Big storm coming

The NWS is forecasting a big storm for us starting tonight and running into Tuesday afternoon!
Not just snow, but also sleet and freezing rain. There is a possibility of a half-inch of ice on branches, plus high winds - which could result in downed power lines. So we are preparing as best we can for a power outage. We have a wood stove and lots of wood, plus a propane fireplace insert that does not require electricity, so we can keep warm. We can cook on the woodstove, plus we have a propane camp stove. We have lots of candles. Food can be stored outside on the deck unless it is either too warm or too cold. I've filled pots and pans and buckets with water, but that only lasts a short while. So we are sort of prepared for a day-long or even two-day outage, but if it goes on longer, it starts getting a bit dicey. We'll see!

Christmas report

Here we are three days after Christmas!  The last few days have sped by, but they have been quite lovely and all has gone well. Sunday morning we went to the Guilford Church, and it was Pageant Sunday. The pageant is quite spectacular at Guilford - mainly because of very handsome animal heads that are worn in procession. It's a "wow!" moment. Also people of all ages are in the pageant from a few months old (Baby Jesus) to elders in their 80's and even 90's, and everything in between. It also integrates many of our members that have disabilities. That makes it special. Ellen also brought many plates of cookies for carolers to take to shut-ins,  but we ourselves didn't go caroling. Just too much.

The rest of Sunday was quiet. Spelling Bee, sitting by the fire, listening to Says You and All the Traditions on NPR.

Monday we went out and actually found a Christmas tree. Some places were sold out. But at Allen Brother's nursery we found one - not perfect but still nice. I got it up and put on the lights. Jim and Mary arrived around 5pm and we had supper together. I also spent some time finishing my gift to Savanna, whose name I was given in the Tolles Family gift drawing.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve Day. I had rehearsed the choir the previous Friday. What I mainly did was go visiting - I visited five people/homes in the afternoon. Shut-ins, etc. Ellen went to the movies and Jim and Mary took in Brattleboro. Everyone I visited was very glad for the visit, not least because I brought each one a plate of Ellen's cookies!

Tuesday evening was Christmas Eve, and I led the choir in Dummerston at 7pm, we came home for a quick snack and then went to Guilford for a 9:30 choir rehearsal (led by Andy Davis) for an 11pm service. Both services were very nice and Jim sang in the choir at both and said he really liked the music at both.

Christmas Day we all went to Katie and Savanna's for a gathering of the Tolles/Feinland families, 16 in all. It was noisy but fun. We draw names for gifts and I had drawn Savanna. I decided to make her one of my signature "Christmas Fantasy House" origami paper montages - the fifth one I have made. I was happy with it, and I think Savanna loved it. This gathering has traditions: it always includes singing from the Tolles Family Christmas Book, it always includes MadLibs, Christmas "crackers" at the table, tourtière (a French-Canadian pork pie which is delicious) and plum pudding for dessert (made by Ellen). It was a full day and enjoyable. It also is a lot of work for Katie and Savanna and after everyone had left, we talked with them about these traditions and whether they could make changes that would make it less exhausting for them.

Thursday we had a quiet morning at home, and I did some last-minute wrapping for John and Cynthia, and then we went to their house for a late afternoon/evening supper and Christmas. Very peaceful by contrast. That was very nice. They have made significant changes in their living-room with a new stove and a new couch. it looked very elegant but also very cozy. Their tree was a white pine off their land - but unusually bushy for a white pine.

Friday was an open, quiet day. Ahh! I worked on my annual Christmas letter and making cards (I save old Christmas cards and make new ones from them).

Today we went to the Revels in Cambridge, MA - an annual event. This was a very good one - set in America in 1933 - the year I was born - in the Depression. A lot of songs about poverty and hard times. It made me wonder about my first Christmas - when I was 9 months old. We were very poor - dad was a student in seminary and his student church in Big Rock, IL was so devastated they could not even pay him his $600 annual salary. I wonder if we even had a tree?

Here are some photos from the week:

Animals at the Guilford Church Pageant

The "Christmas Fantasy House" montage I made for Savanna (their house decked out for Christmas)

John and Cynthia's white pine Christmas tree

Our tree

Savanna has a Christmas display of houses we made years ago - I think Ellen made the one second from left and I made the one on the right (it's a train station).

