Annual trip to LL Bean for New Year's Eve Weekend

Today we left for LL Bean.  We have been coming up here for New Year's Eve weekend for quite a few years.  It always seems so relaxing after the hustle and bustle of the holidays!  Luckily we got here just as the snow started. 

On New Year's Eve day we took a ride down one of the legs of a penninsula to Orr's and Bailey Islands.  It was a beautiful sunny day. 

We stayed and watched a beautiful sunset!

We spent the evening at LL Bean.  Everything was decorated so beautifully: they even had fireworks.  It seemed weird watching fireworks in the winter, but we were bundled up.
 

On New Year's day we headed home taking old roads down the coast.  We stopped at York Beach and got out to look at Nubble Light.  It was so cold and windy that we didn't stay out there too long.

Then we took a walk on the beach.  It was actually warmer on the beach than at Nubble Light. 

Someone wrote this on the beach.

Happy New Year everyone!

Throwback Thursday - Happy Birthday Chris

Chris and Deb, 1990

My friend Chris's 65th birthday is this month.  Her daughter sent out a Facebook message saying that she and her sister wanted to make a scrapbook for their mom's birthday and asked if anyone would like to write a well-wish, memory, photo, etc. to contribute to it.

I sent this picture and wrote the following:

Chris,


Here we are, you and I, sitting at your little white metal kitchen table having coffee. How many hours do you think we sat there, solving all of the problems in the youth group? I loved sitting at that little table. Thanks for being such a big part of my life at that time, and also for so many of our church kids. You had a way of being a role model without them really knowing it. They just thought of you as a friend they could talk to. Nothing really rattled you and they knew it, and that is why they could talk to you about things they would never talk to their parents about.

You were then, and continue to be, one of my favorite people!

Debbie Radtke

Happy Birthday Chris!  I hope you enjoy your 65th birthday scrapbook.

Throwback Thursday - Pumpkin Pie or Squash Pie?

Having this pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving reminded me of past Thanksgivings at my grandmother's house. 

If you follow my blog at all, you've heard me talk of my Aunt Dot's friend Steph.  Well, Steph and her family used to come over on Thanksgiving afternoon for dessert. 

These are pictures from Thanksgiving 1966.


Ettie, Dot, Steph

These are the guys, in the living room, most likely watching football.  The women and kids were either in the kitchen or in the dining room. 

Steph's husband Ray, my Dad, and Ettie's husband Bob

The pumpkin pie that we had this Thanksgiving reminded me of a funny story about Steph and pumpkin pie.  Steph came from New Jersey where no one had ever heard of a squash pie.  Every year my grandmother would make either a squash pie, pumpkin pie or both.  Steph always asked which one it was before she ate it because she loved pumpkin pie but wouldn't touch squash pie.  One year my family decided to play a trick on Steph.  They told her she was having pumpkin pie and when she finished they asked her how it was.  "Delicious" she said.  They all had a great laugh when they told her she had just eaten squash pie!

This year, the day after Thanksgiving, my Aunt Ettie and cousin Lynda came for a visit.  We picked up my Aunt Dot and went to visit Steph.

Steph, Dot, Ettie

 We had a wonderful visit, talking alot about old times.  I brought up the pumpkin pie vs the squash pie and Steph told the story again.  We all had a good laugh! 

Good memories.

Throwback Thursday - Thanksgiving 1974

Thanksgiving Day 1974 at my grandmother's house.   Paul took this picture in two pictures and then put them together.  There was no "panorama app" in those days!  Left to right - my mother-in-law Priscilla, Kristen (she was 2.  Mark was about 3 1/2 months so he is probably somewhere in his infant seat), my grandmother, Dot, me, and my father-in-law Fred.

So many things in this picture that I remember.  My grandmother always wearing an apron on holidays.  The V-8 juice in the little glasses (my family doesn't like V-8 so I stopped serving it on Thanksgiving, but we always had it).  It's hard to see but I can tell there is marshmellow fruit salad that my mother-in-law made.  Dot also used to bring it to my house on holidays.  We haven't had it in a long time.  I should see if I have the recipe.  My aunt's picture that she painted above the piano.  It is in her room at the Atrium now.  The picture of Dot singing for the Bethany Hour on the piano.  She also has this in her room now.  The sheet music on the piano that my grandmother used to play (and she would also sing while she played).  I wish I could hear that again. 

One of the things that I am thankful for this season is old pictures.  Funny to think that even some of the pictures Paul and I took are now considered old pictures!

Izzy and Minnie

Here are the girls in their fluffy window beds!

Throwback Thursday - Higgins/Waite Wedding

Today my friend Leslee and I went to the Genealogy Room at the Springfield Museum.  I was poking around on one of their computers which showed Springfield newspaper articles.  I put in "Higgins" (my mother's maiden name) and this popped up.

