2020 Life Logs, Day 358: Merry Christmas to All
Date: Thursday, December 24, 2020
Weather: Mix or Sun and Clouds, Very Windy: High 51, Low 52 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

Merry Christmas! Christmas Eve had always been my favorite day of the year. My father was a very somber man, but on Christmas Eve he transformed into a truly joyous person. Because of that and because it was an evening when my brothers and their sisters and their children would come home to celebrate, Christmas Eve has been a special time for me. But who would have thought that in 2020 I would have the most joyous Christmas Eve ever? There were many reasons for that. I spent my morning delivering little Christmas bags of goodies to friends. I met Jane Woodin in Mashpee Commons at the Cape Cod Coffee Café for coffee at a street side table. The temperature was in the 50’s, so despite the wind, we could sit outside comfortably. Then I drove to Bill and Midge Frieswyk’s where Midge had set up a table and chairs so we could have tea out in the driveway. By this time it was noon, so I drove to Terry and Olivia White’s and we visited on their doorstep. Both of them had on the red sweaters and looked the picture of Christmas. I had one more stop to make, but I had to put that on hold because I had promised Sam and Ollie I would take them shopping to buy Christmas presents for Heather and Jed. Ollie needed to buy something for Jed and needed to buy for both. By the time we went shopping and drove to my house to wrap the presents and play with Shadow, it was mid-afternoon and time to take them home so I could get back to take Shadow for his daily long walk, prepare my part of dinner for tonight, and wrap presents. I had planned to wrap presents tonight when I got home from dinner with the Goldstones, but because of the possibility of high winds and rain in the morning, I thought I’d better get the presents wrapped and delivered tonight

Shadow and I enjoyed our walk and then I worked like a frenzied elf to get the presents wrapped and the bacon-wrapped scallops prepared. By 6 pm, I decided I had to pack the car and do the rest of the cooking at Heather and Jed’s. We were having a Feast of Seven Fishes tonight and when I arrived, the table was beautifully set, Heather’s yule log was on display, Jed’s crescent rolls were on the center island, and the gravlax, shrimp, and oysters were already set out. We put my scallops in the broiler and Heather took over the cooking of the whiskey-glazed carrots and green beans with almonds for me. Heather served the clams and then Jed brought out the huge piece of tuna that he coated with sesame seeds and grilled to present the best ahi tuna I have ever had. It was truly a feast and was enjoyed by all.

After dinner Heather and boys headed down to the basement. Heather said to me that I might want to come down as there was something I would want to hear. While Sam, Ollie, and I were out shopping, she and Jonah had practiced playing Pachelbel’s Canon in D with Heather on violin and Jonah on bass guitar. I haven’t heard Heather play violin for years and I was so excited to see her playing with Jonah. It brought tears to my eyes to watch them. Then Sam decided to join in by playing drums and Ollie asked if he could also play violin with them. He had never played Pachelbel’s Canon, but with just a little direction from Heather, he did it. To see Heather playing music with her children was like a dream come true. It was all improvised in the moment and was absolutely beautiful and the tears of joy were streaming down my cheeks. Jed was on the phone with his mother, Marti, during this and I think she got to hear some of what was happening. There were two very proud grandmothers witnessing this and then Jonah said that we need to get a keyboard so Jed can join them. What a great idea!

Justin and Jo have played music together since they met. Justin plays the stringed instruments and Jo modulates his music and plays the keyboard. I know that Ziggy is interested in playing the guitar and Coco has a ukulele. Hopefully they are all playing together as well. I talked to Justin briefly tonight and Jo sent some Christmas Eve pictures. While the Goldpebbles were opening pajama presents from mommy and daddy and a book from me, Ziggy and Coco opening the books I sent to them. It is such a wonderful feeling to know that we share the love of music and the love of books together on this special night.

2020 Life Logs, Day 357: The Eve of Christmas Eve
Date: Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Weather: Mostly Sunny: High 42, Low 36 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

Early this morning I got a call from my electric company saying that on the night of Christmas Eve and into the early morning of Christmas Day it is possible we will be getting extremely windy weather with possible wind gusts to 70 miles per hour. The recorded message was just a warning to be prepared for power outages. Plus it said they have cancelled holiday vacation for their crew to deal with possible problems. My first thought was of those workers. How said that their Christmas will be disrupted this way. The storm is not a nor’easter. It is coming from the south and temperature will start to rise tomorrow into the 50’s. On Christmas Day it might be close to 60 degrees and then back into the 30’s that night. I’m going to hope that the wind speeds will not be quite so strong and that we won’t have massage power outages. But we will just have to wait and see.

