Thursday, December 21, 1972

December 21, 1972

13119 Hermitage, Houston

Dear Family,

Today is the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter — but we certainly feel that Texas (along with most of the rest of the country) has already had more than a taste already of real winter. One thing we have noticed in this more southerly clime though is that these short winter days aren’t as short as they were in the SF bay area — for example this evening after I got home from work it was still light enough for me to go out and rake up enough leaves, pine needles, cones & accumulated debris in the front yard to fill up the trash can. That’s a bonus and as Clarice wrote in her Christmas letter it should be one of the blessings we can count if we but look for them.

Muriel arrived home from Austin early this afternoon and she said the weather was clear & bright there, becoming progressively cloudier and grayer as they neared the coast. She’ll be home for nearly 3 weeks as classes don’t resume until about Jan 15, so she’ll have a good long relief from those dormitory meals — this evening she really enjoyed the sweet corn (which came from the vegetable club Jean has joined — the ladies of which take turns going to the farmer’s market and buying fresh produce for the whole club).

Today was also the first day of Christmas vacation for Palma and Laurel and they welcomed the end of school for awhile. It is also the middle of the school year and they have been having final tests the last week or so; after Christmas the new term begins. Palma celebrated by sleeping in till close to noon and Laurel by coming down with a cold which had been developing for several days. Hopefully she’ll be better after a good night’s rest tonite but right now she looks rather dreary — she had expected to babysit tonite for the family just behind us but as it turns out they too are suffering from some bug so she could back out of that commitment easily.

Tuesday evening Jean & I went to hear her play in the school orchestra in the Christmas program of music as Spring Forest Jr. High. It was a good concert I thought & the orchestra was surely an improvement over that at Portola Jr High in El Cerrito last year — there the head of the music dept had interest only in band music and the orchestra really suffered. The orchestra had already played 2 or 3 times that day for various elementary schools in the district, so she really had a workout.

We continue to get accounts, in Christmas cards & letters from California, of the unusual cold there. Fuschias, poinsettias, citrus trees have been dealt harsh blows by the freezing temperatures and many doubtless won’t survive. In a way I’m glad I’m not there to see more poor frost-bitten fuschias. At the botanical gardens at the Univ of Calif some 50 years of plant development may be largely lost. One friend wrote that snow remained in her backyard for 2 days after it fell — usually when snow falls in the Bay area it’s only in higher elevations and lasts only a couple of hours. Lately it’s warmed up there, but the damage to plants has been done.

Work continues rather busy these last days before the holidays and I have a busy half day ahead of me tomorrow to get things cleared away before my week of vacation next week. Should be able to get things done though if there aren’t too many interruptions. A lot of people are on vacation already and the offices will have a half-deserted air next week I’m sure. Here at home I brought in the Christmas tree yesterday evening and decorations. it will be a rather different Christmas for us this year — the first one really way from any of the rest of the family, altho with Jean’s dad’s passing over a year ago the old family traditions would be passing regardless of where we were. We’ll be home by ourselves Christmas morning but we have invitations out for Christmas Eve and for Christmas day in the evening so our days then will be filled with fellowship. All for this time

With love, Carl