Of Friends and Fingerpainting

Several years ago on New Year's Eve, I was at odd ends with no plans. I think that Janis was working that night. On the afternoon of the 31st I got a call from my friend, Mark Roberts, inviting me to their house for New Year's Eve. I was glad to have something to do, and the Roberts are fun to be around. They had three young kids at the time, I think maybe that year they were 9, 7, and 5, but I could be off a few years.


Mark and I travelled to Almaty together in 2002 to teach at CALTC. We have known each other since we moved to Georgetown in 1995. They are a fun family.


I stopped by Walmart on my way over to get some snacks to add to the evening's festivities and happened by the arts and crafts aisle, where I spied the fingerpaints. "Fingerpaints!" I thought. That would be fun. So I grabbed some and some paper along with the snacks. A lot of people wouldn't be happy to see a guy walk in with fingerpainting stuff when they have a bunch of young kids, not wanting the house messed up. But Mark and Therese thought it would be fun. (Therese is an artist in her own right, so she saw the creative potential.)


We did have a good time fingerpainting that night, and the mess was easily cleaned up.


The next year the Roberts hosted New Year's Eve again and this time the invitation featured fingerpainting as one of the evening's activities. It has become a family tradition with them. They fingerpaint every year on New Year's Eve.


The Roberts family moved away from Texas this year to Grand Island, New York. We hear from them occasionally. I was surprised to receive an envelope from them yesterday with these two works of art and a note that said "We think of you every New Year's Eve now as we continue the fingerpainting tradition."


It's kind of special to have created a family tradition for another family, and very special to be remembered fondly for it.


Oh, yes, almost forgot. The second picture is by Tim, whom Mark and Therese adopted from Kazakhstan a couple of years ago. Now they have four fantastic kids!