Thanksgiving weekend - plus.

Heavy snow cancelled our plans to have Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday in Shutesbury with Katie and Brendon. Ellen and I had a quiet day at home; no stress. Friday, John and Cynthia came here for a Thanksgiving meal, but Katie and Brendon couldn't come, so no turkey, dressing and gravy leftovers! John is vegetarian and gluten-free, so we had Ellen's wonderful walnut and cheese balls in a non-meat gravy, squash, mashed potato and mushroom gravy (J&C brought that) Cranberry sauce (Ellen's home-made version), pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and cranberry crisp (J&C). A delicious meal! Much to be thankful for.

Thursday snow scenes from our deck.

My Thanksgiving dinner: Two walnut-cheese balls, cranberry sauce, squash, bell peppers, mashed potato with mushroom gravy.

Thanksgiving dinner with John and Cynthia. **************************** Saturday, Ellen went to Doris Feinland's 90th birthday celebration down in Stamford, CT. I stayed home and John spent the day with me. A lovely day reading and visiting and eating leftovers! I'm a lucky guy! Sunday, we went to GCC for church, but did not sing in the choir. In the afternoon, we had a River Singers rehearsal. By the time I got home, I was exhausted! Monday was a quiet day of reading Toni Morrison. Tuesday, last night, was Sing Nowell, the new version of Nowell Sing We Clear. Eight members of a new generation have joined with Andy Davis and Fred Breunig. They are fantastic! Everyone misses Tony Barrand, but this group is a worthy successor to NSWC.

Andy Davis, Arthur Davis, Guillaume Sparrow-Pepin, Fred Breunig, part of Sing Nowell. Andy and Fred are original members; Arthur is Andy's son; Guillaume is son of Lise Sparrow, former pastor of GCC from 2003 to 2021.

The group Windbourne which is now part of Sing Nowell: Jeremy Carter-Gordan, Lynn Mahoney Rowan, Lauren Breunig, and Will Rowan. Lauren is daughter of Fred Breunig. Lynn grew up in the Guilford Church. Andy, Fred, Arthur, Lauren, Lynn and Guillaume all have strong ties to the Guilford Church.

The full group, with Emma Schneider and Laurel Swift added: Andy, Jeremey, Guillaume, Arthur, Lynn, Lauren, Emma, Laurel, Will, Fred.****************** Katie and Brendon joined us for the Sing Nowell concert, as did Nan Tierra. I managed pretty well in getting from the car to my seat in the Latchis Theater and back out to the car again, despite icy conditions under foot outside the theater. Today (Wednesday) we will have our Swarthmore class on Toni Morrison - specifically, tonight, on her novel, Beloved, part 1. It's an amazing book, but also bewildering at times, so I'm looking forward to learning from Phil Weinstein's lecture. Tomorrow, our retired clergy group meets, and we are now discussing Wilkie and Noreen Au's Aging With Wisdom and Grace. This is also the week leading up to the Guilford Church Christmas Bazaar - cookie-making time! Maybe not quite so many this year. The other thing that is happening is that the University of North Carolina "Tarheels" men's basketball season has started. I haven't seen them on TV yet, but I've heard a couple of games on the iphone radio app. They play Alabama tonight. That will be after Toni Morrison. At some point we'll go to Cliff and Eliza Bergh's house and watch a game on ESPN.