At Home for the Holidays

TD and I recently put up our Christmas tree, which we always enjoy during the holiday season. My sister Cynthia and sister-in-law Barb are coming from Colorado and we'll be together with my two brothers and their families, which will be great. This will be our first Christmas without our parents; my father passed away in April and my mother passed away five and a half years ago so this will be a first for us.
Getting the tree is a project! The calm before the Christmas tree storm:

We used to live on Jane Street, and we have been getting our trees for thirty (!!) years from Billy Romp and his family who come down from Vermont and set up shop in the month of December at the corner of Jane Street and Eighth Avenue.

We love to see Billy each year. We pick out a tree and he straps it onto a cart that is attached to a bike and he walks with us to our apartment. We set up the tree and have a glass of red wine and catch up on the year.
Soon Billy is on his way and we get to work -- the lights, the ornaments, the star on the top, the cloth  below.
And voila –

I like how the tree adds a colorful glow to the room. Everything on the tree is personal to us. We have collected a lot of antique ornaments –

And a lot are handmade. The ornament in the middle that says "Greetings" was one of the last things that my mother made and sent us. She liked to create cards. TD cut out the paper angel on the left. 

In the front hall I put some evergreens in a glass vase and hung a few ornaments on the sprigs –

Our Christmas decorations include this reindeer on the living room fireplace mantle who has a pretty wreath around his neck. I found the reindeer at ABC Carpet and Home –

The fireplace doesn't work so we put a big candle in it for a warm glow –

I'm so grateful to be seeing my siblings and extended family this holiday season. I hope that your holidays have a warm glow too dear reader and I wish you all the very best for the new year ahead.

A Boehlert Wedding at a Vanderbilt Camp

Great Camp Sagamore on Sagamore Lake (click on photos to enlarge)
A couple weeks ago TD and I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Maggie Boehlert, who is the daughter of my cousin Peter, and her beau Adam Blossom. Peter and I are the same age and he was my childhood pal. Growing up, we usually spent a week or more in the summer and the week between Christmas and New Year's together, and we laughed nonstop. This wedding weekend was held at Great Camp Sagamore on Sagamore Lake in the Adirondacks in upstate New York, and TD and I had a wonderful time.

In a rented car we zipped up the New York State Thruway and then the Northway to Lake George where we then drove west into the Adirondack Park for about an hour and half to arrive ultimately at Great Camp Sagamore near Raquette Lake. It was a fascinating place to visit. Camp Sagamore was originally built in 1897 by William West Durant, who designed and built camps in the Great Adirondack Style using native materials like logs and cut stone. Durant was forced to sell due to financial problems, and businessman and sportsman Alfred Vanderbilt (pictured below) purchased the property in 1901. Returning from England in 1915 aboard the Lusitania, Alfred was among the 1,198 killed when the ocean liner was sunk by a German submarine. Alfred's widow Margaret, his second wife and heiress to the Bromo-Seltzer fortune, carried on, expanding the property and entertaining the leading lights of Hollywood, Broadway and Washington, D.C. at the camp in the woods.

The Vanderbilts used the camp until the 1950s. It eventually became a non-profit and today Great Camp Sagamore is used for educational purposes as a place where visitors can explore Adirondack culture and nature. 
When we arrived we checked in. I loved our big room in the Lodge, which the literature said was the Vanderbilt master bedroom.

It had wonderful camp furniture made out of logs and branches, and the old-fashioned patterned wallpaper featured deer in the woods. A big fireplace was made out of locally-cut granite.

New York City was boiling hot when we left but up in the Adirondacks the air was cool and Sagamore Lake so quiet and serene.  

On Saturday we had fun visiting with my cousins and meeting other friends and family members. TD and I walked around the grounds which was dotted with cottages, a blacksmith shop, school house and carriage house, as well as a real bowling alley.

In the morning we took a guided canoe tour of the lake. At one point we passed an overgrown steep incline down to the water which we were told had been a winter snow sledding hill; somewhere in the camp was a photograph of guest Gary Cooper sledding down the steep hill to the lake. Later in the day we had a refreshing swim in the lake out to the raft.

On Saturday night at last it was time for the main event. We all gathered in the boat house on the edge of the lake and Maggie processed in on the arms of her mother and father to marry Adam. Afterwords, Maggie and Adam in the center gathered for a photo with my cousin Peter and his wife Lorie on the right and sister Dottie and her husband Bryce on the left - Good looking group, no? Congrats to the newlyweds!

Guests filed into the Dining Hall where we sat at great long tables decorated with white country flowers. The delicious family-style dinner was catered by Sisters Bistro, a restaurant in nearby Old Forge.

