The Gingerbread Man!
"I
am the Gingerbread Man. My friend, Somer Pariseau,was reading a story
about me in 1st grade. I decided to jump out of the storybook and come
to visit you.
"I know my friends back at Washington Elementary are wondering where I
have run to. Please help them by sending them a picture depicting
something about the area where you live and a note telling the class
what we did together. Our picture will be posted on a large map of the
U.S. in the classroom. This will help the children with their study of
the United States by showing them how different parts of the country
look.
"The Gingerbread Man"
Well, G.M., since you came right before Christmas 2006, you got to meet
Somer's cousins Marieke, Jan-Luc and Kateri. Marieke lives in Boston.
Kateri goes to college in Syracuse. Jan-Luc lives in the city of New
York. Did you find all those places on the map?
On Christmas we went to
Rochester, NY, to see her other cousin Leo and his wife and 1 year old
daughter, Avery. Here you are with Kateri and Avery.
So you started out in Warren, Michigan and traveled 450 miles to Rome,
NY, which is right in the middle of New York. We don't drive to
Detroit in the winter because it is usually too snowy, and it takes 8
hours. But we will visit Somer and her family next summer.
Someday you can visit us. We like it here because we are
surrounded by hills and mountains, lakes and forests. The arrow
in this picture points to our house. Uncle Jim took this picture from a
small plane.
This is our back yard, where we have 100 Christmas trees and a big garden. In back of them is a forest.
This is a waterfalls that we like to hike to. It is in the foothills of
the Adirondack Mountains, which are in the Northeast part of New York.
After Christmas you hopped in the car with cousin Marieke to go to
Boston. We hear that you enjoyed it and went all over downtown
Boston.
From there you went to Jan-Luc in New York City.
You saw incredible wall graffiti
A giant rat balloon
And the Empire State Building, the tallest building in New York City.
Next you will be going back to Rochester, NY, to see your newest cousin, Annika, who was just born.
Who knows where you will go next! Maybe it is time to come home to Michigan.
Uncle Jim
We had a similar visit in 1999:
Flat
Stanley is a friend of Kaitlyn Van Damme who lives in Fenton, Michigan,
between Detroit and Lansing. Kaitlyn's third grade class is studying
communities,
and she wanted Stan to see more of the world. So, she sent him to her
cousin
Kateri Van Damme in
Rome, New York.
Stanley is flat because his bulletin board fell on him, so it was easy
for him to go to Rome in an envelope. Rome is right in the middle of
New
York State, where the Erie Canal started. We live 2 miles out of town
among
forests and cow pastures, like Kaitlyn's house.
Flat
Stanley had a great time with us and we had a great time with him. The
day he came we had some unusually flat pizza to celebrate his coming.
The
next day he took a day trip to LeRoy, the Jell-O capital of New York.
He
had a fun time there. He got to go all around Rome to see the sights
like
Fort Stanwix and the Rome city Christmas tree. Then for Thanksgiving
Kateri's
other cousins from Lake Orion, Michigan came over and Stanley watched
the
festivities from a safe spot
high on a shelf. He was hard to see because he was in front of pictures
of the Van Damme children, and he blended right in with them. Soon
after
he got homesick and we are sending him home. Our whole family was glad
to get to know him. Thanks for letting him stay with us!
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