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Happy New Year (to those of you who have adopted the Gregorian Calendar). I hope 2007 was a fantastic year for you and that 2008 will be even better.

For our family 2007 began in the same place it had for the ten previous years: Wichita, Kansas. We didn’t like that. In fact, we had been planning to leave Kansas for longer than we had actually lived there. I had graduated from WSU in 2006 and Kirsten had recovered from her pituitary surgery. All that was left was to sell the house. Trying to sell it ourselves was getting us nowhere. So, we hired a real estate agent. After a few months of neither shows nor offers we hired a new agent. And waited. Nothing.

In February Skye was invited (as a first grader) to participate in Griffith Elementary’s spelling bee. She was very excited and studied the provided word list. Her first and second grade classes attended the bee to cheer her on. She lasted through five rounds. Skye was disappointed with her performance, but we were all very proud of her.

Having finally had enough of Wichita I quit my job on May 1. We would move to Maine without a job and without having sold our home. It was an exciting and busy time for our family as we packed and prepared to go. We got a post office box in Portland, changed our address on our subscriptions, and began to pack our things. In mid-June we finally pulled out of our driveway for the last time in our rented 22 foot moving truck. And we haven’t looked back. Maine has been more than we ever imagined it could be. We love it here! I feel like we’re finally home and can begin to put down some roots.

We spent most of the summer exploring our new home state. We camped at Acadia National Park, Quoddy Head State Park, and Cobscook Bay State Park. We went on lighthouse tours and a covered bridge tour. We also kayaked and took the girls hiking on peat bogs and rocky shores. We live in Saco (sock-o), about four miles from a seven-mile white sand beach. So, we spent a lot of time watching the waves and seagulls while the girls dig in the sand. It was, to put it mildly, a dream summer.

After a bit of a fight, we were permitted to enroll Skye in third grade at C. K. Burns School. She is in a third/fourth grade multi-age class. She LOVES it and so do Kirsten and I. Jenna is in a first/second grade multi-age class at Fairfield Elementary. She is also doing very well and working almost entirely on second grade assignments. We are proud of them both.

In September we attended a sidewalk chalk festival in our neighboring town, Biddeford (it’s across the Saco River). A local television station taped a promo of our family while Kirsten read a cue card. Since then people we know and some we’ve never met tell us they saw our family on t.v. We’re famous! We’ve also been recognized around because of our Flickr photostreams (Brent’s | Kirsten’s ). It’s kinda cool.

In November we finally sold our home in Wichita. It was on the market for more than a year. The negotiations broke down at least twice but finally we had a contract and made it through to closing. Whew! Good riddance.

Kirsten is working at the Maine Medical Center in Portland. She is a secretary on the cardiology floor. The twelve hour shifts are long but she enjoys working and interacting with adults and having new responsibilities.

I spend my time taking pictures, looking for work, and playing with Hayley as much as possible.

In December we celebrated Festibond, our new family holiday tradition. It was a lot of fun. On the 27th Kirsten’s parents, Sondra and Clarke, visited for a week. It was very nice to have them here with us. We took them to L.L. Bean; Peaks Island; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Babbs Bridge; and on several lighthouse tours.

We’re happy and glad to finally be exactly where we want to live and grow old. I feel like I was born to be a Mainer and am excited every day to be living in this wonderful place.

Take care. Have a wonderful 2008.

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2007 · danley · review

Festibond 2007 was a tremendous success. We all agree it was much better than Christmas and are eagerly anticipating the next one. In fact, we are considering making Festibond a semiannual family tradition.

Christmas, at least as it is celebrated in the United States, is a secular holiday. Santa Claus with his magic flying reindeer, the hanging of bright strings of lights, baked goodies, gluttonous consumerism, snowpeople, decorated indoor pine trees, sending greeting cards to rarely thought-of friends and family in distant locales, and spending time with family have almost nothing to do with the humble birth of precious baby Jesus. It is, quite simply, a secular holiday observed with silly traditions and symbols few people understand. Despite this obvious fact, many people consider it a religious holiday and, as an atheist, I wanted to distance myself from it as much as possible. Opting-out was an easy and natural decision for me. Kirsten, however, struggled with letting it go. She remembers fondly her childhood Christmas celebrations and wanted our girls to have similar memories. After many discussions we decided to let Christmas go and invent our own celebration and associated traditions.

Initially we referred to our new celebration as “The Danley Family Holiday Celebration”. Yeah, that’s like, way too long. One of our primary goals was to create a celebration that would unite the family. Therefore, Kirsten coined the term “Festibond” for our collection of traditions. So far, it has stuck.