After dinner we headed up to the Play House (yes, the Vanderbilts had a Play House) for locally-made ice cream sandwiches. Peter and Maggie had a father-daughter dance together.

And then the DJ let loose with some rowdy rock 'n roll for dancing late into the night.
The next morning we stirred to fortify ourselves with breakfast in the
Dining Hall overlooking the peaceful lake.

Soon it was time to be on our way. We said goodbyes and left on Sunday with tales of the Vanderbilts and memories of Maggie as a beautiful bride –

My Aunt Monica Mumford, R.I.P.

Monica on the left, the last time I saw her in Sarasota, Florida, with my uncle Brian and my mother. 

Two weeks ago TD and I flew to Colorado to visit my sister Cynthia and Barb, and my father in his new residence there. As we were driving back to the Denver airport to depart, my brother Thom called with the sad news that our aunt Monica Jane Mumford, who we called Monnie, had passed away unexpectedly after a short illness in Sarasota, Florida.

Monica was a wonderful free spirit and adventurer in my life. When we were kids growing up, we were close to the siblings of my mother - Ellen, Monica and Brian. For example, Brian took me on my first airplane trip, from Albany to Philadelphia, where we visited my grandparents in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Monica and Ellen lived in an apartment in New York City, and my mother took my brother Thom and I there to visit them. We went to the Barnum & Bailey Circus and I was so excited at Madison Square Garden that I thought my head was going to explode. We went to visit the F.A.O. Schwartz toy store, which was then housed in the building where the Bergdorf Goodman Men's store is today. The top floor had the most complicated and wonderful operating train sets. The Four Seasons restaurant was the destination at cocktail hour (my mother was quite fearless in bringing two young boys into the iconic restaurant). The waiter brought me a glass of tomato juice wedged into a pile of shaved glass in a small bowl "for the bambino."

Three sisters - Ellen, my mother, and Monica, at our last big family Christmas holiday get-together, which my parents hosted at home in Connecticut –

Later Monica lived alone in a studio apartment and worked at an ad agency. Thom and I went to visit her there and she took us all around New York City including down Christopher Street, which was then actually gay. Again, with the exploding head. She bought Thom a denim jacket which was the coolest thing I had ever seen. She introduced us to New York, which had a big influence on both of us, to say the least. As a single gal in the city in the 60s, she had great style. I still remember her meeting us as we got off the train at Grand Central Station in a snappy navy blue and white outfit.

Sunglasses, leopard print coat, head scarf - our very own Jackie O. –

Funny memory - when my great aunt May died at home in Herkimer in the late 60s, we all went to the funeral. My grandmother, who was a stickler for clothes and how people were dressed, gave Monica a hard time because Monica was carrying a black patent leather handbag with shiny gold trim. Patent leather and shiny gold were not appropriate for a funeral. (Of course I remember all this minutiae.)

Monica was always up for an adventure, always interested and excited about something new, and always supported my creativity. Visiting my grandparents in Haddonfield, New Jersey, she bought me a jewelry making kit and encouraged me to make jewelry in the basement - paper mache flower earrings and a pin, which my mother kindly wore for a short time. Monica still talked often about our O'Donnell family and had wonderful stories to tell plus she gave me family-related gifts so she was an invaluable link for me back to the past. She smoked constantly but she had long, thin elegant fingers which made smoking look impossibly chic. A great curiosity and imagination plus a lovely melodious way of speaking made her the most delightful company, in person or on the phone.

A love for animals was a lifelong passion and she always had a beloved pet dog. When I was young, she had a bird, a yellow parakeet I think it was, which she named Pourquoi, as in "Why did I buy this bird?" She led an unorthodox life and went her own way. After high school, Monica entered the convent for a short time. Here is a picture of us together at 611 at that time. I was not yet one year old.

She wrote me a note on the back of the photo -

"Bart - Eve of year when I was going into convent. You were my best thrill before I did it -"
We were good friends for a very long time. I will miss her a lot.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays

I hope you are having a wonderful holiday season. I have had an unusual season this year – super busy at my new job at Ralph Lauren, and also very preoccupied with getting my father ready to move to Colorado, which I wrote about on the blog previously. So my attention has been elsewhere and the holiday season has literally flown by, but TD and I have enjoyed some wonderful parties and entertainments here in New York City.
Last weekend we at last got our Christmas tree up (above). We got it from our friend Billy Romp on Jane Street who has supplied our tree since 1988.
For my birthday, which is at the end of November, we went to see Pippin on Broadway!
(photo from Pippin web site)

