Exhausted But Happy

My first New Year's resolution is to stay home tonight. I (and sometimes we) have been out about every other night for the past couple of weeks, or at least that's how it feels. Driving to Ellsworth for a birthday party last night was fun but also the last straw...I am now officially Over the holidays.

It has been a blast.

First, can I have an "awwwww"? The two young men in red are shown practicing their violins before the annual carol sing at the Rockbound Chapel in West Brooklin. Then (lower photo) they joined other young-uns to accompany "Jingle Bells." That's our neighbor Win Pusey at the piano.





Now, can I have "brrrr." You have to imagine total silence except for the moaning of wind and the distant baaahing of sheep. This is what it looked like for several minutes when I arrived to pick up my Christmas turkey and couldn't find anyone. I knew the farmers had gone out of town, and attempts to reach the farm-sitter's cell phone had failed. When I took this picture, I was envisioning sixteen friends and neighbors sitting down to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Fortunately, Brian the farm-sitter rescued me, and I made it home with 23 pounds of holiday bliss. Here's Rob, ministering to the beast.


He also made a pumpkin pie. Can I pick 'em or what?

Here's the table before. (I suppose that should be "tables," since we stuck together two fire department tables and one from our neighbor Ken's shop, and covered the whole shebang with three of my sainted grandmothers' tablecloths. ) (Meaning three tablecloths, not three grandmothers. There were only two. And they were more than enough.) (More than enough in a GOOD way, of course.)

And here's after, when everyone was stuffed with two kinds of pie plus chocolate truffle cake, and looking self-conscious because I was taking their picture.

And here's yesterday, when I spent valuable work time out skiing with my friends Lisa and Kim. (You can sort of see Kim behind me. Lisa's taking the picture.) It was gorgeous, and today the temperature went into the 40s so I'm glad we caught it while it existed.


And here's a guessing game, courtesy of Lisa, the snow, the wind, and a Mystery Guest. What do you think made this?