Jeff and Karen Adams and their delightful brood of children arrived in Texas last night for two weeks of work and visiting. As Karen is [Kathy->]’s sister, and Jeff an old college buddy of mine, we’ve been quite looking forward to their arrival for some time. The cousins were all hyper-excited to see each other, and after waking [Liam->] by throwing pillows at his head, spent an hour running around the house shrieking their glee for all the world (or at least our neighbors) to hear until 11:00pm, when we finally decided it was time to duct tape them all to various beds around the house.

I was thrilled when Jeff hauled in a gigantic african drum by way of a present; it’s a beautiful piece of work, carved from the trunk of a tree with a hairy goatskin drum head. (I’m a little baffled as to how they navigated transoceanic flights with such a beast in tow, but am grateful for their tenacity.) I’ll need to enlist the aid of some of my percussionist friends to teach me how to make the most of it!

We’re very excited about the chance to spend the next couple of weeks with this too-infrequently seen portion of our extended family!