review
We've all come out well at the end of the year, God be thanked, but Chloe has been having an especially good time of it! She had her riding lessons at Free Spirit farms for several months. She fell in love with a rescued horse named Angel. Now that the weather has turned cold, we've moved her over to tap and ballet lessons, which she takes to with great enthusiasm, although for her the point of tap seems to be not rhythm but impact, so the effect is a bit like seeing a tiny Mussolini in a dress. *
Lucy school is keeping her quite busy and stimulated . Our educational assessment coordinator pegs her receptive language at a seven-year-old's level, and expressive language at the age six level. Her mutant powers have yet to manifest, although there are disturbing early signs...*
Chloe got away with Gramma Mary Lee and Grandpa Steve to Myrtle Beach for a week, and she was the belle of the ball at the Vandevander reunion in Franklin in July. (We saw an honest-to-Jeebus black panther on the highway just over the state line on the way there. I almost shrieked. One so seldom has a crossbow about one's person when the need arises...). Possibly the highlight of her year, however, was trick-or-treating in her dragon costume. What a doll she is! *
Melissa has been blazing away at her work, tearing up bandwidth from our living room. Isn't it grand to be living in the future? In her spare time, she's been sewing Chloe's clothes (and quite dazzling they are, too), making her own soap, quilting like a mad woman, and building piece after piece of furniture for the house (three tables, a chair, a bench, four bookcases, an entertainment center, three beds, and a chandelier to replace the one Gracie destroyed during Thanksgiving dinner, and all from scratch, no kits!). At the moment, Chloe is upstairs asleep in a bed in pajamas her mother sewed, in a bed she made, under two quilts she designed and sewed. What marvels they both are! *
My crafty side is, sadly, not so well developed. The only projects I tackled in that line this year were some armor repairs and upgrades (of which I need more, the gear does take a lot of upkeep) and making gunpowder (sad to say, mine was of an inferior grade, and burns with enthusiasm but none to cleanly).
I got away for a prayer retreat with the Cistercian brothers at Holy Cross Abbey in the winter. I appreciated the quiet, butmy mind was not at peace, and I had a very different retreat experience from the one in 2010. Perhaps it was the passing of Father Mark, the retreat counselor, that made such a difference. He was a fine man. Even though in some ways this year's retreat was difficult, I look forward to returning in February for more prayer, contemplation, and time inside my own head. *
The Frostburn Festival came around again, and we had a ball. Sadly, the three-year streak of glorious winter weather was broken, and we were stuck camping in high winds in fields of partially-frozen mud, which either refused to accept tent stakes, or else treacherously let them fly loose at inopportune moments. Give me an honest seventeen below and a couple feet of snow every time! Still, it was great being together with friends, and we rolled on to victory in the form of another great Man burned, art shared and lived, and a bloody insane plunge into that freezing Cooper's stream yet again! What, I ask you, is wrong with us? Glorious!
I did a fair amount of biking and hiking through the spring to get ready for the Spain trip, including another attempt at the three-day 60-miler we pulled off in 2010. Sadly, this year vicious weather got the better of us, and we called a halt after the first stage. However, the weather cleared, and I got to spend Sunday cycling around the lovely hills of the Antietam Battlefield instead.
The Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage was a thing of wonder and glory. My stalwart and true-hearted compadre Shane and I braved heat, rain, rocks, breakdowns, illness, injuries, and thieves as we cycled across hundreds of miles of northern Spain to reach the shrine of the James the Apostle . What a miracle! Even now, as my pilgrim's passport filled with the stamps of all the cathedrals, churches, monasteries, and hermitages we passed (and the local lord's house whose courtyard I was noisily sick in) and my hard-won Compostella document lie beside me as I write this, it is hard to believe that we made that dream I'd envisioned for so many years become a reality along the Way of Saint James. I left my faithful bike Rocinante behind in Santiago with a bike mechanic who promised to restore her and find her a another pilgrim to carry. God willing, she is eating up the miles of the Camino again even now. Ultreya! *
Madrid, after the hardships of the Way, was a blessing. What a fantastic city! We were guests of the delightful Sweigart-Lassus family in their place that was once part of the town residence of the Duke and Duchess of Alba. I can't wait to get back to the Prado, the flamenco, the tapas, and the armory of the Palacio Real--and I can't believe that like an idiot I didn't think to bring back some of that drinking chocolate. Of course, Lord knows what it would do o Chloe, so maybe it's for the best. I dream of taking Melissa and Chloe to Spain to see Burgos and Madrid, and to ride the last 100 kilometers of the Camino from El Cebreiro to Santiago, so that they can see the Grail, the botafumerio, and the wonders of the cathedral like I did. Next time though, we'll do it on horseback!
Pennsic was fantastic, as it always is, and all the better for having new people to share it with. I was accompanied on the field by my two new men-at-arms, Alexander and Nicholas. We treasured our time with our friends, and I treasured smashing into people in my 15th-century Burgundian Gothic fluted plate with besagews and mail sabatons. (It looks great, but in a humid August it's a bit like fighting in an EZ-Bake oven.)
