2018 Life Logs, Day 350: More Christmas Shopping and Travel Plans
2018 Life Logs, Day 350: More Christmas Shopping and Travel Plans
Date: Sunday, December 16, 2018
Weather: Overcast with Rain; High 42, Low 36 degrees F
Location: At Home in the Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
Those Christmas shopping loose ends that I had hoped to “tie up” a few days ago are still out there dangling around. I did make progress today and that required a trip to Hyannis in the pouring rain. I am really hoping to get the shopping done so I can start working on baking cookies for Heather and Jed’s Solstice party on Friday evening. It rained yesterday and today and is supposed to clear up for the week. But, unfortunately, the rain is forecast to return on Friday. Not sure what that will do to the solstice fire plans. Make the forecast will change. We also are traveling to New Bedford on Wednesday evening to attend a Celtic Sojourn. I went last year and loved it, so I recommended it for the whole family this year. Sure hope they enjoy it as much as I did last year.
Sam returned from his weekend camp-out, a bit wet and sleep deprived, but he had a great time. He worked on his gingerbread house today and Heather sent a picture of the completed gingerbread village. It looks spectacular.
Can’t wait to see it in person.
I have finalized my holiday travel plans. On Sunday, Heather and family, as well as myself will drive to Cambridge to attend Revels and afterwards we will continue on to Boothbay, Maine, to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at Jed’s mother’s summer home. They will stay, but I will head back to New Hampshire on the 26th to visit with good friends Detta and Tom Porat, and early the next morning, I will drive to Nyack to spend a day or two with Ed and Lynne Kirwin. Then I drive back home to check on things and fly to Nashville to visit with my sister and brother-in-law. It is a bit of a crazy schedule, but I am really looking forward to visiting with friends and family.
This is an annual affair and this year they wanted to create scenes. The finished houses were set on pieces of cardboard. Then they added sidewalks and snowy drive-ways, complete with trucks and snowplows. These were definitely little boy gingerbread creations. Sam was not home as he is at his first Boy Scout winter camp-out. Thankfully it is not too cold. And I doubt that the drizzling rain will dampen the spirits of boys who love to spend their weekends in the woods just messing about. 
Jed misunderstood Heather when she said the name and thought she said the name was The Glory of the Shell. A much better name for a fishing vessel in Woods Hole! Santa arrived and he passed the authenticity test of the boys.
They decided this was the REAL Santa, but Ollie was still unwilling to sit on his lap and tell him what he wants for Christmas. He prefers sending a letter to the North Pole. This event was sponsored by the Woods Hole Aquarium, so we went inside and enjoyed the special activities. Watching a young female octopus (estimated to be about 8 months old) play hide and seek in her aquarium.
She would hide in a flower pot in the aquarium to give her shelter and then come and out explore for a bit before retiring once again.
I’ve never thought of an octopus as ‘adorable’, but this one was fascinating to watch and absolutely adorable.
Good job, ladies. And in addition to the delightful luncheon, the weather today was a treat. It was sunny and warmer than it has been for days. That was rejoiced by all. 
The RISD runs the gambit of Modern and Contemporary New Media to Ancient Greek and Roman. They have the largest Buddha in the United states, Buddha Mahavairocana, circa 1150-1200.
And another stunning piece of art was a blown glass chandelier by Dale Chihuly.
Chihuly got his MFA at RISD in 1968 and returned to teach there. His blown glass designs are considered to be some of the best in the world and this chandelier was a great example of his work.
Something new I learned today was CE and BCE. These abbreviations are used in exactly the same way as AD and BC. Because AD and BC have religious connotations, many these days prefer to use the more modern CE (Common Era) and BCE (Before Common Era). I was unaware of this change and glad to learn that new bit of info. After our tour, we had lunch at Hemenway’s, a Providence restaurant known for fresh local seafood. It is just down the street from the Museum and the lunch there was superb—classy, yet casual with good food, great service, and a convenient location.
This concert is a special event where the chorus students from all of the elementary schools come together. They arrive an hour before the concert begins to practice together for the first time. During the concert, they then they sing a couple of songs together.
Then each school sings another two songs on their own. Jonah is in the East Falmouth Elementary School chorus.
East Falmouth is the smallest elementary school in Falmouth, but they have the best representation of students. Their teacher, Mr. Charles, challenges them with singing songs in two parts and they did a great job tonight. It was fun to see Jonah singing next to neighbor Molly during one song
and next to Molly’s brother Joey in the other.
