The Things They Carried
The Classic Slave Narratives
The Cotton Kingdom
The Slave Trade (811 pages)
The Things Our Fathers Saw Volumes 4-6
Appomattox: Closing Struggle of the Civil War
Call of Service: The Story of WIHS
Images of America: Hartford Radio
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Pictures of Christmas 2024 are in the link below.
There are also pictures/videos of the White Elephant 2024 party held in Vermont on Saturday, December 28th. The meal this year was spaghetti and meatballs prepared by Rachelle with chocolate punch and horchata to drink as well as a table full of holiday desserts.
The actual white elephant exchange was different from previous years. First, the VT Beauchemin's played a prank on our mom by secretly taking things from her house and wrapping them as gifts for the exchange. It was hilarious to watch mom's reaction as people unwrapped the gifts. It dawned on her that these were from her house after about the fourth gift. For the actual gift exchange, we choose our gifts as normal then sat in a circle picking out Lindor chocolates whose colored wrapper told us either to pass our gifts to the left, to the right, to exchange them with someone, or to take a gift and leave the circle. After the exchange, we divided everyone into two groups and played the following party games: red cup race using balloons, building a red cup pyramid using balloons, bubble races, and a candy cane fishing game. The party was continued at the VT grandparents house for the rest of the night with the "kids" playing Minion Operation, Serpientes y Escalera and La Loteria while the ''adults' sat around converging.
For our 36th wedding anniversary, Tammy and I went for a long weekend to Saratoga Springs on Friday, December 13. We left home around 6am and arrived in Saratoga around 8 to have breakfast at Shirley's Diner. The diner was unusual from most we have been to in that it included a juice in the meal price. I had eggs over pastrami with home fries and toast. Tammy had poached eggs over salmon. I was also able to try a chocolate egg cream drink.
From the diner, we headed to our hotel where we were picked up for a private 90 minute car tour of Saratoga. We visited the Saratoga Spring Spa State Park where we learned its history, what made the water unique, and sampled three of the springs - a fresh water spring, the Geyser Island Sprouter (aka the 20 minute thunder spring for constipation), and the Polaris Spring (aka pepto-bismol spring for indigestion). We also went in to the lobby of the Roosevelt Baths and Spa - one of two remaining bath houses still in use there. Tammy did check later in the day for any availability, but there was none. The tour then took us to the places that most people know Saratoga for today - horses. We drove around the Saratoga Race Course, as well as, by the National Horse Racing Museum, and stopped at Fasig-Tipton where they auction thoroughbreds once a year. Our tour then continued around points of interest in the town and through the campus of Skidmore College.
When our tour finished back at the hotel, we drove ourselves to the National Horse Racing Museum where we spent two hours perusing the exhibits. We spent the rest of Friday afternoon on Broadway popping into various shops of interest. My brother Rick had recommended we eat at the Cantina which we did. It was a very good Mexican restaurant.
On Saturday, we had one of our best tasting hotel continental breakfasts ever; after which, we headed to the Saratoga Springs History Museum in Congress Park. Besides spending two hours reading exhibits about the city's history, we also sampled some more spring water - the Deer Park Spring, the Hathorn Spring One, and the Columbian Spring. From the park, we made a quick stop at the visitor center before walking to the NY State Military Museum for another two hour stint of learning. As we made our way back to the center of town, we stopped at High Rock Park where the first spring was 'discovered'. Here I sampled water from the High Rock Spring, the Governor Spring, and the Peerless Spring. A little more visiting of shops and dinner at Druther's ended our day.
Sunday morning after another tasty breakfast, we drove back to CT.
Some pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZcjjemsvCRyoFcsT8
On Wednesday afternoon, November 27th, Tammy and I drove to VT for the Thanksgiving holiday. We had planned on leaving early Thursday morning because we both worked; however, a winter storm changed those plans to leaving Wednesday after work. A nice surprise was the light traffic for our trip to VT considering we left at 430pm.
