2017 Life Logs, Day 334: Getting Ready for the Holidays
Date: Thursday, November 30, 2017
Weather: Partly Sunny; High Temp 48, Low 42 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
My day was spent getting ready for winter and the holiday season . . . rearranging the apartment to make room for the Christmas tree that has spent the last week out on the deck and the deck furniture that needs to come for the winter. I brought in the plants from the deck and had to do more rearranging to find room for them. It is a little cozy, but I think I can co-exist with Christmas tree, deck furniture, and large pots of parsley and chives. Tomorrow begins Falmouth’s Holidays by the Sea Weekend. I will pick the Goldpebbles up from school tomorrow and we will head to Nobska Lighthouse for the 5:30 pm Holiday Carol Sing. Jed will meet me there and afterwards we will head to my house for dinner. Heather will join us a little later as it is public radio fund raising time and she is on the air until 7pm. But all Goldstones will spend the night as Jonah and Ollie join the half mile Elf Run at 9 am on Saturday morning just across the harbor. Then at 9:30, Sam and Heather will run the 3-mile Jingle Jog and the rest of us will stand on Falmouth Heights Road in front of The Studio to cheer them on. We will then watch Santa arrive in Falmouth as he comes in by boat just across the harbor. Heather and Jed are going to an ‘adults only’ holiday party tomorrow night, so I will have Sam, Jonah, and Ollie until Sunday morning. I’m hoping that somewhere in there, I can get some help in getting my Christmas tree into the stand and in the apartment. I tried today, but just couldn’t get that tree secured in the stand by myself. Sunday is the Falmouth Christmas Parade. It is an intense weekend of holiday activities, but hopefully after the parade we can all take a deep breath and slide a little more slowly into the season.
I spent my evening at the Goldstones as Heather was a panel member at a special showing of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth Sequel and Jed had to attend a Scout planning meeting. Heather prepped dinner before she had to leave and then Jed fixed dinner. We had the best salmon I think I have ever had. Jed thought he cooked it too long, but the rest of us (minus Jonah) thought it was great. Jed had to leave before dinner was over and we launched into evening activities. Sam had to finish us a book report, Jonah worked on craft projects he will sell at the school holiday fair, and Ollie practiced writing his name in cursive. Jonah tried to tell him that he will get in trouble if he does this in school, but Ollie didn’t care. He is very pleased that he has been able to learn how to do this. Once the boys were in bed, Jed returned and I headed home.
Once home, I had a great conversation with Lynne Kirwin (with Ed adding comments in the background). Ed and Lynne are the friends Mark and I crossed the Indian Ocean with, they in Constance and Mark and I in Windbird. Constance has been in St, Mary’s, Georgia, since Ed and Lynne’s return to the US in 2011. They have gone down a number of times and sailed her to the Bahamas two or three times, but since Ed found out he has pancreatic cancer in 2015, Constance has been sitting there on land. Ed is doing so well that he is not having chemo treatments right now, so they are going down to sail Constance to Fort Lauderdale. The actual sail will only take a couple of days if the weather cooperates, but they have a couple of weeks of getting ready to go. I am just so happy and excited for them and hope all goes smoothly.
