Holiday Times!

Date clarification. I am writing this on Christmas Day, but started it earlier, expanded it on the 21st, and now am adding things. Well, here we are at December 21st - the Winter Solstice! Only four days until Christmas! Today, we will take Jerome to Keene to do some shopping for his daughter, Margaret. I personally have done no shopping. Last Tuesday, I went to the opthomologist for a checkup. Everything looks good! No macular degeneration, no glaucoma, reading 20-20 without glasses. Pretty good for a 91-year-old! Yesterday evening we went to Emma Davis' 30th birthday party at the Guilford Church. There must have been 50 people there. Family, friends, members of the disability community (of which I am now one!). Emma has Down's Syndrome, and is a skier and swimmer, a gold medalist in Special Olympics! She is lovely, feisty, leading a rich life. Kudos to her and her parents, Andy and Robin. The party had a grand pot-luck supper, two birthday cakes, a wonderful slide show about Emma, music and many testimonies. A great event! In many ways a testimony to what makes the Guilford Church a special place, fully integrating persons with disabilities into its life.

Our table at Emma's party: r. to l.: Chip, Judy and Pastor Allyson.

The pot-luck spread: Guillaume, Arthur, Iona and Emily.

Emma blowing candles on regular cake.

Emma blowing candle on gluten-free cake. Monday, we went to King Arthur Flour center up in Norwich, where we had a treat in the cafe, and Ellen bought gifts - mostly mixes, which are very good. I had a latté and an oatmeal/cream cheese cookie sandwich. It's a great place to visit, and I read from Barak Obama's book aloud in the car. It's about a 70-minute drive one-way. Monday evening, at home, we watched a lecture about an upcoming Piffaro Christmas Concert, collaborating with New York Polyphony, a four-member, male vocal group. Priscilla Herreid gave the lecture and we saw a lot of the old MSS being used in the concert. This will be a concert of VERY early Christmas music. We look forward to that! Sunday afternoon, I sang in the River Singers concert. It went very well, even for me. I had opted not to sing the previous day, just too much to deal with, the way I was feeling. A LOT of people came by to tell me how much they had missed me. That was very sweet. But by the time I got home, I was exhausted. Eliza took us there and back in a Honda pick-up truck, which worked very well - the seat was very high and easy to get in and out of. Overall, it was a lot to do. But I did it. What else? Ah... Saturday, firemen came and installed smoke alarms, and Carbon Monoxide Monitors - all free, part of a state program. And last Tuesday-Thursday, Ruthie, Ellen's god-daughter, visited us from Michigan. Ruthie is in her late 30's, very attactive and easy to be with. It was a lovely visit, low-key, relaxed. I can't believe I took not a single photo! Sometimes I get engaged and forget to be a photographer. Otherwise, the TarHeels have played two games on the radio. They defeaated LaSalle and lost to Florida. They are strugling this year with ranked teams. I wonder if they will make it into March Madness this year. TODAY It is Christmas Day. At the moment, I am in Katie and Brendon's livingroom, and I'm taking advantage of a moment while many are taking a walk. We just opened our baskets - each household makes up a basket of gifts and puts a number on it, and each household draws a number to determine what basket they receive (not their own). Yesterday evening, we had a Christmas Eve service at Dummerston and I led the choir. We sang Once In Royal David's City and We Come, O Lord, This Christmas Eve which is a funeral hymn composed by Edvard Grieg for which I wrote new lyrics making it a Christmas Eve hymn. More later!