Thanksgiving dinner was at the church at 2pm. In attendance were all the VT Beauchemins, the VT grandparents, Tammy and I, as well as Luciano who drove up from Attleboro, MA for the holiday. Below picture link shows the feast we enjoyed. Kudos to Rachelle for the decorations and one of the turkeys. The VT grandparents provided the other tasty turkey.
After we had our fill of the Thanksgiving eats, we spent several hours making Christmas tree ornaments from Jenga and Scrabble game pieces as well as various arts and craft items. There were also Diamond Dotz ornaments and cards to be made. Thanksgiving ended with an evening of Code Names in the VT grandparents kitchen.
Friday morning, Tammy, Rachelle, and Vania went Black Friday shopping. The NY Gangwers came over to visit for a day of Code Names, Diamond Dotz, and leftovers. The evening was spent snacking and playing Password.
All the guys went to Laberge's Saturday morning for several hours of shooting their arsenal of firearms. Afterwards, Luciano headed back home; Alan and I made a house call to a friend of the family to look at a malfunctioning cuckoo clock. We were not able to help the patient with its symptoms. Another night was passed with the playing of Passwords.
Leaving early Sunday morning, Tammy and I successfully avoided holiday traffic.
Click link for pictures https://photos.app.goo.gl/KX6NsQk7dQrU6Pwz5
On November 1st, I had my yearly oncologist visit. It lasted all of 5 minutes with the normal three questions: having night sweats regularly, having an nausea, feeling tired/fatigued regularly. You can only answer yes or no; not, sometimes or every so often. I then had the compulsory heart and lungs listened to followed by neck and underarm lymph nodes felt. The main reason I go to the appointments is for the blood work, which for the first time in years showed all values in the normal range. I also had the added surprise of being scheduled a pet scan that would be my final one if it come back clear. The scan was done on November 17th. and the great news was that it showed all was clear.
On Saturday, October 19th, Tammy and I flew to Chicago for a week long visit with the IL grandparents. Chad picked us up at 8:30am at Midway airport. We then traversed the city of Chicago visiting some of the many places on the Chicago Open House list (churches, Pullman, Avondale bowling alley, George Schurz High School, Two Door Theater, Boxville, and ComEd Visitor Center). Breakfast was at the Plein Air Cafe next door to Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie house on Woodlawn Ave. Dinner was at Hopleaf with Tammy eating a hamburger with German potato salad and me a brisket Reuben with a boatload of fries.
Sunday we went to Harvest New Beginnings Church and heard one of the best sermons I have heard on politics/voting. After church, Chad, Tammy and I drove to Ottawa, IL for a Radium Girls tour. We had a pistachio pizza as well as a sausage pizza an Iniga Pizzeria Napoletana. Some of the calories from our desserts of a s'mores calzone and deconstructed lemon cake were worked off on our walk around Ottawa looking at the town's murals and visit to the park where Lincoln and Douglas held an election debate.
Monday we drove to the IL grandparent's new home with a trunk full of kitchen ware. We cleaned the kitchen cabinets, put away the the ware, and vacuumed bedrooms. Dinner was enchiladas at home.
Tuesday we brought more kitchen ware to the new house and cleaned the master bedroom cabinets. We also put up the guest bathroom shower rod. I placed an unwanted, old utility sink from the new house on FaceBook Marketplace and sold it for 15 dollars. Dinner was half price pizza at Mike and Denise's.
Wednesday morning Tammy and I drove to a large Mexican grocery store purchasing a horchata mix, a hot chocolate mix, as well as a package of Gansitos and a large flan. Tammy and her mom spent time talking and FaceTiming Jaclyn. I made a sale of a small, unneeded bathroom cabinet from the Kelly's old house for 20 dollars on FaceBook Marketplace. I set up a Google Assistant at the IL grandparent's house and watched a lot of Chicago history documentaries. Dinner was leftovers.