Tamar with Ben

Ben and Max enjoying each other

Ellen's cookies

Sanders Theater - site of The Revels - with the Harvard Design Center in foreground

Into the Silence

It is Dec. 21st, the Winter Solstice, and we are at the Dummerston Church, where John and Cynthia are setting up for their Into the Silence Solstice concert/meditation. It is done in a darkened church by candlelight. John plays cello, Irish whistle and guitar, Cynthia plays two different harps. The music is very beautiful. Some includes animal sound recordings - whale and seals. We provide candles, which Ellen is putting out below,  and Ellen brought soup.

A special way to observe the solstice.

Setting for Into the Silence

Nowell revived

Monday night, there was a revival concert by Nowell Sing We Clear - after their retirement 5 years ago - with all four, including Tony, on board, but joined by an upcoming generation of young singers, two of whom - Lauren Breunig and Arthur Davis - are children of Nowell members Fred Breunig and Andy Davis. It was a wonderful even - the original Nowell four were still fantastic and the young folks were worthy successors. The Latchis Theater was full to the brim and the audience was wildly enthusiastic.

The original four: Andy Davis, Tony Barrand, John Roberts, Fred Breunig

Brian, Emma and Arthur

Finale with all musicians

Yesterday we got more snow - about 4-5 inches. We were able to go in and out with the car before we got plowed out late last night.

Today is gorgeous - sunny and fairly mild.

A powerful service

The funeral for Pooja Meyer was one of the most powerful services I have ever attended. It was a wonderful tribute to her, starting with scores of her photographs being projected on to a screen (she was a budding professional photographer and obviously gifted in that area), and then many tributes from friends and family, very wonderful and appropriate music, and free expressions of emotion. Our pastor, Lise Sparrow, once again did a masterful job of preparing and leading the service, and she was assisted by many member volunteers - all this in Centre Church (which holds many more people), and thus not a familiar venue. It was full to overflowing.

Then in the evening we had a great River Singers concert, and another one this afternoon.  Both went really well. This morning was church in Dummerston - a small choir helped with the congregational singing. Pastor Shawn did triple duty, leading the service, and playing both piano and harp. It was also the Sunday School Christmas Pageant day.

Christmas Pageant in Dummerston

Pastor Shawn Bracebridge at the piano

A not quiet week

This has been quite a week. First of all, we got news on Monday that Pooja Meyer, the adopted daughter of our beloved organist at the Guilford Church, Patty Meyer (and her husband Chris) had died in an automobile accident Sunday morning. She was nineteen. This was devastating news. Pooja had been adopted from India when she was about 8 years old, and we got to know her through the Guilford Church. Patty has always held a special place in my heart - starting with the fact that before coming to Guilford, she had lived and worked in Winchester, MA, where Betsey and her family lived before they moved to Boulder. i served on the Pastoral Relations Committee with Patty for several years as well as doing many musical things with her. Ellen and I immediately drove to Guilford with the intent of taking  the family a freshly baked apple pie, but we couldn't get up the Meyer's driveway - there was fresh snow and ice - but we were able to leave it at the church with Lise Sparrow and the family got it the next day. Tuesday was River Singers and Wednesday we sang at a vigil for Pooja at GCC in the late afternoon, followed immediately by a sing for our little friend (now turned five) who is dying of brain cancer (a particularly lovely sing), followed immediately by Concert Choir (where Patty has been the accompanist !), so that was an emotional day. Today, Ellen took lunch to the Meyer family (we got up the drive ok this time - things have melted) and then went to the Vermont Country Store with Eliza. It is now awful outside - freezing rain - and I am at the pool. Tomorrow is the funeral for Pooja, where 400 or more are expected - and then River Singers concert! Dummerston Choir Sunday morning and another RS concert in the afternoon. Whew!

An earlier photo of Patty with Pooja, and her children Wynona and Aiden

A "quiet" Saturday

Today started out to be a day with nothing scheduled. I did sleep late, and enjoyed breakfast by the fire. But then we heard from Katie and Savanna and we may be  meeting them later for a "Crankie Fest" at Sandglass theater.

But I did so some errands - a lamp to Brown & Roberts Hardware to get a new switch, some time in the pool (first time in over a week), ATM, drug store, etc. Saturday things.

It's a beautiful day out side - sunny and cold.