I had never seen that before.

This is their wedding picture.

They look so young.  Well, they were.  She was almost 18 and he was almost 21. 

I remember my mother telling me that they were married in her mother's church in the church parlor.

Such a long time ago....

Mop Head

One of the waitresses where Paul works sent me this from her phone.  She called it "Mop Head".

Throwback Thursday - Sister Gibson



Christine A. Gibson (1879-1955)

Sister Gibson was the Founder of Zion Bible College in East Providence, RI, in 1924.  After high school, Dot went there for, I think, one year.  I never heard Dot talk much about Zion or Sister Gibson, but evidently she made a big impression on her.

When we brought Dot to the Atrium, it was a very difficult time, and something that she had no idea we were doing.  On the day of the move-in, she was very upset and friends of ours that go to our church were there visiting a relative.  They knew how upset Dot was and before leaving they went to her room and prayed with her.  I really believe that prayer was what caused Dot to think that the Atrium was a Christian organization.  She began to talk about Sister Gibson and how she built this place for people who needed a place to live.  Even now, a year and a half later, she still talks about her and what a wonderful thing she did to build this place, how she remembers it from when she was young.  I can see her thinking; it is kind of like a dorm!  I am so thankful that she thinks that, because I can tell it is a comfort to her.

This a picture of Dot (far left) at Zion, probably around 1941 or 1942. 

Change....

Last day at 32 Carroll St.

First Day at 150 Elmar Dr.

This was moving weekend for Mark and Janelle.  We were lucky to have good weather, lots of help, and a moving company (a guy and his son that we had used to move Dot).  Even so, moving is such a lot of work, in so many ways.  The worst is behind them though.  Now it's the unpacking and organizing.  Good thing they're young!

Halloween 2012



Meet Black Spiderman Mason and Good Witch Marley!

We had our annual Halloween at Karen Lynn Circle this year.  Much better than last year when Halloween was cancelled and we were sitting in the dark under blankets!

It was quite a busy day as Mark and Janelle had the closing on their new house.  Auntie Amy came up to babysit for that and also to go trick or treating with us.  She dressed up as her favorite, Ozzy Osborne!

I was wondering how Mason was going to do because the night before he told his father that he didn't want to have Halloween the next day because he didn't want to see monsters and pumpkins!  He is too funny!  I could see monsters, but pumpkins?  He did fine, walking right up to the houses, ringing the bell and saying trick or treat and then thank you, and sometimes the other way around! LOL!

Because it was Wednesday, I had to leave early to go to my Prims group, and what did I see when I got there, but Miss Pat dressed up as something....Mardi Gras girl maybe!  The girls got quite a kick out of it.  Some of them didn't recognize her until she spoke!  Leave it to Miss Pat.

Happy Halloween!

Throwback Thursday - Talking on the phone



A few weeks ago Kristen, Toby and Marley were here for dinner.  We were eating at the kitchen table and I got a phone call.  I went around the corner and down the cellar stairs to talk on the phone. 

Marley said, "Why is Grandma talking on the phone on the cellar stairs?"

Kristen said, "She's been doing that for years."

I guess she is right.  Paul took this picture of me in November 1977.

I guess my reason is that I've always felt it was not polite to talk on the phone at the table where others were eating, plus in my family it's much too noisy!

Throwback Thursday - Kristen and her friends singing

A few days ago Marley was humming in the car.  After a little while she asked me if I could hear her humming.  I said yes.  She asked me if it was bothering me.  I said no, that I liked to hear her hum.

It reminded me of another time in the car, many years ago. 

To back track just a little.  The picture below is of three of Kristen's friends in Junior High.  The date on the back of the picture is 7/1985 so they were all about 13 or so.


Jennifer, CT, and Lisa

 
Lisa had gone to the same elementary school as Kristen; and she met Jennifer and CT probably in middle school (6th/7th grade).  They were all in the band together.  For a while, CT and Lisa used to come to Wednesday night girls' club with Kristen.  The girls were sitting in the back seat singing, and Mark was sitting in the front with me, either going or coming from Wednesday night church.  Mark looked at me and said, "Mom, make them STOP SINGING."  I remember saying, "The day I outlaw singing around here will be a pretty sad day."

Just a funny little memory that came into my head from a long time ago!

Annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch

This afternoon we went to Westview Creamery in Monson, MA.; our annual visit to the pumpkin patch.  It was a beautiful Fall day with beautiful views.

We fed the goats,

went on a hayride,

hunted for the perfect pumpkins,

visited the pigs,

had ice cream,

and basically enjoyed being together at this beautiful place.

Now, if we can just find time to carve all of these pumpkins!