Thursday we emptied some closets at the Kelly's old house and transferred the contents to the new house making two trips. Dinner was at the Vault. Tammy had a prime rib sandwich, and I had a pot roast sandwich with a huge, heaping helping of grilled brussel sprouts. That evening I set up Life360 on both of the IL grandparent's cell phones. Also fixed Grandma Kelly's Amazon Friend Lists.
Friday afternoon, Chad drove us to North Utica to visit a museum that had a Radium Girl display. There was also a display about the Westclox Company of Peru, IL that I found interesting. We all then drove to Starved Rock and dinner at Longhorne Steak House.
Saturday afternoon we boarded the plane for our trip home.
Two 15 minute procedures to remove cataracts and implant new lenses; and then.....
if you know, you know.
Saturday, September 7th, Tammy and I went to the Brimfield Flea Market for the day. Didn't purchase anything but lunch at a Thai food truck.
Saturday, September 14th , Tammy and I took a guided walking tour of the Springfield Armory grounds with the Springfield Preservation Society.
Saturday, September 21st, I drove back from the VT squirrel hunting trip. Cooked Tammy a birthday dinner of squirrel and had a Boston Creme cake.
Saturday, September 28th, Tammy and I picked apples for our annual pie/crisp making day. Lizzy and Stas helped in the making We had to go to a new orchard as the one we'd been going to for decades was "closed for the season". We ended up at Irish Bend Orchard in Somers. We picked just as many apples though they were not all our usual varieties - Melrose Place, Fuji, and Northern Spy were new to us.
Sunday, October 5th, Tammy and I visited Old Sturbridge Village after morning church. Had lunch of a beef and a chicken pot pie with an apple cider donut and an apple cider donut parfait at their cafeteria
Saturday, October 12th, Tammy and I along with Rachelle and Alan went to the Stormville Airport Flea Market. I purchased a clock for 15 dollars after the vendor kept coming down on the price from 25 without my asking. We drove through lots of traffic that afternoon to the Danbury Fair Mall for lunch at Longhorne and a walk through the mall stores. That night we stayed in Southbury.
Sunday, October 13th, all the above mentioned went to the Elephant Trunk Flea Market. Alan purchased several older Tonka trucks, Rachelle a bench and flowers, Tammy a ring.
Last night, Saturday, August 31st, was my 10th fantasy football draft. It was 2020 that I last updated my standings for the particular years. Though these outcomes were rather dismal, they are as follows:
2021 - Finished seventh with a record of 6-8
2022 - Finished seventh with a record of 3-11 (I did well in the consolation playoffs)
2023 - Finished sixth with a record of 9-5 (I did poorly in the championship playoffs)
Here's hoping this year will see a finish above sixth. There is some optimism that this is a possibility as my draft last night scored an "A" with a preseason prediction of a second place finish. But alas, the season is 17 weeks long with injured players possible every week or out the whole year; a bad game by star players, poorly picking that week's starters, an opponent's player having an abnormal "hot streak" of points when you play him, and bye weeks leaving you with less than optimal players. These are just some of perils that are to be overcome to attain that successful season.
Sometime during my first remission of Hodgkin's Lymphoma, I noticed I wasn't seeing as well. Lights had an excessive halo around them and objects often had a cloudy spot in them. I mentioned this to my optometrist at one of my yearly eye exams. He noted the development of cataracts; however, they would need to worsen considerably more before anything could be done.
Fast forward to the spring of 2024. Tammy and I were attending a music concert. I had been avoiding night driving by this point because of the cataract's vision impairment. However, I thought I could handle it this time because traffic might be light on our drive home. Nope. Nearly ran into a traffic circle that I didn't see because of oncoming headlights.
When I relayed this story to my optometrist at my next annual eye exam, he made an appointment with an eye surgeon who might be able to help me. I had the appointment in May 2024, and the decision was made to remove the cataracts in both eyes.