Today I picked Ollie up to bring him here to work on a craft project that is Christmas gift for his mom and dad. When Heather came to pick him up, I then made the final trip to the grocery store and came home and prepared dinner for tonight for the whole gang. My attempt to get everyone to recite at least one poem was only partially successful, but Heather and Jed really got into it and I will try again. Under pressure, Sam recited a Haiku he wrote a couple of years ago and Jonah uttered a couple of lines of his favorite poem which is just different ways of saying the word ‘avocado’. Ollie recited a bit of The Night Before Christmas and I shared the silly poem I made up for the occasion. We had artichokes for dinner and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas. Nice evening.

Tomorrow morning I have a coffee date with friend Jane Woodin. We will try having coffee outside the Cape Cod Coffee Café and hope that the rising temperatures will make that a pleasant experience. Afterwards, I will deliver some holiday bags of cheer to a couple of friends and then pick up the Goldpebbles for some last-minute Christmas shopping. Then tomorrow evening we will gather at Heather and Jed’s for our Feast of Seven Fishes celebration of Christmas Eve. I plan to come home to spend the night and return by 7 am on Christmas morning to see what Santa has brought. It might be so windy that I am blown there, but one way or another I will get there!

2020 Life Logs, Day 356: Working Faster
Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2020
Weather: Sunshine: High 43, Low 28 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

There always seems to be that last minute scurrying about to get ready for Christmas and I am certainly in the midst of that. Shopping for food, wrapping presents, and getting small gifts ready to give to friends took most of my time today. And I have more to do tomorrow. Then the cooking begins. I invited the Goldstones over for dinner tomorrow night. We are having artichokes with a side of salmon. And before we eat, I have asked everyone to bring a poem to read. In looking up information about solstice traditions, I read about Yalda Night. It is an Iranian festival of the Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice where people gather to read poetry while they eat pomegranates and nuts. Not sure the boys will go for the poetry or the pomegranates or the nuts, but we’ll give it a try.

2020 Life Logs, Day 355: Work Day
Date: Monday, December 21, 2020
Weather: Overcast: High 36, Low 31 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

I tried to play catch up today, but I’m afraid I didn’t get very far. When Heather, Jonah, and Ollie moved in two weeks ago, I stuffed all my current paperwork in a box and forgot about it. Today I pulled that box out and tried to go through everything to see if there were things that needed to be dealt with immediately. I found only one thing, did that, and moved on to the next job. That was tracking all of the packages that I have sent to Puerto Rico. It is easy to track the Amazon packages, but the Post Office packages were more difficult because I couldn’t find some of the tracking slips. I checked with Jo and it seems most things have arrived with one more package that arrived late this afternoon. She will go to the PO tomorrow to pick that up and that will have to do. I know there is at least one more package that is not supposed to arrived until Wednesday, but that one might have to wait until after Christmas Day. I then spent time trying to track down a package that should have arrived at Heather and Jed’s two weeks ago. I cannot get the company to get back to me. But I have an email that says it shipped and they charged my account. Hopefully it arrives in the next two days. And there is one other package that is on the way, but not here yet. At least I now know what is here and what is not. The next task was cooking. There was a lot of food in the refrigerator that needed to be used. I made Shepherd’s Pie, cooked kale, blanched broccoli and cauliflower that I will use tomorrow. And then tomorrow is trash, compost, and recycling day, so I got everything out to the street for pick up.

Shadow and I were up early this morning, so I think I should get to bed so I can start fresh tomorrow morning. I hope to spend the day wrapping presents and making sure I have all the groceries I need for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Meals on those days will be at Heather and Jed’s, but I will be making contributions. Wednesday night they are coming here for artichokes.

