Christmas memories

We have had a full and rich Christmas week ! It started Sunday morning singing in the Dummerston choir. We sang a rarely heard carol by Alfred Burt, Some Children See Him. Sunday afternoon, Jim and Mary arrived from Maine and stayed with us Sunday and Monday nights. Ellen prepared lovely meals, of course, supplemented by things Mary brought from her garden. Christmas Eve day, Ellen, Jim and Mary went to a holiday pub sing at MacNeil's Pub and I visited four people who were "shut in," - a neighbor now in a nursing home, a friend in another nursing home, another friend in the hospital and a fourth friend confined to a wheelchair at home. They all appreciated the visit and in some instances I sang some carols too. I also brought little bags or plates of Ellen's cookies! What's not to like!

Christmas Eve we all went to two services: 7pm at Dummerston and 11pm at Guilford, and sang in the choir in both. Two very different services, each lovely in its own way. That was a full day!

Christmas Day we all went to Katie and Savanna's for the full Tolles/Feinland family gathering, 14 persons in all. Singing, stollen, gift exchange, dinner, plum pudding, games -  a lovely day. Jim and Mary went on to her family and we got home very late. 

Wednesday, we went to John and Cynthia's after noon for a relaxed and quiet day of talk, good food, music, gifts. Very nice. We talked about Tuvan music, places to live, etc.

Thursday we joined up with Katie, Savanna and Brendon and drove to Cambridge where we met Jim and Mary at Sanders Theater for the Revels, which this year had a Scandanavian theme, mostly Finnish, and was very special. We all ate snacks in the car coming back. Another late return home! 

Friday was a quiet day. It was icy in the morning. We stayed home. Afternoon I went to the pool. In the evening, Ellen drove Nancy Tierra to Bradley airport and I stayed home and worked on Mozart and Allegri. 

Today we pick up our winter CSA and later we'll go over to NH to look at a house with John & Cynthia. Tomorrow Tamar and Max are coming to make gingerbread houses. 

What a week! 

        Plum pudding!

John playing the Igil, a two-stringed instrument used in the Republic of Tuva ( near Mongolia). He got to know Tuvan throat singers when they came to Bellows Falls to perform a few years ago.

Gluten-free Christmas cookies Ellen made for John.

Before the show at the Revels in 

Sanders Theater at Harvard U. Right after snapping this photo, an usher came up and told me I was not allowed to take pictures in Sanders theater. Not even before the show!

The lobby at Sanders Theater. It's ok to take pictures there.