Little did I know this would lead to numerous other appointments necessary for the procedure. My first appointment was with another eye doctor to see if my eyes were up to the procedure. They were. Second appointment was to remeasure my eyes for the intraocular lenses that were to be implanted. The measurements were off from my original visit, so a third appointment was made to remeasure. This time they matched. The fourth appointment was with my primary care physician to see if my body was healthy enough for the procedure. It was.
Two weeks before the procedure, I received an email that a prescription for eye drops had been made. After a week had passed, we called the pharmacy to check if the prescriptions were ready for pickup. They were still missing one. Three days before I was to begin taking the drops, the pharmacy was still waiting on that one prescription. Turns out it was one our health insurance didn't cover. We called the surgeon's office and were prescribed a generic version that required four drops a day instead of just one. The drop schedule was one prescribed drop 4 times a day and the other drop 3 times a day for all three days before the procedure.
The day of the procedure for my left eye, Tammy and I drove to the ambulatory center. The procedure itself went smoothly with the help of versed. Felt some pressure on the eye and saw lots of lights. Some after effects that I have experienced are blurry vision up close, light halos, scratchy eye, and a purplish hue to many objects. The eye drop schedule has increased with one drop 4 times a day, second drop 3 times a day, and an added drop 3 times a day. I will be busy doing drops for the next four weeks only to have their number doubled by the addition of my right eye's cataract removal on August 29.
We rented a home in Hamilton, Montana for a family gathering that included the VT Grandparents (my parents), the CT Gangwers (Tammy and I), Lizzy, Stas, and Stas' brother Iliya, Tammy's brother Chad, and the Oregon Laberees. Tammy's parents had to cancel because of scheduled surgery that unfortunately was canceled last minute.
We all met up at the house on Saturday, July 27th with those of us from CT having travel stories to tell. Lizzy, Stas, and Iliya were traveling together on American. On their shuttle to the airport, when getting off at their stop, they discovered someone had mistakenly taken Iliya's bag during an earlier stop. Once in the airport they were amazingly able to find that person with the bag and get it back. We were traveling with my parents on Delta. When we arrived, the Delta counter was chaos with super long lines. My parents had trouble printing their baggage tags so had to go wait in the agent assist line. Upon reaching the counter, mom had some sort of anxiety attack and had to be placed in a wheelchair. Dad finished with the bags. Tammy and mom (in her wheelchair) were able to cut the TSA pre-check line. Dad and I went to the end of the line but determined it was way too long so we went to the regular TSA line. I believe if we hadn't, we would have missed our plane. We had a three hour layover in Minneapolis where it was discovered that my mom had lost her phone during the CT airport incident.
Things looked better upon our arrival at the rental house. One of the nicest equipped houses in amenities we have ever rented.
Sunday before church, we took some family pictures. Then Tammy and I, along with my mom and Iliya went to the High Country Cowboy Church in Victor. The service was held in a tent. Many in attendance had their dogs and their side arms. The people were more than friendly. Music was country. Sermon was long - about an hour and a half. We spent the afternoon hanging out at the house with the paddle boat and kayak in the pond. Others tried their hand at fishing for trout (Blake being the only one successful all week.) For dinner, the Oregon Laberees grilled us some fine steaks.
Monday, Blake, Iliya, and Chad climbed Trapper's Peak. Tammy and I along with Lizzy and Stas and the rest of the Oregon Laberees visited Traveler's Rest State Park. This is the only archaeologically verified campsite of Lewis and Clark. We had lunch then returned to the house and swam in the heated indoor pool and soaked in the hot tub. Tammy cooked barbecue chicken with pasta salad and watermelon for supper.
Tuesday, Tammy, my dad, Lizzy, Stas, Chad, and I rode ATVs through the Sapphire Mountains for three hours. This was the only day it rained which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The rain ended about thirty minutes into our ride but kept the dust down on the trails. On the way back, we stopped in Darby and explored their main street with a stop for some fudge and a visit to a small museum with an enthusiastic curator. Afternoon fun was had in the rental's game room and theater room. Hot dogs, hamburgers, and corn on the cob were grilled by Lizzy, Stas, and Iliya.
