The world welcomed Benjamin Andrew Lewis in the early morning hours of
Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007 – exactly two weeks before Christmas. More than
a week late and weighing in an ounce short of 10 pounds, Benjamin is
the latest addition to my growing extended family and the son of my
sister Carolyn and her husband Phil way out in Cooperstown, New York.

If there is a risk that Benjamin will get scrouged out of his proper
allotment of presents by having his birthday so close to Christmas,
he’ll have his older brother Spencer, who was born on Christmas Day, to
commiserate with. (Current) middle child Addie had enough sense to be
born in June, leaving quite a few paychecks between the big present
days.

December is turning into an eventful month for me and mine. In addition
to the usual holiday festivities and the propagation of little ones in
upstate New York, we also celebrate my wife’s birthday as well as Kari
and my wedding anniversary (one year and going strong, yeah!). In the
past month we have seen our own household grow by two, although one is
a temporary circumstance. Coco, our newly adopted dachshund is the
permanent one and while she settled in almost immediately, us humans
(and our other dog, Walt) have been adjusting our routines to make room
for her.

Just before Thanksgiving Kari’s mother flew in from her native
Wisconsin for an extended stay into early next year. The purpose of her
trip being two-fold: to spend the holidays with her two daughters and
one son-in-law and to do a little reconnaissance to see if she might
want to move “back east” to be closer to two of her children. I would
never recommend visiting Maine any time between Nov. 1 and June 30, but
if you are thinking of actually living here, now is the ideal time to
visit. Anyone can see themselves living in New England during glorious
summer, but it’s difficult to maintain the rose-colored glasses as you
don the rubber boots day in and day out.

It has been great fun having Mary around, but so far the visit has not
been very productive reconnaissance-wise. Bereft of a car and wary of
the streets and sidewalks that have yet to clear of the alternating
layers of ice and snow that have been forming since winter arrived
early, Mary has been largely sequestered inside while the rest of us
attend to our work-a-day lives. The dogs don’t seem to mind since
having Mary around during the day means they get to spend their workday
hours lounging on the couches rather than inside their crates.

Kari and I, having celebrated a year of matrimony, have already worked
on our New Year’s resolutions, which involve  increasing the size
of our own family by adopting a child as well as finding someplace to
house our hopefully soon-to-be growing family.

Easier said then done, as adoption, not to mention homeownership,
entails significant upfront costs currently,  and until
circumstances change, not within our grasp.

But we have our goal, we have our motivation, we have each other and we have the next year to figure it all out.