Day 48, Year 9: Santa Claus Comes to Falmouth
Date: Saturday, December 7, 2013
Weather: Heavy Rain Overnight, Clearing Today and Cooler
Location: Home of Bruce and Jane Woodin, West Falmouth, MA
All of the rain predicted for today came during the night and the skies starting clearing this morning. But with the clearing came cooler temps and the arrival of Santa Claus in Falmouth Harbor. Mark and I went in to meet Santa with Sam, Jonah, Ollie, and Jed. It’s fund raising time on public radio and Heather had a pledge shift this morning, but she arrived just as Ollie and Jonah got to sit on Santa’s lap. Sam watched but gave sitting on Santa’s lap a pass this year.
After meeting Santa, Mark and I took all three boys home with us for the afternoon. Tomorrow is Jed’s birthday and this afternoon was our gift of time which was a request for Jed from Heather. She and Jed both have wanted time to get the garage organized, so this afternoon was the beginning. It is a small garage packed with tools large and small, shelves piled high with stuff, wood left over from projects, bicycles, tricycles, and everything else you can think of. So for Jed’s birthday, Heather worked with him all afternoon to start the clean-up project. Mark and I headed to Bruce and Jane’s where Mark and Ollie took a nap while I prepared food for tonight’s dinner and Sam and Jonah played. Once I had the food prep under control, I drove Sam and Jonah to the beach for a romp in the afternoon sunshine and then on to the nearby bike path where they rode while I walked behind. The bike path is long and straight and the only rule was not to ride out of sight. Jonah took note of the mile markers on the path and we determined that he rode more than a half mile while Sam zoomed to ride for more than a mile by the time we headed back to the van. If I had been on a bike, I know the boys could have gone much further, but the main thing is that they enjoyed the afternoon. By the time we got home, Mark and Ollie were up and having a good time. Mark took over watching the boys while I got dinner ready. Once Heather and Jed arrived, we had a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner, this time with a chicken rather than a turkey, and LOTS of stuffing and gravy in addition to all the veggies. Heather and Jed arrived for dinner and then they were off with the boys to see the lighting of the Christmas tree on the green in Falmouth. It was another jam-packed day here on the Cape.
While Heather and Jed were here this evening, Heather asked me how her dad was feeling and I said, “He feels fine. He’s just miserable.” Heather immediately pointed out that my response made no sense, but actually I’ll defend it. Mark does feel fine, but today the sore mouth problem returned and that makes him miserable. However, the sore mouth is not yet anywhere near as bad as it was two weeks ago and we’ll hope it clears up soon. Chemo slows Mark down a bit, but if he paces himself, he can keep up his normal schedule with an hour’s nap built in every day.
Tomorrow we go back to boat living. We’ll spend the morning cleaning house here and the afternoon moving things back to the boat. In the middle we’ll go into Falmouth for the Annual Christmas Parade. Another busy day coming up.
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| 131207 Day 48 Cape Cod, USA–Santa Arrives in Falmouth |
