Day 66, Year 11: A Quiet ‘Summer’ Day
Date: Sunday, December 27, 2015
Weather: Overcast, High Temp in the mid-70’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

We are really enjoying the relaxed, quiet days here. We have been moving at a pretty fast pace all fall, so this is a welcome change. Today was even warmer than yesterday, but by Thursday of this week the temp is going to dip into the 40’s during the day and the 20’s at night. That is going to be quite a shock after having days that truly feel like summer. But it is almost January and time for a little winter weather. So I dare not complain.

I got up early and worked on my genealogy project. It is tedious work and progress is slow, but I am making progress. I have miles to go, but I’ve made a good start. When Mark got up, we ate breakfast and went for a walk. After lunch we looked for another excuse to be outside to enjoy the ‘summer’ day, so we ended up vacuuming out the cars and cleaning the windows on the inside. I made a ham and asparagus casserole out of left-over ham for lunch and then fixed a Mexican casserole with left-over turkey for dinner. It’s going to take a little more creativity to get rid of all the left-over ham and turkey, but I have taken that on as a challenge.

Day 65, Year 11: The Day After
Date: Friday, December 26, 2015
Weather: Overcast with More Rain, High Temp in the 70’s
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

We had a very quiet day after Christmas. Joe spent most of his day battling a problem with downloading apps on his phone and I lost myself in the Ancestry.com world trying to find family connections. Neither of us was successful, so we’ll continue our little battles tomorrow. Mark started the weather watch for our sail south in a couple of weeks and together we baked about 12 pounds of granola. I’d like to say we are finished with that job, but in order to have enough granola to make it until spring, we’ll have to do one more marathon baking day while we are here. We have decided to stay put until next Saturday. We thought about driving from here to Charlotte on New Year’s Eve and on to Little River to Windbird on New Year’s Day. But when we looked at the statistics for accidents on those days, we decided to sit tight until January 2. With this schedule, we will only be in Little River for two days and then we will drive north to Massachusetts. We will be visiting along the way, so we won’t get home on the Cape until Saturday, January 9th. Mark has his doctor appointments on the 11th and 13th and then we fly back to South Carolina. If weather and health permit, we’ll be sailing south by the middle of the month.

Day 64, Year 11: Merry Christmas from Tennessee
Date: Friday, December 25, 2015
Weather: Rainy All Day, High Temp in the 60’s
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

Merry Christmas from Tennessee! If you live in the eastern half of the country, you probably had a warmer than normal Christmas day as we did. But possibly unlike the start of your day, ours started off with a bang. We had early morning thunder and lightning. Not the usual for Christmas morning, but then nothing about the weather the past few months has been quite usual. Enough about the weather, but not being the norm was a theme for today. Instead of getting up and opening presents, we got up and cooked dinner. Then while the turkey ‘rested’, we opened gifts in the late afternoon. Cooking the turkey and then giving it a three hour rest before eating was the recommendation of our good friend Kevin Russell. Kevin and Claire came to Little River to have Thanksgiving at Patsy and Joe’s last year and Kevin cooked the turkey. It was delicious and juicy, so Joe asked me to call him earlier this week and find out exactly how he cooked it. We remembered that he basted it with butter quite often and then when it was done, he took it out of the oven, covered it with foil and then with bath towels and let it sit. When we talked to Kevin this week, he had an update on his process. He had always known that you should keep the fully cooked turkey covered with towels for a full three hours, but he and Claire had never had the nerve to leave it that long. They were sure it would cool down too much. But this Thanksgiving they did it and found that the result is an even tenderer, juicier, perfectly warm bird. We tried it today and it worked just as Kevin and Claire said it would. They were having Christmas in California with Claire’s family and Kevin was cooking the turkey there. Hope theirs was as good as ours. I love this process as it not only gives you a tasty turkey, but it also gives you three hours of free oven time to cook the other dishes after the turkey is done . . . no fighting over oven time. And we even had time to open all of our presents. Thanks, Kevin and Claire!

What we thought was going to be a very small Christmas gift-wise, turned into a very big Christmas. In addition to the chocolate-covered strawberries from Justin and Jo, this morning we got an Amazon gift certificate from them. Heather and gang sent us new micro-fiber towels and Mark got me new sheets for the boat. I got Mark a new shirt and I got three new shirts from everyone here. In addition, Mark got all sorts of electronic gadgets. So it was a bountiful Christmas. Thank you to everyone.

We talked to Heather, Jed, and boys this morning and got to see them as they were opening presents in Maine. And then we received photos via email from Justin and Jo and talked to them on Skype as well. All of the grandchildren had more than enough new toys to keep them busy. We miss them all so much, so it was great to see them in action on this very special day of the year.

