The Rainbow Hides Unseen
November 23–27, Amherst, MA USA
Seasonal Memoir #40
The Swiss are in overdrive this time of the year with chocolates and sweets of all kinds. It’s totally over the top, but welcomed, of course. The staff at school had a Grittibänz contest–this is the “Swiss Christmas Man”, a sweet, doughy creation with a bar of chocolate cradled in its arm, which is supposed to represent a piece of wood, that Samichlaus gives children on Dec. 6.
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It’s funny how you look back on some decisions and say, “well that was a no-brainer”, yet you hemmed and hawed at the time. It seemed ludicrous on some level to fly home for four days for Thanksgiving. On the other hand, given some of the challenges our family have faced this year, I’m so glad I did.
After an uneventful flight, I got to the Princeton house at 9pm, with not a soul there except Penny the dog. Huh? I had only told my mother-in-law that I was coming back, and even had to be sneaky talking to Tina and our daughter while at the airport (muting the phone when announcements were made). I had played up in my head that moment of “surprise!”
It was super unusual for nobody to be home at that time. It turns out there was a full fledged dog hunt going on for Kiwi, our Jack Russell of eight years. While Rosa and Tina were walking the back property, Kiwi wandered off, and had been missing for over five hours. Not good! Having lived in the Middle East his whole life, Kiwi has been in heaven running around the Amherst and Princeton yards off lead, chasing chipmunks or trying to root them out of their homes. He goes full Jack Russell in these moments and can’t be retrieved without a struggle. He’s not trained as such.
We went to bed at 11pm as the temperatures dropped below freezing, with not a little bit of dread and anxiety, as we wondered how long he’d last in that weather, and with coyotes known to frequent the area. It was a terrible feeling. About an hour later, after we retreated to our little house and fell asleep, Tina got a call from her mom that Kiwi had come back to the house. He went straight upstairs, jumped on our daughter’s bed, and was hyperjoyed. She suspected he was scared and a bit freaked out by the ordeal, as he has never been that friendly to her in the past.
We’ll never know exactly where he was; was he far or close? We were just thankful he was back, unharmed (though he tore up his paws). And it didn’t take us long to order an air tag from Apple, so we can track where he is at all times (even though he’s already dumped the air tag once in the field in Amherst–oy vay).
It turned out to be a quiet and peaceful Thanksgiving, with only immediate family present, and the first we’ve had with everyone together in over a decade. It was exactly what we all needed at that moment. Cam was back for the week, and we just enjoyed each other’s company, had dinners and fires together, and took some walks. Perfect.