We didn’t want the girls to be teased at school for being different or feel gypped because they weren’t getting presents like all the other kids. Our intention, therefore, was to make Festibond cooler than Christmas. This meant we were going to have gifts and we would do it before December 25th. Kirsten and I had many long discussions about what we wanted to do, what we wanted to avoid doing, and the lessons we wanted to teach the girls. We also had several family meetings to get feedback and ideas from the sisters. It was important that the gifts we would give each other would be small; that we would emphasize giving over getting; and that everything planned would foster love, appreciation, and cooperation.

The best idea came from Kirsten. She brilliantly suggested each person write a letter to each other member of the family. The letter was to include expressions and examples of why we love, appreciate, and respect the person to whom the letter was written.

At mid-morning on December 24th we ate at our favorite breakfast restaurant, Eggspectation, in South Portland. As usual, the food was excellent. After brunch we went to the mall for some last minute shopping before heading home. Kirsten, Hayley, and I had to finish our letters and Hayley had to wrap the present she had gotten for Kirsten earlier at the mall.

For the gift portion of our Festibond we sat on the floor of the girls’ bedroom, each of us next to the small pile of gifts we would be giving. On someone’s turn they would first read their letter, give a hug to the recipient, and give them the gift. After the recipient opened the gift they would hug the giver again and place the gift somewhere out of the way. Then the giver would give their next gift following the same pattern until all their gifts had been given and it was the next person’s turn to give their gifts. This went on, of course, until each member had given all their gifts and read all their notes. When it was over we each had an envelope of letters we had received from the other family members. It was indescribably heartwarming to listen to the girls read their thoughtful, sincere, genuine, and immensely kind letters.

For the remainder of the day we played together and snacked on candy, cheese, crackers, and a Hickory Farms Beef Stick. It was a wonderful celebration that I’m sure we’ll each remember for a very long time. Festibond is unique and it is ours. I’m sure our observance of Festibond will evolve, and that’s okay. It will always be ours and always be exactly the way we want it to be. That, I think, is a very cool thing.

2007 · atheism · celebration · christianity · christmas · festibond · holiday · tradition

I’ve been a Boston Red Sox fan since living in Boston back in 1993-94. When I say I’m a fan I don’t mean in the fanatical sense of the word: I prefer the Red Sox to any other team in baseball…and I wear a Red Sox baseball cap most days.

Last night the Red Sox won their second World Series in four seasons. I thoroughly enjoyed following their progress through the American League Championship Series against the Cleveland Indians and the World Series against the Colorado Rockies.

My younger brother, Ken, is a huge Indians fan which made the ALCS something special for me. It gave us a reason to call each other and something to talk about. Baseball, it turns out, is less controversial and emotional than either religion or politics.

We don’t have broadcast television or cable so I wasn’t able to watch any of the postseason games at home. When I got desperate during the ALCS I rode my bicycle to the only bar in Saco and watched the mostly silent games–the t.v. was muted whenever someone put money in the jukebox–on a single television across the bar. It was, to say the least, a lame way to enjoy a baseball game. Boston was down in the series 3-1 and rallied to win games five and six. It would take all seven games to determine the winner of the American League Pennant. For that game I drove to Portland to watch the action in a real bar with real televisions. The game was close until the end when Boston pulled ahead. The Cleveland Indians would have to dry their tears with their rally towels as Boston prepared to face the Colorado Rockies in the World Series.

Boston swept the Rockies 4-0 in the World Series to become the 2007 World Champions. I didn’t watch a single game. The first three nights I kept hitting the refresh button (F5) at Boston.com to get score updates. I also read the live blog from the ballpark. The Red Sox dominated the Rockies through three games and I was confident the series would be over in four. I sat in the car with a bag of chips and a soda and listened to game four on the radio (no, we don’t have any radios in our house). It was a lame way to follow a baseball game, I’ll admit. But that’s what fans do. The Red Sox were ahead 4-3 in game four at Coors Field to start the bottom of the ninth inning. The only really tense moment of the game came when pinch-hitter Jamey Carroll sent Jacoby Ellsbury all the way back to the left field wall on a line drive off pitcher Jonathan Papelbon for the second out. The next batter, Seth Smith, stuck out to end the series.

The fans in Boston will enjoy a duckboat parade through the city tomorrow. Then, the postseason starts.

2007 · alcs · baseball · boston · champions · red sox · world series