151225 Day 64 Nashville Trip–Christmas Day

Day 63, Year 11: Christmas Eve
Date: Thursday, December 24, 2015
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny, High Temp in the 70’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

Merry Christmas Eve! We spent our morning getting dinner ready. A little before noon, the door bell rang and it was the delivery of an “edible” delight for Mark from Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. It was addressed to Mark with a note that he must share the box of chocolate covered strawberries. Some of the strawberries were covered with milk chocolate and others were covered with white chocolate with little chocolate medallions attached wishing us a Merry Christmas. Soon after that arrival, Janet and Monica arrived to take us to the Grand Ole Opry House for a performance of “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.” I never thought the Grinch could make me cry, but he did. It was a beautifully staged performance and the music was spectacular. Cindy Lou Who from Dr. Seuss’ Whoville was performed by a second grader from Memphis. She is tiny but mighty. The staging for the performance at The Grand Ole Opry House was spectacular, as was the music. We all really enjoyed the afternoon performance. That you to Patsy and Joe for underwriting this event. After “The Grinch” we all headed back to Patsy and Joe’s for a Christmas Eve dinner. We had Smithville ham, baked spring vegetables, and salad. It was a wonderful dinner at the end of a wonderful day, but I must admit that my very favorite part of the day was seeing photos of our grandchildren enjoying Christmas Eve. We saw a photo of Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco on Facebook and Heather sent us photos of the Goldpebbles all dressed up for Christmas Eve. We miss the Handley-Hunts and the Goldstones so very much, but we feel blessed to be able to be here with Patsy and Joe, Janet and Monica. Merry Christmas Eve to all of you wherever you may be. And make sure you do your part to make sure the Grinch doesn’t steal Christmas!

151224 Day 63 Nashville Trip–Christmas Eve

Day 62, Year 11: More ‘Getting Ready’ for Christmas
Date: Wednesday, December 23, 2015
Weather: Overcast, Warm Day; Threat of Severe Weather Tonight
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

Like most of you, we are hurrying and scurrying to get ready for Christmas. Shopping for more food, making one last run to the post office, shopping for the last Christmas presents, starting the food preparations for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner . . . that was our day, and probably yours as well. In the late afternoon, we started watching the weather more seriously and with the threat of tornadoes and large hail, we made room in Patsy and Joe’s garage for our car. We are still in a tornado watch area, but at this point, the very severe weather has passed us by. By morning this weather system should have moved out of our area and we can make the last run to the grocery store. I forgot to buy gelatin for the cranberry salad. There always seems to be one more thing.

I haven’t heard from my children today, but when I check Facebook I see that Heather, Jed, and boys got a late start on their drive to Boothbay, Maine, where they will spend Christmas with Jed’s family. Sure hope they made it safely. Justin and Jo’s car broke down a week ago and they have been struggling to hitch rides to get the kids to school and do their food and gift shopping for Christmas. On a friend’s recommendation, they took their car to a repair shop that ended up to be a bit of a disaster. This week they had the car towed to another shop and things are looking up. But they still don’t have the car. Hopefully they have been able to get what they need to have a wonderful Christmas. We’ll call Maine and Puerto Rico tomorrow evening and hope to find that everyone is ready for Santa.

Day 61, Year 11: A Winter Solstice Surprise Visit
Date: Tuesday, December 22, 2015
Weather: Overcast with High in the upper-60’s F (feels like summer)
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

What a delightful surprise we had on this winter solstice day. Just as Patsy and I were preparing to head out to drive south of Nashville to a Costco to do holiday food shopping, Mark got a call on his phone. He was in the other room, so I looked to see who was calling. It was a good friend, Susie Klein, so I took the call. Susie and her husband, Jim Hammitt, are sailing friends that we would expect to show up in Quissett Harbor in the summer, not in Tennessee in December. So why was Susie calling today? When I answered the phone, Susie immediately announced that they were in their car and had just crossed the Virginia-Tennessee border. Knowing that I am from West Virginia, the border crossing reminded them of us and they called to let us that they are headed to San Francisco for the next six months. Jim is on sabbatical and will work out of UC Berkeley instead of out of his office at Harvard. They had no idea we were in Tennessee and we had no idea they were driving through here today. When Susie told me their destination for tonight was Nashville, I invited them to stop by on their way to say hello. What an unlikely event—Massachusetts friends getting together in Tennessee! But they did stop and we had a great visit catching on happenings from this summer.

Patsy and I were able to go ahead with our shopping trip and still get home in time for Susie and Jim’s visit. After they left, we headed out for another short shopping expedition at the mall area that is two or three miles from here. We seem to make lists, buy everything on the list, and then as soon as we get home, we think of more things that we need. I’m hoping to make one last trip in the morning, but that will depend on the weather. We keep getting radar alerts on our phone letting us know that we will have very severe weather tomorrow—thunderstorms, lots of wind, and possibly large hail and tornadoes. If the front arrives early in the day, I’ll have to postpone the morning shopping trip. But if it is coming through later in the day, I’ll take off early and hope to finish all Christmas shopping by noon. Then Patsy and I will begin preparing those dishes that can be done ahead of time for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’ll be leaving here to go to the Grand Ole Opry to see The Grinch Who Stole Christmas around noon on Christmas Eve, so we hope to have dinner prepared before we go. And it is always nice to have as much of the Christmas dinner prepped ahead of time as possible, so we’ll work on that as well. Here’s hoping that our preparations are successful and that there will some time to sit back and relax on Christmas Day.