When I was in high school, I went to see the traveling version of Pippin in Utica at the Stanley Theater. I took a girl. Later we went to the junior prom. Let's just say I enjoyed Pippin more! This production on Broadway is directed by Diane Paulus, who was the genius behind the recent Broadway production of Hair, and it features gymnasts and acrobats in a circus setting. It was so colorful and entertaining. We sat in the first row in the balcony. I had great time.
My photo of the curtain call –

On TD's birthday, which comes one week later, we had a delicious lunch at Union Square Cafe –

Up at Bergdorf Goodman, the theme of the holiday windows is the arts. This glittering one is based on music –

They do such a fantastic job with their windows. This one is inspired by film. It looks like a Greta Garbo silent movie –

Down Fifth Avenue, TD enjoyed viewing the big tree at Rockefeller Center –

We went to see the Matisse cut-outs at the Museum of Modern Art. I love these Christmas colors –

My mother had a cousin named Bondie O'Donnell, and he has a daughter named Julia who has a daughter Uma who is 14 years old and is studying here in New York City at the School of American Ballet. She's a real ballerina! I think Uma and I are second cousins once removed. Anyway, TD and I took Uma to see George Balanchine's The Nutcracker at the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. (photos from the web site)

It was so beautiful. I had seen it years ago but really had not remembered how ornate and gorgeous it is.

Here we are at intermission, O'Donnell second cousins once removed.

Today is Christmas Eve. We are going tonight to my brother Eric's in Montclair for a family dinner. There we will say good-bye to my father who is moving to Colorado on Friday.
This is a picture of the two of us a few years ago at a wedding –

I will miss him a lot.
And I am wishing you all the best for the holidays and the new year, dear reader. 

My Mother's Table

Readers may remember that my mother passed away two years ago. Since then, my father has been living in the family house in Guilford, Ct., alone, and he has wisely now put the house on the market to sell as it is way too large for one person. My parents bought the big, modern house in 1981 when it was still under construction. With four bedrooms and two bathrooms, it fit our family well. Not soon after, I moved to New York City, and over the years it was always fun for me, and later TD and I, to go Grand Central Station on a Friday night and take the train out along the Long Island Sound to visit my parents in Guilford.

The dining room was the place to gather for big, celebratory family dinners. In later years, my mother got the idea from a magazine or book that she wanted to turn the dining room table into a kind of salon table, piled with some of her beloved things. She covered the table with a purple cloth and put on it some of her favorite decorating and fashion books and art and cards and objects. The combination of colors and flowers and sparkly things was a real expression of her taste; it was like a little portrait of her.

When she grew sicker, she was confined to her bed. When I was visiting once, she asked me to arrange the table, dust the objects, and adjust things, so that it looked good. I did as she requested and when a friend came to visit, she reported to my mother that the table was pretty which made my mother happy, even though she could not see it.

My mother had a decorating style which was uniquely her own, and she applied it to every corner of the house. She liked light, clear pastel colors, leggy brown wood furniture, and lots of art and books and personal things around. Come to think of it, that is my decorating style too. There was a lightness to everything she did. She also was an artist who painted, and some of her paintings hang on the wall in this night time view of the dining room – 

This big painting in the living room was found in Maine and features the colors and whimsy and lightness that my mother favored –

Here is a picture of my parents sitting in that chair on the right –

My father is currently considering a move to Colorado where he would live near my sister Cynthia. My mother's table is gone now. To prepare the house for sale, a stager came in and rearranged things for potential buyers. According to conventional wisdom, a lot of personal items were taken out of the house so that a buyer can see the possibilities. The collection my mother arranged was disassembled and the dining room table was laid with white dishes and silverware, as if awaiting diners to sit. My father reports tonight that a family came today to view the house and liked what they saw. And so begins the end of an era. 

Sister Celebration

Cynthia and Barb with yours truly, the official witness.
My sister Cynthia and her partner Barb from Colorado recently came to town for some jolly  celebrations.
First up, they got married!
They came to New York City to tie the knot as same-sex marriage is not yet passed in Colorado. With all of their paper work done ahead of time, they were scheduled to get married at the City Clerk office one recent morning. I was honored that they asked me to be their witness.
That morning I put on a tie and a jacket and looked in the mirror and saw looking back at me my uncle Brian Mumford and my grandmother Florence Mumford. I was bringing the spirit of my mother with me.
I met Cynthia and Bart outside the City Clerk office early and we went in. The Marriage Bureau is a nice big municipal space with marble walls and high ceilings. Other couples were there too to get married. New York's wonderful spectrum was represented with straight and gay couples and all different races and creeds and ages and sizes and colors and mixed marriages. Everyone was in a happy, celebratory mood, and the people who worked there were very pleasant and helpful. I believe that New York is marketing itself as a wedding destination. It was a very fun experience.
First we got a numbered ticket and waited for the number to light up over a window, like at the Department of Motor Vehicles. We proceeded to the right window to sign papers and then we were directed to wait outside a chapel where a Justice of the Peace presided. There were couples ahead of us and behind us and everyone was taking pictures. Then we were ushered into a bright, cheerful, pink room where the short Justice of the Peace stood behind a tall podium and recited the vows.
We were in and out in less than an hour.
Married!