On Wednesday, the whole crew minus Chad headed to the Gem Mountain Sapphire Mine. The only way there is Route 38 through Skalkaho Pass. This road has to be personally experienced to grasp the full reality of traveling it! Everyone had a good time at the mine panning through their bucket of dirt and gravel looking for riches from a grand sapphire find. None were had. In fact, the opposite as the Oregon Laberees got a flat tire on the way back down the pass that cost a pretty penny to repair. I also had a scare of a lost car key which Tammy found in my jacket which I forgot I had worn and put on a nearby fence. After a stop for some Huckleberry ice cream on the way back, we went swimming in the pool. A dinner of stuffed shells with salad was prepared by the VT grandparents for our final scheduled dinner.
Thursday as we were hanging out at the house, the home's owner returned from a trip with his Robinson 44 helicopter. Tammy took the grand kids down to look at the helicopter and was able to get pictures of them sitting in it. When Tammy returned to the house, she received a text asking if anyone wanted a ride in the helicopter. Tammy, my dad, and I were given a helicopter tour of the Hamilton area. In the afternoon. Tammy and I with the Oregon Laberees visited the Ravalli County Museum in downtown Hamilton. Dinner was leftovers.
Friday, Tammy, the VT grandparents, and the Oregon Laberees went out to breakfast followed by a Mill Creek hike. Lizzy, Stas, Iliya and I drove to LoLo Springs for an hour horseback ride on portions of the Lewis and Clark Trail. That afternoon, while I gave our Turo rental a good washing, a lot of the clan went swimming. The rest of the day found most of us packing for the trip home the next day.
Saturday, Tammy, the VT grandparents, and I awoke at 2am for our flight out of Missoula. It wasn't as eventful as our trip to Montana. My mom left her water bottle in her carry on getting it extra scrutiny by TSA , while my dad somehow lost his boarding pass once we got through security so we had to get him a new one. Both our flights had mechanical issues once we had boarded them making for a delayed take off. On a positive note, my mom found her phone when we returned to CT.
Pictures off all the adventures had can be seen on this link
https://photos.app.goo.gl/dtoQirsMCDhukqcy8
On Saturday, April 27th. Lizzy took Tammy and I to the airport for a week's vacation in Charleston, SC. We landed around 6pm and stayed the night at a North Charleston hotel beside a functioning mall where we had dinner at the food court. I also had the first ever experience of sitting in the emergency exit row giving me lots of legroom. This happened not only on the first flight but the second as well and all while flying on Southwest.
Sunday morning, we headed to the city of Charleston for our Fort Sumter Tour followed by a visit to the International African-American Museum. Afterwards, we headed to what would be our residence for the week right downtown. It was on Coming Street but would have been better named Going Street because it seemed to me that everyone leaving the city had to use it. Thank goodness I packed the sound machine. Dinner was at a Tapas restaurant which we learned means small plates=big prices.
Monday we ate the oatmeal Tammy had packed and then walked to our first tour of the day -- a three hour historical walking tour of the city. A lunch of fish and chips was eaten at the Griffon followed by our second walking tour of the day -- hidden alleyways of Charleston. As we were heading home, we stumbled upon the City Market where we bought a whole strawberry key lime pie for dessert. We traversed a total of 7.9 miles this day. In total for the whole, week we walked an astonishing 35 miles.
Tuesday was easier on our feet. After our oatmeal breakfast, we made our way to the tour for that day -- a scenic van ride to 12 must see spots in the surrounding Charleston area. The six hour tour ended with a water taxi that took us from Mt Pleasant to Charleston. From our drop off location, we walked to a soul food restaurant named Hannibal's for dinner.