151222 Day 61 Nashville Trip–Jim and Susie Visit

Day 60, Year 11: A Little of This and That
Date: Monday, December 21, 2015
Weather: Rainy and Warm, Temp in the upper-50’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

Today was one of those days when you do just a little of this and that. Patsy and I went shopping for Christmas odds and ends and for food for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Mark and I made the first of four batches of granola, I worked on labeling some of the photos we have been scanning, and we cooked dinner. Mark and Joe had a bit of fun going swimming in the Club House indoor pool and then sitting in the hot tub, but that was just about it. Tomorrow will be more of the same as we are making a Costco run to finish off the holiday food shopping.

We have rebounded from the cold weather late last week. As everyone else in the mid-west and east, we are enjoying the very warm weather for this time of year. We are having a little rain with our warmth here and it looks like that will continue through Christmas. Thanks to a very strong El Nino, we might have the warmest Christmas on record. It is supposed to be in the 70’s here. There will be no white Christmas in this neck of the woods this year.

Day 59, Year 11: Handel’s Messiah
Date: Sunday, December 20, 2015
Weather: Overcast, Warming Up, High in the upper-50’s F
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

This afternoon we drove into Nashville to attend the Nashville Symphony and Chorus production of Handel’s Messiah and it was fabulous. The concert was in the Schermerhorn Symphony Center which is a beautiful example of neoclassical architecture. Although Handel created the Messiah as an Easter celebration, it has become most popular during the Christmas season. And popular it was today. My niece Janet bought tickets for all of us and she and her partner Monica served as our chauffeurs. Janet drove Patsy and Joe in their car and Mark and I got to ride in Monica’s year-old Cadillac. What a nice car. It was a delightful afternoon and a wonderful way to begin the holiday week. Thank you, Janet!

Tomorrow is not going to be nearly as exciting as today. I am going with Patsy while she does a little more Christmas shopping and then we are going to do some grocery shopping for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If I have time, I am also going to make granola. Between now and the middle of January, I need to have all of our provisioning done so we can sail south. I can make granola here and take it to Windbird when we drive to South Carolina after Christmas. On Tuesday we are going to Costco to complete our holiday food shopping. And in between all of this, Mark and I are working on scanning photos and negatives. We did take time for a nice walk this morning and we hope to do an even longer one tomorrow morning. We had a couple of days of cold weather, but it is warming up nicely. Tomorrow it will be in the 60’s and it will reach 70 degrees F on Christmas Day. We’re going to get rain with the warmth, but better that than freezing weather.

151220 Day 59 Nashville Trip–Handel's Messiah and Nashville Icons

Day 58, Year 11: Contact with Kids and Scanning Photos
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2015
Weather: Cold Overnight, Mostly Sunny and Warmer Day
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

After breakfast we called Heather and got to talk to Jonah, Ollie, and Sam. It was great to hear their voices and get caught up with their happenings at school this past week. We then had a Skype video call with Justin, Jo, Ziggy, and Coco. It was the first time we have talked to Ziggy and Coco since our visit in Puerto Rico and it was great to see them. Patsy and I then went out to do a very little Christmas shopping and afterwards we went food shopping. Once home, Mark and I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening scanning photos. When we spent the winter in Little River in 2013 we bought a scanner jointly with Patsy and Joe. We started scanning in all of their old slides and some of our negatives then and are just not continuing the process. We have miles to go on the scanning project, but we will work on it while we are here and see just how far we can get. Janet and Monica came over for dinner and then we watched the Democratic debate. Tomorrow afternoon we go into Nashville to the Nashville Symphony and Chorus’ rendition of Handel’s Messiah. We are really looking forward to this.

Day 57, Year 11: More Christmas Shopping
Date: Friday, December 18, 2015
Weather: Snow Flurries Early, Mostly Cloudy and Cold
Location: At Home with Patsy and Joe Kerwood, Mt. Juliet, TN

Ordering Christmas presents for grandchildren has been difficult this year. It seems a number of things we wanted were temporarily out of stock on Amazon, so we have had to scramble to find things in stores—not something we normally do. We do as much shopping as possible online, but today we had to brave the Christmas crowds to find one last item and get the last of the packages in mail. We did it and now we can take a deep breath, relax, and enjoy the holiday season.

Once we returned from the longest shopping trip in history for just one little item, we were greeted by my niece Janet. We visited for a bit before she had to leave, but we will see her again here for dinner tomorrow night. Patsy and I started going through some old family photos and got the scanner out so we can start the photo scanning process tomorrow. And then we went out to dinner at Cinco de Mayo and enjoyed Mexican for dinner. The temp overnight is supposed to dip to 25 degrees F. Brrrrrrr. And we actually had snow flurries this morning. But very slowly things are going to warm up again culminating in a 70 degree Christmas Day.