Jay is the man.

Look at the beautiful anniversary letter we got from Jay:

Dear Nick and Evelyn,

It is one year since your most magical of marriages in the beautiful hills of Tuscany. I want only to send you profound best wishes and heartfelt congratulations from our entire family.

The first anniversary is considered to be a “paper” anniversary, apparently paling in light of the silver and gold anniversaries of years to come. But don’t underestimate paper. Unlike silver or gold, paper’s source is in a living organism, a tree

with roots, supports, and a crown of leaves. Stay rooted in love, continue to support each other in becoming the persons you are called to be, and your crowns will not be of leaves but of an ever growing glory of goodness which is more beautiful and lasting than silver or gold.

Happy Anniversary,

Jay, Jacqueline, Jerry, Julian, Thomas, Patrick

(My response pales in lyrical comparison):

Dear Jay, Jacqueline, Jerry, Julian, Thomas and Patrick,

Thank you so, so much for your lovely email, and for thinking of us on our anniversary! Fittingly, we were in Italy that weekend for a friend's wedding! (The bride, a childhood friend of Nick's, was marrying an Italian, and they had a lovely ceremony in his hometown of Castelfranco, just north of Venice). Attached is the actual setting where we read your email together: a terrace in the Old Town centre, sipping candy-coloured spritzes, and just enjoying each other's company. Not a bad way to spend an anniversary! We dared turn on the blackberry for a few minutes (despite outlandish roaming charges! :) and read your letter together. So touching; beyond lovely. And yes, your tree imagery definitely made me a little misty-eyed :)

Thanks so much to all of you for your support from the very beginning. The aim in a marriage is, like you say, to grow together through the organic unpredictabilities of a life shared. But young saplings also need some support in the beginning! It's friends like you who provide that, helping us grow into our best selves, able to weather all the winds and storms that may come.

Thank you so much,

Much love to you all,

Eve and Nick

Dad and little daughter sing a 90's classic

This is the cutest, the absolute cutest.

love

Miss y'all.

Impatience is a Virtue (or "The Undisputed Badass of the Year")

Hideaki Akaiwa was at work on March 11th when the earthquake and then the tsunami hit his hometown, Ishinomaki in Japan’s Miyagi Prefecture. The city was covered with water ten feet deep -for days. Hideaki’s wife was missing somewhere in the flooded area. Rescue workers told Hideaki that all they could do was wait for the military to come help. But the 43-year-old man did not want to sit idly by while his wife was missing, so he put on some SCUBA gear.

Regardless of how he came across this equipment (borrowing, stealing, buying, beating up a Yakuza SCUBA diving demolitions expert, etc.) Hideaki threw on his underwater survival gear, rushed into the goddamned tsunami, and dove beneath the rushing waves, determined to rescue his wife or die trying. I’m not exactly sure whether or not the dude even knew how to operate SCUBA equipment, but according to one version of his story he met his wife while he was surfing (which is awesome, by the way), so it doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch to say that he already had a little experience SCUBA diving under a more controlled situation. Of course, even if this dude didn’t know how to work the gear I’m certain that wouldn’t have stopped him either – Hideaki wasn’t going to let a pair of soul-crushing natural disasters deter him from doing awesome shit and saving his family. He dove down into the water, completely submerged in the freezing cold, pitch black rushing current on all sides, and started swimming through the underwater ruins of his former hometown.

Surrounded by incredible hazards on all sides, ranging from obscene currents capable of dislodging houses from their moorings, sharp twisted metal that could easily have punctured his oxygen line (at best) or impaled him (at worst), and with giant f***ing cars careening through the water like toys, he pressed on. Past broken glass, past destroyed houses, past downed power lines arcing with electrical current, through undertow that could have dragged him out to sea never to be heard from again, he searched.

Hideaki maintained his composure and navigated his way through the submerged city, finally tracking down his old house. He quickly swam through to find his totally-freaked-out wife, alone and stranded on the upper level of their house, barely keeping her head above water. He grabbed her tight, and presumably sharing his rebreather with her, dragged her out of the wreckage to safety. She survived.

Hideaki wasn’t finished, though. His mother was still missing. Read the rest of the story at Badass of the Week. Warning: lots of strong language. The rest of the story is here.

Merry Christmas

This is my little tree in NDG. Perhaps some of those presents are for you!...

Also, can you spot some familiar ornaments in the tree? :)

Breaking News

The introduction of Oxford Teddy to British Teddy was all right with a few icy 'how do you do's. But then the shock followed when Oxford Teddy said you rowed at Oxford and British Teddy said that couldn't be because a) you were at Cambridge and b) you rowed at Cambridge and you had an oar to prove it. Oh dear, you will have a lot of explaining to do. In the meantime this little lady Teddy (see pic) for weeks has been asking for you because she wants to have a wedding like you. Long story short, she is now engaged to Oxford Teddy. British Teddy is exasperated. While all this is going on, we brought Pouhi and Pouha (see pic in next email) back from the green bag in your room and they asked about the little girl who played with Pipe. So they are confused that you are married. British Teddy feeling very responsible doesn't know what to so with all this mess...Pouf D

Clearly, dear brothers, there is much drama abreast in Vaudreuil... I think indeed it may be time I go back for a visit and sort things out.

Regards,
Evelyne

Why Sisterly Chats Make People Happier

“Having a Sister Makes You Happier”: that was the headline on a recent article about a study finding that adolescents who have a sister are less likely to report such feelings as “I am unhappy, sad or depressed” and “I feel like no one loves me.”These findings are no fluke; other studies have come to similar conclusions. But why would having a sister make you happier?...
(Check out the full article from the New York Times)



Just puttin' it out there! :)