We also found time to take in the Treasures of Heaven relics and reliquary exhibit at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (the also have the armor or the duke who command the Spanish Armada. Its straps are really cool.) and the Anglo-Saxon Hoard exhibit at the National Geographic Center. We may bet to see some Renaissance bronzes and the Pastrana tapestries at the National Gallery next weekend, but it remains to be seen. They'll be gone so soon!
Melissa and I also found time to get away for a quiet and romantic weekend alone in October. Auntie Courtney and Auntie Gen were kind enough to keep Chloe in play while we hied off to a hotel to gaze at one another, sleep the sleep of the just, talk about things, and mainline champagne and room service. Woot!
We had Christmas Even and Christmas morning in the domestic idyll of Gramma Kathy's house. Greg and I had the best day of geocaching I've ever had, tracking down several caches that I'm sure were hidden by tweisted criminal geniuses. then we rolled up to Lisbon for Christmas Night and St. Stephen's Day with my parents, brother, and beloved sister-in-law. We were surrounded every moment with joy and love.
On another fine note, one of those 24-hour gyms has opened just a couple hundred yards from our back door, and we've been using it like a rented mule! I'm having a ball with the treadmills and elliptical trainers, and all the sinister ab/triceps/glute-blaster machines, but I walk around constantly craving lean protein, faintly sore but feeling like a superhero!
We also contrived to send the the old year out with a bang. I armored up for one last time in 2011, we fought while others drank (and drank, and smoked, and then drank) and then as the last seconds of the year were counted down, my man-at-arms Alexander and I took our guards, and when the ball dropped we took the cry of "Happy New Year" as our "Lay On" and thrashed away at each other with a will, and so fought the first bout of Scadian combat anywhere on the continent for 2012. My all my bouts this year be fought against such gallant and debonair gentles as the ones I encountered on the field last night!
Some planned highlights for 2012 include:
another prayer retreat at Holy Cross Abbey
Frostburn V
A shocking number of SCA events and a great deal of time clanking about in armor
a week at the beach with my family
a weekend pilgrimage with friends along the C&O Canal Towpath to the National Cathedral
biking 78 miles with my brother along the Greenbrier River trail to the town where our father grew up
hiking the 42 miles from the Pennsylvania line through Maryland to Harpers Ferry, WV, and doing it in 24 hours
ziplining
kayaking or rafting to Vandevander Island in the Potomac, just east of Leesburg, VA
a week in the Highlands of Scotland with Kathy and Melissa!
and most importantly, time with family and friends whom we love so very much, and seeing Chloe grow more wonderful every day. Life is sweet! God be thanked.
Steve, Melissa, and Chloe Vandevander
Lucy school is keeping her quite busy and stimulated . Our educational assessment coordinator pegs her receptive language at a seven-year-old's level, and expressive language at the age six level. Her mutant powers have yet to manifest, although there are disturbing early signs...*
Chloe got away with Gramma Mary Lee and Grandpa Steve to Myrtle Beach for a week, and she was the belle of the ball at the Vandevander reunion in Franklin in July. (We saw an honest-to-Jeebus black panther on the highway just over the state line on the way there. I almost shrieked. One so seldom has a crossbow about one's person when the need arises...). Possibly the highlight of her year, however, was trick-or-treating in her dragon costume. What a doll she is! *
Melissa has been blazing away at her work, tearing up bandwidth from our living room. Isn't it grand to be living in the future? In her spare time, she's been sewing Chloe's clothes (and quite dazzling they are, too), making her own soap, quilting like a mad woman, and building piece after piece of furniture for the house (three tables, a chair, a bench, four bookcases, an entertainment center, three beds, and a chandelier to replace the one Gracie destroyed during Thanksgiving dinner, and all from scratch, no kits!). At the moment, Chloe is upstairs asleep in a bed in pajamas her mother sewed, in a bed she made, under two quilts she designed and sewed. What marvels they both are! *
My crafty side is, sadly, not so well developed. The only projects I tackled in that line this year were some armor repairs and upgrades (of which I need more, the gear does take a lot of upkeep) and making gunpowder (sad to say, mine was of an inferior grade, and burns with enthusiasm but none to cleanly).
I got away for a prayer retreat with the Cistercian brothers at Holy Cross Abbey in the winter. I appreciated the quiet, butmy mind was not at peace, and I had a very different retreat experience from the one in 2010. Perhaps it was the passing of Father Mark, the retreat counselor, that made such a difference. He was a fine man. Even though in some ways this year's retreat was difficult, I look forward to returning in February for more prayer, contemplation, and time inside my own head. *
The Frostburn Festival came around again, and we had a ball. Sadly, the three-year streak of glorious winter weather was broken, and we were stuck camping in high winds in fields of partially-frozen mud, which either refused to accept tent stakes, or else treacherously let them fly loose at inopportune moments. Give me an honest seventeen below and a couple feet of snow every time! Still, it was great being together with friends, and we rolled on to victory in the form of another great Man burned, art shared and lived, and a bloody insane plunge into that freezing Cooper's stream yet again! What, I ask you, is wrong with us? Glorious!