2020 Life Logs, Day 354: Welcome, Yule—Revels 2020
Date: Sunday, December 20, 2020
Weather: Overcast, Rain Late: High 42, Low 34 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

Winter solstice officially arrives in the Northern Hemisphere at 5:02 am tomorrow morning, so the official winter season begins then. But because of the early arrival tomorrow, the Goldstones and I celebrated solstice tonight, as did Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco in Puerto Rico. Jo and I texted during the evening, sharing rituals and photos. Jo made a spiral candle holder with dough to represent the returning of light and they had a fire outside. We knew the weather here was going to be wet and miserable, so Heather fashioned a fire bowl from the plant pot I bought for her yesterday, filling it with rocks from the boys’ collection she found in the basement, to replace the traditional outside fire. Some of the rocks were ‘happy rocks’ the grandkids made for Mark’s memorial which made it all the more special. They used a bowl of the gel fuel used for the fondue pot. The fire was lit and then we watched Revels. Of course, due to Covid, there was not a live performance this year, but Heather purchased an event ticket and we watched it on the TV via an HDMI cable from her computer. It was an artfully assembled compilation of video from Revels through the years. I think I was first introduced to Revels when Mark and I attended with Heather and Jed in 2004, along with Justin and Jed’s brother Ben. Revels is a performance of solstice traditions portrayed through music, dance, and storytelling of solstice traditions from around the world. In 1957, the first Christmas Revels was performed in New York City. It got positive press, but it didn’t really catch on until it was revived in 1971 in Cambridge. By 1975, it had caught on and now there are Revels performances all around the country. Each year the focus is on a different country to region. The last time I attended in 2017 the focus was on Venice during the Renaissance where the people were preparing for eve of Christmas ‘Feast of Seven Fishes’. That year we used that theme for our Christmas Eve dinner and plan to do so again this year.

The first time Mark and I went to Revels with all of the Goldpebbles was in 2013. That year the focus was on a specific part of Spain, Galicia, and a particular road, the Camino de Composteia. Here’s what I wrote in my log that night. “But the best show was watching Sam, Jonah, and Oliver. Sam will be seven in a month, Jonah is four and half, and Ollie will be two in three months. Each boy has a very distinct personality and it was fascinating to watch how they reacted to the music. . . We were in the front row of the balcony and therefore had a wooden railing in front of us. The big boys could stand and Ollie sat on Heather’s knees resting his hands on the railing. He was totally mesmerized and sat absolutely still except for his little chubby fingers. He would sometimes tap them to keep time with the music and when the adults in the audience clapped, he clapped. His eyes never wondered from the stage. Jonah has music in his bones and as he listened tonight his entire body would keep beat with the music. Even his fingers moved on the wooden railing as if he were playing the piano. But again, his eyes never wondered. To him everything that was happening on stage was real, not make-believe. Sam is old enough to know that what he is watching is a play, not real. Yet he is fascinated. He doesn’t move to the music like Jonah, although he really enjoys it. He watches much more like an adult. He’s growing up so fast. It was truly magic to watch the boys in action tonight. What a wonderful holiday gift.” Now those boys are almost fourteen, eleven, and eight. They watched intently, except for a few bursts of energy. One of the highlights tonight was having Yo-Yo Ma play Dona Nobis Pacem which means “Give (or grant) us peace”. Also, having chocolate fondue during the intermission was a highlight. As always, the program ended with the Sussex Mummers’ Carol from Horsham, Sussex in England. The last verse says, “God bless your house, your children to, your cattle and your store; the Lord increase you day by day, and send you more and more, and send you more and more.” Welcome, Yule!

2020 Life Logs, Day 353: The Christmas Cookie Elves
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2020
Weather: Still Freezing: High 35, Low 26 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

After a morning of preparing for an online presentation I will give tomorrow from the Cape Cod Maritime Museum in Hyannis, I headed to the Goldstones with cookie dough I made last night for making gingerbread and sugar cookies. The boys have done this with me enough times over the years that they can now do it mostly by themselves. I lined the cookie sheets with parchment paper, but that was about the extent of my assistance. We used the dining room table, where the boys had just assembled this year’s gingerbread house, to do the cut outs. I gave them the refrigerated balls of dough and they rolled it out, did the cookie cut outs, and got them onto the cookie sheets. It was quite an assembly line. Once the cookies were out of the oven and cooled, they started the decorating process. I had tubes of icing and away they went. We were listening to Christmas music as we worked and we had it turned up as loud as it could go. There was a lot of creative dancing and many squeals of joy when there was a particularly creative cookie design. The Christmas cookie elves did a great job and we all had a lot of fun.

