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
