Another few Sundays at the Peoples' Community Church for me, and also several "Fifth Steps" with recovering alcoholics (like deaths, they seem to run in multiples). A Pennsylvania round-robin Saturday visit to: Sailcare, Inc. (Ford City), IKEA (Pittsburgh), and our favorite outlet mall (Grove City).

This is the workroom at Sailcare, Inc., in Ford City, PA (a small town on the Allegheny River). They do amazing things with sails, restoring them to like-new condition. (No, that's not our sail, but you can see lots of sails on the left-hand side and most of repair material on the right.

We really enjoyed getting to know the owners, too.

Early in the month, Penney and Bob went to pick up the sails, which had been a-mending since October. Then, it was full-steam ahead for the holiday celebration.

For the first time in some years, we were able to have all the Ohio family with us on Christmas Day, so we did all the traditional decorating and such according to the received traditions (Paul and Dad went to pick out the tree from a farm in Medina, etc.)

It was a blessed time, and we discovered how much we had missed all the "trimmings."

Above: Penney does a little baby-lying!

Near right: Adalyn models the hat grandma made for her.

Far right: Grandpa demonstrates that he hasn't forgotten his feeding skills!

Far left: Adalyn in her new "hoodie"

Near left: Paul tries to teach Adalyn how to roll over

Above: Penney looks at our gift from Andrew, Emily and Adalyn, a photo collage.

Adalyn does a little practice teething on Grandma Penney's finger!

The official "family portrait." (The Minneapolis contingent is represented by the yellow "thought cloud" over Bob's head!)

Paul demonstrates his killer uncleness!

As soon as the Christmas Day dinner was over, we started packing for a quick Christmas trip to Vermont. We left mid-afternoon on Sunday and ran out of luck at Albany, where we hit the blizzard that hammered the East coast. The drive across the Green Mountains was pretty "hairy"—the toughest driving I can remember since a 1971 trip to Indianapolis—but we had taken the truck and the four-wheel drive proved up to the task.

We always try to take at least a couple of walks along the Saxtons River, which flows just down the hill from Mom's. This time, we saw evidence of at least a couple of beavers, hard at work reinforcing their pond. In the photo to the right, you can see three nicely-gnawed stumps and a log in the process of being felled.

This is what the meadow looks like in the wintertime (see the November page for a late-fall shot from the same location.) And keep watching this space for photos from the spring and summer!

Another thing we always try to do it to work in a visit with Penney's nephew, Michael, and his partner, George. This time, we were invited to spend New Year's Eve with them.

Left: Penney is behind George (l.), caressing the new granite countertops!

Right: The Boeuf Bourguignon and soufflé, another culinary triumph for George!

Left:

On the way back from the "river walk," we pass what used to be the "car barn" for the old interurban railroad that ran between the villages of Bellows Falls and Saxtons River; it's now used by a construction company, but even though the windows are broken and the paint is peeling from the siding, they want to be festive! Ya' gotta' love those Yankees!

Right:

Among many other things, no trip to Vermont would be complete (for Penney) without at least one trip to the emporium known as "Mr. G's Liquidation Center" in North Walpole, New Hampshire (just across the Connecticut River from Bellows Falls). Bob prefers to browse in their "tool barn" across the parking lot, where they have an amazing assortment of stiff—everything from 2¼" box wrenches for fixing trucks to fly paper (and when was the last time you saw that ?!)

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"If Your Neighbors Can Sleep at Night, You Need More Tools" — a motto Bob can take seriously to heart!