I did a fair amount of biking and hiking through the spring to get ready for the Spain trip, including another attempt at the three-day 60-miler we pulled off in 2010. Sadly, this year vicious weather got the better of us, and we called a halt after the first stage. However, the weather cleared, and I got to spend Sunday cycling around the lovely hills of the Antietam Battlefield instead.
The Santiago de Compostella pilgrimage was a thing of wonder and glory. My stalwart and true-hearted compadre Shane and I braved heat, rain, rocks, breakdowns, illness, injuries, and thieves as we cycled across hundreds of miles of northern Spain to reach the shrine of the James the Apostle . What a miracle! Even now, as my pilgrim's passport filled with the stamps of all the cathedrals, churches, monasteries, and hermitages we passed (and the local lord's house whose courtyard I was noisily sick in) and my hard-won Compostella document lie beside me as I write this, it is hard to believe that we made that dream I'd envisioned for so many years become a reality along the Way of Saint James. I left my faithful bike Rocinante behind in Santiago with a bike mechanic who promised to restore her and find her a another pilgrim to carry. God willing, she is eating up the miles of the Camino again even now. Ultreya! *
Madrid, after the hardships of the Way, was a blessing. What a fantastic city! We were guests of the delightful Sweigart-Lassus family in their place that was once part of the town residence of the Duke and Duchess of Alba. I can't wait to get back to the Prado, the flamenco, the tapas, and the armory of the Palacio Real--and I can't believe that like an idiot I didn't think to bring back some of that drinking chocolate. Of course, Lord knows what it would do o Chloe, so maybe it's for the best. I dream of taking Melissa and Chloe to Spain to see Burgos and Madrid, and to ride the last 100 kilometers of the Camino from El Cebreiro to Santiago, so that they can see the Grail, the botafumerio, and the wonders of the cathedral like I did. Next time though, we'll do it on horseback!
Pennsic was fantastic, as it always is, and all the better for having new people to share it with. I was accompanied on the field by my two new men-at-arms, Alexander and Nicholas. We treasured our time with our friends, and I treasured smashing into people in my 15th-century Burgundian Gothic fluted plate with besagews and mail sabatons. (It looks great, but in a humid August it's a bit like fighting in an EZ-Bake oven.)
We also found time to take in the Treasures of Heaven relics and reliquary exhibit at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore (the also have the armor or the duke who command the Spanish Armada. Its straps are really cool.) and the Anglo-Saxon Hoard exhibit at the National Geographic Center. We may bet to see some Renaissance bronzes and the Pastrana tapestries at the National Gallery next weekend, but it remains to be seen. They'll be gone so soon!
Melissa and I also found time to get away for a quiet and romantic weekend alone in October. Auntie Courtney and Auntie Gen were kind enough to keep Chloe in play while we hied off to a hotel to gaze at one another, sleep the sleep of the just, talk about things, and mainline champagne and room service. Woot!
We had Christmas Even and Christmas morning in the domestic idyll of Gramma Kathy's house. Greg and I had the best day of geocaching I've ever had, tracking down several caches that I'm sure were hidden by tweisted criminal geniuses. then we rolled up to Lisbon for Christmas Night and St. Stephen's Day with my parents, brother, and beloved sister-in-law. We were surrounded every moment with joy and love.
On another fine note, one of those 24-hour gyms has opened just a couple hundred yards from our back door, and we've been using it like a rented mule! I'm having a ball with the treadmills and elliptical trainers, and all the sinister ab/triceps/glute-blaster machines, but I walk around constantly craving lean protein, faintly sore but feeling like a superhero!
We also contrived to send the the old year out with a bang. I armored up for one last time in 2011, we fought while others drank (and drank, and smoked, and then drank) and then as the last seconds of the year were counted down, my man-at-arms Alexander and I took our guards, and when the ball dropped we took the cry of "Happy New Year" as our "Lay On" and thrashed away at each other with a will, and so fought the first bout of Scadian combat anywhere on the continent for 2012. My all my bouts this year be fought against such gallant and debonair gentles as the ones I encountered on the field last night!
Some planned highlights for 2012 include:
another prayer retreat at Holy Cross Abbey
Frostburn V
A shocking number of SCA events and a great deal of time clanking about in armor
a week at the beach with my family
a weekend pilgrimage with friends along the C&O Canal Towpath to the National Cathedral
biking 78 miles with my brother along the Greenbrier River trail to the town where our father grew up
hiking the 42 miles from the Pennsylvania line through Maryland to Harpers Ferry, WV, and doing it in 24 hours
ziplining
kayaking or rafting to Vandevander Island in the Potomac, just east of Leesburg, VA
a week in the Highlands of Scotland with Kathy and Melissa!
and most importantly, time with family and friends whom we love so very much, and seeing Chloe grow more wonderful every day. Life is sweet! God be thanked.
Steve, Melissa, and Chloe Vandevander