As we were decorating cookies in the kitchen, Heather was using the dining room table to assemble pizzas for their dinner. When she brought one of the pizzas to the kitchen and put it on the center island, there were two little gingerbread cookies waiting there. Ollie made a special gingerbread ‘person’ for Heather and one for Jed and left them on the corner of the center island. Too cute.

Before I left home this afternoon to go to the Goldstones, Karen Baranowski delivered Portuguese sweet bread loaves that she and Peter had gotten in Fall River today. They were going and asked if I would like to get some for Heather and family. I said yes as it makes really wonderful French toast that they love, even after it has been frozen. As Karen was leaving, I let Shadow out to say hello. He immediately headed for the snowman Heather and boys built on Thursday and was trying his best to get the carrot nose. I grabbed my phone and tried to get a photo, but it was at such a distance that it is hard to see the look on Shadow’s face. What a mischievous look he gave us when I yelled no. But he did leave the carrot in place. Maybe I am making some progress with a very naughty, but very cute puppy.

2020 Life Logs, Day 352: Presentation Update, Laundry, Trans-Siberian Orchestra Live Stream
Date: Friday, December 18, 2020
Weather: A Little Snow Overnight, Cold Day: High 31, Low 23 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

It snowed a bit more overnight . . . just enough to make everything look beautiful and white again this morning. And it stayed cold enough today that yesterday’s snow didn’t melt. I did my normal walk with Shadow and played fetch with a snow-laden tennis ball and then came inside to do an update on my Voyage of Windbird presentation. I also “borrowed” Shirley’s washer and dryer one more time to do towels and sheets. I had planned to join the Goldstones after dinner to watch a live stream of a Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas special tonight and then bring Ollie home to spend the night. But I got a last minute invitation to come early and have dinner with them. I was just getting ready to fix dinner and jumped at the chance to skip that and join them. Afterwards we watched a live stream of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas special. This group is an American rock band that has been around since 1996. In their Christmas special they play Christmas music, rock, classical music, heavy metal, and more.
Heather took care of the technical end of getting the program up and running from the computer to the television screen so we could all enjoy it. The concert was the perfect combination to keep the Goldpebbles interested. Once the music began, I realized that I have heard some of their pieces for years. I just didn’t know who I was listening to. I really enjoyed the concert, but when it was time to come home, Ollie decided to he would stay at home. He wanted to come with me, but he also wanted to stay at home. So, I’ll go over tomorrow with sugar cookie dough and we’ll make Christmas cookies together. That sounded like a good deal to him.

2020 Life Logs, Day 351: Fun in the Snow and Late Day Good News
Date: Thursday, December 17, 2020
Weather: Snow Overnight, Wintry Mix Today: High 36, Low 28 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

I’ll start with the good news. Around 5:30 this evening Heather heard from Jed that Sam’s Covid test results came back negative. WooHoo! The quarantine is over. Heather was so ready to go home and sleep in her own bed, so she wasted no time packing home for the move home. It took both cars to get everything back home—clothes, school backpacks, Heather’s work paraphernalia, musical instruments and music stand, snow gear (pants, sleds, multiple pairs of gloves, boots), various things to play with, food . . . the list goes on, but you get the picture. Heather, Jonah, and Ollie have been here for 10 days. That is a long time for a family to be separated, but Ollie was insistent that he was staying here. Heather finally talked him into coming home, but he insists he is coming back to spend the weekend. I think once he gets settled in at home, he might change his mind. But, of course, he is welcome to come back if his parents agree. I am just so happy that they all back together. I loved having them here and will miss the liveliness of having two boys in the house. During their stay we have done everything from raking leaves to building a snowman. We rearranged the house to make remote school spaces for two boys and a workspace for Heather. We walked and played with Shadow and each of the boys had special times with him. We fed swans down by the dock, made Christmas cookies, fenced with wooden swords, had remote music lessons, and today we spent a lot of time outside playing in the snow. We had many Zoom dinners together with Sam and Jed, as well as watching a movie and the Hip Hop Nutcracker with them. Whew! It is going to take me a day or two rest up. And we owe Shirley, my landlord and friend, for allowing us to use her house next door during this time. Since Shirley and Doris are not living there right now, the house was empty. So, Heather worked over there on some days and we used Shirley’s washer and dryer. The dryer was especially helpful today. The snow that fell overnight was a wet one, so playing in it today was a soggy affair requiring the drying of everything before we could go out again.