Wednesday we ventured out on our own and made the drive to Boone Hall Plantation. We took advantage of all the various live presentations. As we made our way back home five and a half hours later, in the distance, we could see an approaching storm. We beat it home but decided to stay in from the rain and eat the mac n cheese Tammy had packed. Once the rain stopped, we went for some cupcakes and a walk up and down King Street.
Thursday saw us begin the morning with bagels from across the street from where we were staying followed by a second day of self-adventure starting with a stroll on the Shem Creek boardwalk. We then drove down the road to the Patriot's Point Museum to explore the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier, the USS Laffey destroyer, and the Vietnam Experience. We again spent what seems to be our normal amount of time at museums -- five or so hours. We went to the restaurant Rarebit for dinner because I was interested in trying shrimp and grits. Turned out they only serve it Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so I had the country fried steak.
Friday morning was departure day from our downtown AirBnB but not from our adventures. We got ourselves north for a (you guessed it) five hour visit to Cypress Gardens. A thirty minute drive from there put us at our hotel for the night but not before a dinner of shrimp and grits at the Grits Bowl restaurant right next door and Zack Williams' A Thousand Highways Concert located right behind that.
Saturday morning we flew back to CT.
Lots of pictures to see: https://photos.app.goo.gl/fhvg4tzVqaLd9UnA7
A couple of years ago, I began broadening my diet of food - snack foods that is. Here in Enfield, we have several ethnic corner stores. There are two Mexican stores - Katrina's Mexican Grocery and Las Catrinas Mexican Grocery. There is Alicja Deli - a Polish store. For Asian, there is OMI Oriental Grocery. Middle Eastern snacks are purchased at Ashlam International Food. Russo Pastry Shop is good for Italian snacks. Wukong Tea, where one can get a nice brown sugar milk tea, just opened in the Enfield Square Mall. I also will on occasion brew up a half gallon or so of Thai tea at home.
When traveling to Manchester to purchase CT made soda (Root Beer, Birch Beer, Sarsaparilla, Vanilla Cream, Chocolate Cream, Black Cherry, and Strawberry) from Hosmer Mountain Bottling Company, a stop is made at Patel Foods for some Asian snacks.
I have received two snack packs from Amazon as a gift - one of Japanese snacks and another of Turkish snacks. A personalized Asian snack pack was sent from Oregon for my last birthday.
What snacks am I purchasing -- all kinds of cookies and chocolate candies along with sweet drinks. Anything sugary and chocolatey is game.
What started with my firs ICE treatment on Tuesday, August 10, 2021 finally came to a conclusion on Friday, March 8, 2024.
On that day in August, I began the first chemo treatments for my relapsed Hodgkin's lymphoma at the D'Amour Cancer Center at Baystate Hospital in Springfield. Yesterday, I finished my whole stem cell transplant process with the last required re-immunization of an MMR shot at my local Costco pharmacy here in Enfield.
On Saturday, January 6th, my dad celebrated his 45th year as pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Essex Junction, VT. Two pastors from the Vermont area 'happened' to be visiting the mission organization BIMI to put the word out concerning the church's need for a pastor. My dad's friend from Bible college, who was a missionary with BIMI, 'happened' to learn of that need and mentioned my dad was from New England and might be interested in returning. We had just purchased a house in the Valley Station area of Louisville, KY. My dad was the pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Radcliffe where he worked during his Bible college days. Not sure of the rest of the details involved in the decision, but we ended up moving to VT in January of 1979 for him to become the pastor of the church.
On Saturday, January 13th, Tammy, Lizzy, Charlotte, and I drove up to Vermont to celebrate my dad's 80th birthday. As is usual this time of year, ran into snow in the Randolph area to spice up the trip. Upon arrival, Randi and Gabe from OH were there. They had already eaten breakfast, but dad reopened the grill for a second round of dad's blueberry pancakes and eggs along with mom's sausage and cinnamon rolls. The NY Gangwer's arrived as we were finishing up eating. So another round of pancakes and eggs were cooked for them. We then sat around and listened to and told stories. The official party was at 4pm at dad's favorite pizza place - Zachary's. Rachelle, Randi, and I each had brought photos of dad and our families that we had put together. I had also put together a Pop's 80th Party quiz for everyone to fill out to see who knew the most about dad. From Zachary's, everyone headed to Rachelle's house for hot chocolate and birthday cupcakes. There dad opened his presents and more stories were told. All the grandkids stayed at Rachelle's house for games. We old people head to our lodgings for the night. We spent the night with Lizzy and Charlotte at the Sonesta Suites in Williston and returned Sunday morning to CT.
