Christmastime 2009
A Walking Tour of 2009:
Little Walks for Sightseers #43
Greetings, and welcome to our walking tour of the House of Lewis-Barton, anno domini 2009. We hope that you've worn comfortable shoes, and assure that if you allow between two and 120 minutes, you should be able to complete the tour at a comfortable pace. Throughout the tour, if you are curious, feel free to open doors, turn the pages of books, examine details and wander about each room. (Click on the red links throughout.) Perhaps you will discover something of interest. If you wander too far afield, you will be able to resume your tour where you left off, should you care to do so. Let us begin.
December (2008)
Here in the lobby of December (2008), you may have noticed the newspaper on the bench, in which there is an article of interest. The Grand Rapids Press interviewed Larry because of his leadership of the Grand Rapids Prayer of Peace, and parts of that interview were included in the article on "Peaceful Prayer".
January
Here in the January area, while there are not many pieces of furniture, the room is dominated by a sizeable grand piano. The piano is new to St. Mary's Church, where Larry and Roberta spend a good deal of their time.
Over in the corner, the file box contains the notes from Larry's weekend out with "the guys". They camped out at Larry's parents' Gun Lake house. The box is locked, and the key hidden, but a photograph fell out the last time he was rummaging around in there. The odd juxtaposition of the two vehicles is either a sublime reference to life's counter-balancing mysteries, or circumstantial evidence of the diverse sorts of company that frequent the House of Lewis-Barton. You can decide for yourself.
February
The alien creatures depicted are not a strange type of choir, but the high school students who prepared the theme for the 2009 DYMO Camp, of which Larry is (still) involved with, making this 15 years now. Pieces of DYMO are scattered throughout these rooms.
March
The chill is still in the air, as the rooms of October through March are well air-conditioned. (The heating works equally well the remainder of the year.) Larry and Erin spent a weekend together as part of a big retreat preparing for DYMO camp. And it came to be that friend Remi purchased a very expensive washer and dryer not far from her Edgewater apartment in Chicago. Included was a condominium, at no extra charge. Nice. She could, however, benefit from assistance with the move. Roberta's and Larry's alibis are airtight, as there is proof that they were there on this corkboard.
April
April is actually a large room, but it seems to be cramped from all of the accumulated candles, incense, books, music and flowers from Holy Week and Easter activities. Smells and bells. Real life apparently continued on in the background, but little photographic evidence of that survives.
May
Here in May's nursery, flowers start appearing everywhere in and around the house. Signs of life. Larry was on the board of that Catholic musician's group, NPM-GR, and they all had a good time at their big annual banquet shindig. (No arrests were made.) Pay no heed to the work area with all it's dust on the floor, which is what's left over from the course of a lot of meetings, weddings, and so on. They really should sweep up more often.
June
Here in June's kitchen, you may detect the smell of foods and the sounds of music in the air from the Festival of the Arts in downtown Grand Rapids. All of the stained napkins were disposed of, so little else of that remains for us to see.
Then there's nothing quite like spending a week of 18-hour days in the woods with over 100 high school students (and for this, some of you are grateful). Larry and Erin rather like the DYMO Camp way of doing it, and months of preparation pay off.
The stubs of the birthday candles on the table are from celebrating Erin's 23rd birthday with our "Tuesday" family.
July
Take note of the curtains, which are woven from Roberta and Larry's trip to Chicago to participate in the NPM National Convention, and their concurrent visit with Rémi.
August
The wall to your left is decorated in a birthday party theme, as both Roberta and Larry have to admit that they are getting older each August. Gluten free cakes, garden walks and photography from high places help to ease the pain.
On the right, there are various birds and other wildlife outside the window — and a squirrel inside, on the window sill. How did it get in? You'd have to ask Larry personally.
On the video monitor ahead, you see that Larry was interviewed both by FOX 17 TV and WZZM 13 TV as part of news coverage about the restoration work going on at St. Mary's. It is Larry's sincere opinion that he prefers to be behind the camera rather than in front of it.
The music playing in the background is from Larry's 2009 mix, "Up to Something". If you would like to listen more closely, please confer with him.
And here is another file cabinet, containing records of Larry's adventures on a weekend with his game-playing friends. Nothing of interest there. Let us move along.
September
Please pardon the luggage. Erin moved out into her own apartment, although she still maintains "space" in our home. Ah, and here's more luggage. Step carefully here lest you take a trip. That's what Larry and Roberta did, and to México at that! There's a pile of photo albums on the table. Explore them at your leisure.
October
By the decorations – macabre, silly and otherwise - you can see that we've stepped into October. On your left are the decorations for the Kids' Party, which, as an experiment, was held indoors at the Activity Center of St. Mary's Church, with Larry and Roberta as the Monsters of Ceremonies. The space limitations and reliance on the weather were no longer an issue! However, part of the experiment was to invite all the children of the parish, not just friends and family. Instead of 30-50 kids, about 200 kids came to eat, play carnival games, win fabulous prizes and have a good time.
And here are the decorations for the evening House Party, held on the Friday before Halloween. More decorations in less space, you see, so take care not to get lost.
November
The dining area of November' is completely empty. There is nothing here whatsoever. Except that radio, because Larry was interviewed about St. Mary's building restoration on WOOD radio. And the pile of dishes on the side board, because of the joys of feasting on three different Thanksgiving meals (the Barton's, the Lewis', and the Tuesday's). But other than that, it is quite empty.
December
On the desk there is a newspaper. Within that newspaper is the Grand Rapids Press Religion section. And part of that section is a story about St. Mary's successful fund-raising efforts for our building restoration. Columnist Charles Honey interviewed Roberta, who gave him a walking tour around the church and offices.
Ah, and here we are, back at the door. We hope you've enjoyed this little tour, and that you have pleasant travels. (Try to have a little humor about those unpleasant travels.) There are many other parts of the house to comment on... Roberta, especially, has many stories. Ask her about how she volunteers for Faith Hospice, or what she learns from the elderly parishioners she visits. Then sit back, and enjoy the enjoy the story.
Merry Christmas. Happy new year. Abundant blessings to all whom God has used to touch our lives!
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» Christmas Letter 2005
Every now and then someone mentions our letter from 2000. By request, we make it available again...