Out play in the snow started early this morning. Heather had a 9 am meeting and Jonah’s first remote meeting was at 9:30 am. That is an hour later than normal as there was a delayed start due to the snow. We were all up and ready to go a little after 7:30 am. Heather worked on building a snowman with some support from me and the boys. The boys also worked on building a snow fort wall. We were all very proud of the results, but by day’s end, the snowman had lost his carrot nose and looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Heather laughed heartily when she saw the state of her snowman. She said he looked like she felt at the end of a hard day. But with the boys helping, she was able to get the snowman righted and the boys put his carrot nose back on. Hopefully, he will survive the strong winds we are experiencing tonight and be with us for another day or so.

Tomorrow I have to focus on preparing a presentation on the Voyage of Windbird that I will give on Sunday for the Cape Cod Maritime Museum. It will be done via Zoom and I need to spend tomorrow shortening it a bit and making sure all of the photos and videos are in place. That can wait, however, as I plan to sleep in.

2020 Life Logs, Day 350: Still No Covid Test Result
Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Weather: Overcast and Cold, Snowing Tonight: High 31, Low 29 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

We were so sure we Sam’s test results would come back today and Heather, Jonah, and Ollie would move back home. But there were no test results. When another family with a son in Sam’s class called the doctor’s office to inquire about the delay, they were simply told if there were no results by Friday to call back. So, we wait. As Jonah and Ollie went to bed tonight, the snow started falling. Some forecasts say we might get as much as 8 inches. The school system has declared it a remote school day for all. It will only be declared a true snow day if there are power outages causing half the students to be unable to get online. But in either case, I know we will be outside in the snow first thing in the morning before it melts.

2020 Life Logs, Day 349: Not Quite So Wacky
Date: Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Weather: Partly Cloudy and Colder: High 37, Low 20 Degrees
Location: At Home in The Cottage, Falmouth, MA

Today was not quite so wacky. The heat in Shirley’s house is still not quite right, but it was good enough that Heather could work over there today. Jonah works remotely from the room Ollie claims as his bedroom and he is really very independent now. So, I left to take Ollie to school and then did a little shopping. I needed to go the LL Bean to get a couple of Yankee swap gifts for Jonah to take to an outdoor Scout exchange tonight. And while I was out, I walked across the street from LL Bean to William Sonoma to get Christmas crackers, and then on to Talbot’s to get myself a new sweater. I got home in time for Jonah’s 10:30 am recess and we played outside with Shadow. Then he went back to his online Zoom classes and I started preparing for a presentation I will be making on Sunday at the Cape Cod Maritime Museum. I will go there, but only the technician will be there to make sure everything works right for the Zoom presentation. Mid-afternoon I went to pick Ollie up at the end of the school day. I left early so I could stop at the post office to pick up a package. But the line was so long that I finally had to leave and will return when I have more time to wait. All of the post offices here have been reduced to one person at the counter and it has resulted in long lines no matter what time of day you go. Waiting in line in a small lobby is not what you want to do during a pandemic, but since many people are not getting together with family, they are sending more presents than ever. I feel really sorry for the postal workers. They always try to give quick and efficient service, but now with only one person and more people sending packages, it is difficult for everyone.

Heather had her first annual review via Zoom at the end of the workday, so she was later than usual coming home from Shirley’s. Ollie got himself set up on Skype for his violin lesson and Jonah helped me get dinner ready. We were supposed to have a repeat of the first night of Hanukkah—latkes and Matzo ball soup. But with Jonah having to leave to go to Scouts an hour earlier than I planned for, he ate leftover mac and cheese and latkes in the car on the way. I took him while Heather fried the rest of the latkes. By the time I got home, she and Ollie had eaten so many latkes that they didn’t want anything else. So, I ate leftover Matzo ball soup, boiled the Matzo balls from the mix Jonah had made while I was grating potatoes, and put them in the fridge for tomorrow. Remote work, remote schooling, playing outside with Shadow, enjoying the eight days of Hanukkah . . . that is basically a typical day around here during this quarantine.

Sam is hoping to get his Covid test results tomorrow and Heather and Jed have decided that all three boys will go remote from now until Christmas starting tomorrow. So, if Sam’s results are negative, the whole family can move back in together. We will all try to limit our contact with the outside world even more than we are doing now, so we can stay healthy and be together for Christmas. Besides, no one wants to have to quarantine again. We have all tried to make the best of it, but families want to be together.