Link to pictures https://photos.app.goo.gl/ycAkXnLEeqycY7rdA
For only the second time in 15 years, we have a guest blogger. Enjoy her tale.
On December 19th Lizzy and I (Tammy) took the steamship authority ferry from Woods Hole to Martha's Vineyard. We first stopped for breakfast at the French Market and Cafe, getting raspberry and chocolate croissants. They were delicious. We explored the Tisbury area and shopped. Next, we took the bus to Edgartown and explored there: the Whaling church, lighthouse, beach, shops... At this time, the weather was beautiful, and we took many pictures. We took the bus past the Jaws bridge to Oak Bluffs. We explored the Gingerbread houses/Camp Meeting Association area and Circuit Avenue shopping. We ate dinner at the Lookout Tavern. The food was very good. I had the surf and turf burger special (cheeseburger and lobster roll combined). Lizzy had the fish and chip dinner. We stayed at the Morgan Hotel in Oak Bluffs. It was very nice. Our only complaint was that it was very warm. We literally opened the door to the outside porch at times. The next day we explored Oak Bluffs and Tisbury again. My favorite shopping was the Chicken Alley Thrift Shop. Go figure. We had breakfast at Nat's Nook. The savory crepes were wonderful. We took the ferry back fairly early as the weather was much colder and very windy. On the way home, we stopped at the Wrentham Outlets for final Christmas shopping. This was my first visit to Martha's Vineyard, but I'd like to go again and explore Aquinnah and other areas of the island.
Photo link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/y6YKdMZxF6iYFW5Y6
Holiday One: Thanksgiving - Lizzy and Stas were to come over Thanksgiving Day, but both were sick that day. So Tammy and I had a quiet Thanksgiving of just the us two. Tammy did take the sick children a Thanksgiving meal of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole. On Friday, Tammy had to go to work while I had it off. I used that day to clean the house and decorate the house for Christmas.
Link to photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/N8gGTZV2jXm1yUDw5
Holiday Two: Christmas - We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with Lizzy and Stas. We started the festivities off with a dinner of prime rib, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and a dessert of chocolate walnut kolachi roll. We opened the gifts we had gotten for each other. The day ended with us all playing together the games we had gotten. Christmas day was another quiet holiday, Tammy and I opened our gifts. VT grandparents gifted every family a puzzle of Calvary Baptist Church with the challenge of the first to finish it gets 100 dollars. Needless to say, we spent the rest of the day doing the puzzle (and most of our free time after work the next week working on it).
Link to photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/rwk5reTBFFn7so8F8
Holiday Three: New Years - Tammy and I drove to VT early on December 30th to take part in the annual VT White Elephant Party. We had Little Caesar's Pizza to eat followed by the gift exchange. Tammy and Lizzy then broke out the acrylic paints, brushes, and canvases for those in attendance to paint a picture of their choice. On Sunday, we attended church services, a potluck, and another service. After getting back from church, we played some games with Rachelle and Alan, Lizzy and Stas, VT grandparents, Brandon, and Jordan. When everyone left, we broke out the puzzle to finish it. Rachelle texted us around 7 that evening that she had finished her puzzle. We finished our puzzle an hour and a half later. We brought in the New Year sound asleep in bed.
Link to photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/ga9Sdbi12EJR28q58
Link to candle making photos https://photos.app.goo.gl/A5xfDuftVhTGyVuy5
