Talia per clipeum Volcani, dona parentis,
miratur rerumque ignarus imagine gaudet
attollens umero famamque et fata nepotum.
Vergil, Aeneid 8.729-31
“[Aeneas] marvelled at such things throughout Vulcan’s shield,
And his mother’s gifts, ignorant of these matters, and rejoiced in the image,
Raising up on his shoulders the reputation and fates of his descendants.”
The phrase dona parentis (“gifts of his parent”), in this case, Venus, popped into my head, so I titled the entry after that, but modified the genitive to a plural, parentum, hence “gifts of the parents.” My parents were visiting here for a few days last week. I hadn’t seen both of them together in a long time (July 2022), so it was really nice to have them both visit us. They flew in fairly early and my spouse and I picked them up at the Denver airport, then headed home after that. Neither my spouse nor I had planned much to do with them, but mostly just wanted to hang out, show them around town, and catch up. We planned out a couple of excursions, mostly checking out downtown in our city and the city up the road. I was also excited to have my parents meet Lyra, our new kitty, since neither of them had met her before. We got her in May last year, after my dad visited in April last year.