Holiday weekend and more

We had a very nice Thanksgiving with Samantha, Vicki, Cindy and Sandy. Each brought something which really helps spread out the work. On the menu: turkey breast, broccoli, wild/brown rice, corn casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry chutney, pumpkin bread (made with pumpkin I grew last summer), apple pie, brownies, vanilla ice cream. Yum - o! Tonight we finished the last of the leftovers, and I will miss them. I made turkey stroganoff twice and also turkey curry. Hannaford's cranberry chutney is wonderful with turkey sandwiches, even if the turkey came from the deli.

Over the weekend, I packed up all the packages for mailing except my parents'. Chris still has some shopping to do for them. We also addressed all the holiday letters to people far and wide. So today we made the second of several post office trips. I learned that postage to the Netherlands and Belgium is $0.98 per letter but it is worth it as it's my only contact with some relatives and friends each year. Oh - the first trip to the P.O. was Friday when I mailed my sister's package to the Netherlands. I feel good to be on top of things!

Saturday afternoon, after a huge burst of snow made it difficult to see even the houses across the street, we headed down to the Old Labor Hall for two performances of "Monuments Come Alive," a multi-media presentation of stories of monuments in Hope Cemetery. The former HS music and drama teachers performed quite a bit of magic with a group of college students. Les Bartlett, a photographer who we first met as a guest at Maplecroft, gave a little slide talk of his work photographing the quarries here and on Cape Cod and the hands of the stone workers. We helped with refreshments at both showings, which totally benefitted the Old Labor Hall. Estimated attendance: 300!

Sunday night we went to a concert by country-western singer Kathy Mattea. We weren't familiar with her songs but she was great. When she started to sing, I was reminded of Ann Murray, the grande dame of Canadian country music. Her band was wonderful, and, as Paul says, those Nashville musicians are consummate professionals. The Opera House was almost full which was great.