For our 25th Wedding Anniversary last summer, we were burnt out on extreme celebration since we had both marked our 50th birthdays the prior year with all the proper trips, parties and hullabaloo.
I remembered that one of our early "imaginings" of married life was to read the Sunday New York Times together on Sunday mornings over a leisurely brunch. Perhaps a nap. Then finish the Times and have dinner. All the while commenting to each other over the articles as we hand sections back and forth having intelligent, witty, knowledgeable adult conversation.
Enter three kids (one at a time) and 21+ years of parenthood. Sunday school, soccer games, swim meets, music lessons...I scarcely need elaborate, it is such a well documented life path. Needless to say there were no leisurely Sundays. Last August our youngest's bat mitzvah was fast approaching and Sunday school would soon go the way of diapers and car seats. I decided to commemorate our 25th Wedding Anniversary with a return to the New York Times Dream.
Well almost a year over I can say we have not yet had the Sunday New York Times experience but we have made several enjoyable attempts at it and at the very least Irad always has something to read on the airplane!
Last Sunday I decided to see it was possible for me to read the NYTimes cover to cover. I got through several sections in the morning.
A break to go visit my parents, run some errands and back for some more reading.
AND... I did not get through the whole paper. However, I did pass on interesting articles to all my kids, find myself recounting to my husband the story of the eagle chick dying on a webcam, and got a call from a distraught 15 year old while I was in Vermont this week telling me he stayed up too late because he couldn't put down the front page article about the fireman I left for him, and could I give him articles every week? My daughter read with great interest the travel section article by a woman taking her bookworm daughter to London. We realized we had missed several interesting spots on our own trip to London this past spring break, but then again, I am not a travel writer for the NY Times!
So like all good dreams, this one needs a little reinterpreting. I guess we won't be having slow and dreamy Sunday mornings yet, but I CAN curate the paper now for a household of lively and curious young people...
And I WILL be buying the Mercedes S55 so lovingly and irresistibly described on the last page of the Sports Section...(Right!)
I remembered that one of our early "imaginings" of married life was to read the Sunday New York Times together on Sunday mornings over a leisurely brunch. Perhaps a nap. Then finish the Times and have dinner. All the while commenting to each other over the articles as we hand sections back and forth having intelligent, witty, knowledgeable adult conversation.
Enter three kids (one at a time) and 21+ years of parenthood. Sunday school, soccer games, swim meets, music lessons...I scarcely need elaborate, it is such a well documented life path. Needless to say there were no leisurely Sundays. Last August our youngest's bat mitzvah was fast approaching and Sunday school would soon go the way of diapers and car seats. I decided to commemorate our 25th Wedding Anniversary with a return to the New York Times Dream.
Well almost a year over I can say we have not yet had the Sunday New York Times experience but we have made several enjoyable attempts at it and at the very least Irad always has something to read on the airplane!
A break to go visit my parents, run some errands and back for some more reading.
A young recruit joined my ranks.
AND... I did not get through the whole paper. However, I did pass on interesting articles to all my kids, find myself recounting to my husband the story of the eagle chick dying on a webcam, and got a call from a distraught 15 year old while I was in Vermont this week telling me he stayed up too late because he couldn't put down the front page article about the fireman I left for him, and could I give him articles every week? My daughter read with great interest the travel section article by a woman taking her bookworm daughter to London. We realized we had missed several interesting spots on our own trip to London this past spring break, but then again, I am not a travel writer for the NY Times!
So like all good dreams, this one needs a little reinterpreting. I guess we won't be having slow and dreamy Sunday mornings yet, but I CAN curate the paper now for a household of lively and curious young people...
And I WILL be buying the Mercedes S55 so lovingly and irresistibly described on the last page of the Sports Section...(Right!)
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