Mazel tov!
Afterwards we went to lunch. Cynthia said to me, "Thank you for coming and thank you for paving the way."
The next night Cynthia and Barb hosted a celebratory family dinner at a tapas restaurant in Chelsea called Tia Pol where we commandeered the back private room and enjoyed a never ending procession of delicious tapas and red wine -

I recommend Tia Pol if you are in the neighborhood. 
The following evening my brother Thom and his family hosted a birthday party for Cynthia at their apartment (a big birthday for her).
Here we are, the four siblings - Thom, me, Cynthia, Eric - on Thom's deck -

followed by the Boehlert boys - my father, nephew Aaron and his father Thom, me, nephew Ben and his father Eric -

We enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the deck with the buildings of the Flatiron District rising around us -

It was a great weekend of happy events. Thanks to Cynthia for bringing the party to New York.
Since then I have been to two funerals. Enjoy the present moment the best you can.
Live and love.

A Trip Out West to Colorado

Recently TD and I went to visit my sister Cynthia and her partner Barb at their home in Monument, Colorado, which is near Colorado Springs. We have visited there before, and maybe it was because of the harsh dark winter we had here in New York this year, but I did not remember how big and spectacular the sky is in Colorado. It stretches from horizon to horizon, as far as the eye can see. And though this top picture is cloudy, it was mostly blue sunny skies for the duration of our visit. I'm telling you, it was a relief to take it in!
One day we headed into Colorado Springs to a cool spot called The Wild Goose Meeting House for lunch. I felt like I was in Brooklyn - exposed wooden beams, industrial lighting, hipsters on laptops wearing baseball caps and New Balance sneakers –

The food was great, and many locally crafted beers were proffered. Colorado is renowned for its craft breweries, with more than 140 craft breweries located in the state. Colorado is number one in the nation for volume of beer brewed nationally, and number two in volume of craft beer brewed annually. Lucky for me, because I love delicious beer –

After lunch we walked along the main street of Colorado Springs. Where ever you are, you can see mountains, like Pikes Peak in the distance – 

Pikes Peak happens to be the name of the girls' neighborhood brewery, where we stopped that night to enjoy some freshly brewed beer and meet some of their friends.
Ted, Cynthia, me, Barb - a little fuzzy but you get an idea of the ensuing merriment –

The brewery has a great selection of beers to choose from –

The next morning we went out for a run. The sky was blue and bright.

Sometimes visitors suffer from the high elevation in Colorado, but we felt fine. Thankfully the running path was flat.
TD running ahead and Cynthia with her dogs –

It was such a joy to be outside running in the sunshine.
Cynthia and I on the running path with her doggies –

In the afternoon we headed in the car for lunch to a school which has been converted into...wait for it...a brewery. The Bristol Brewing Co. is located in the former Ivywild School –

The interior has been lovingly retained, complete with the gymnasium and Principal's office -

We met with more friends and had a fun lunch. On the way home, we stopped at Garden of the Gods, a public park which features dramatic red rock formations which were shaped millions of years ago –

Garden of the Gods was a favorite place of my mother, who visited it many times, so it has sentimental meaning for us. It's a beautiful spot.

Echoing the dramatic shapes of the Garden of the Gods is the Denver Art Museum, designed by architect Daniel Libeskind, which we toured on Sunday –

It's a big museum with lots to offer for families and children. For instance, inside the museum, we happened upon an amusing opera performance for children. In the collection of Western art, I liked "Long Jakes, the Mountain Man" wearing a vivid red coat in this painting by Charles Deas from 1844.

For lunch in Denver, we went to the Vine Street Pub and Brewery, which had many more beers on tap!

After lunch we drove to visit our cousin Diane Noonan Obernesser and her husband Matt and three daughters Madison, Cheyenne and Corrina.
Family photo, Colorado branch – 

We had such a good time on our visit out west with Cynthia and Barb - lots of good things to eat and drink and fun outings and great company. Cynthia and Barb are coming to New York City this summer to get married! So proud of them. So proud of all my sibs. I'm lucky.