Look, Deer! Oh, Dear.

On Friday, Anne and I arrived in Ann Arbor. Today, the boys arrived, but yesterday, I made the mistake of texting the boys about our safe arrival, because I thought that they might have been worried. Look below at the transcript of our texting conversation to see how wrong I was:

Dad: Should have texted earlier. We made it here fine.
Dave: We were worried sick.
Dan: I’ll call the highway patrol, to call off the search. David, can you cancel the Amber alert?
Dave: Silver alert, cause they’re… you know…
Dad: Our will is written in pencil!

There is a new tradition this year at Chez Harry’s, Weihnachtsgurke or the Christmas pickle. A Christmas pickle is a decoration in the shape of a pickle which is hidden on a decorated Christmas tree. In our case it was on the garland hanging from the ceiling. It says that the finder of the pickle receives a reward or good fortune for the following year. There are a number of different origin stories attributed to this tradition; most stating it originated in Germany. Harry found a New York Times article today addressing this subject and was pleased to point out both the article and the pickle to everyone. They had previously won a pickle ornament at bridge. It is only our first year now with this new to us tradition, so that it only seems fair to have the rules explained and the pickle pointed out to everyone. The deer was photographed this morning in the backyard. There were three of them, but this one was the most picturesque.