First Weekend of the New Year

It's now Sunday night and I thought I would share some of the weekend's activities with you.
But first I have to tell you that it snowed again, a few days ago. When I wrote my last post I was not sure if my New Year's Eve party would have to be canceled due to the weather. It wasn't and we all had a good time.

Saturday afternoon, I thought I'd go out and photograph the snow before it melted. Ha, not much chance of any melting as the wind chill was 20 below zero. Winchester, one of my favorite towns, has a duck pond in the center of town so I decided to start there.

It was peaceful, no ducks, and bone chilling cold. Just a few photos and I was outta there! I returned home to get ready for my friend Don's birthday party and off I went out into the cold night. We had a great time with friends and Don was really happy.

Sunday morning some of us got together to celebrate my friend Debbi's birthday. We have a tradition of going out for breakfast for Debbi's birthday and then we usually walk off breakfast at a nearby wildlife sanctuary. We bring bird seed and the birds fly down and take the seed right out of our hands. It's really cool! Today it was again quite cold so no bird feeding. Of course, we did the breakfast part.

We went to one of our favorite breakfast spots, the Village Pancake House. The house was originally built in 1660 in the Saltbox style. Forty years later it was remodeled into an Early American Colonial.

There are seven fireplaces. Lots of little rooms. It's just full of charm.

They serve the usual fare, eggs, pancakes, waffles, etc. Lunch too.

I opted for the cheese omelette, crispy bacon, home fries, hot apples, and...

in lieu of toast, my favorite cinnamon pancakes which I split with Debbi. I had to share with her, she was the birthday girl after all!

Here's where Debbi lives. These birds were sunning themselves on her windowsill.

So we did see birds after all!

I thought this silhouette was interesting.

After breakfast, I visited with my mother at the nursing home. The poor woman

had to watch football with me, which she hates. I think she thought I wouldn't be watching since

MY team, the Patriots, didn't make the playoffs this year but she was wrong.

Later on the winter sky was so colorful, I stopped my car and took a photo. I love a beautiful sunset.

Oops, I forgot to mention my rescue kitty Oscar is home with me after being fostered by a friend since July. The introduction to the new home and my other cat Molly has been a little rocky

and often amusing. But that story deserves a blog post all it's own.

So until next time ....

The Passage of Time

It's New Year's Eve! I am having a small party this evening- I hope! Due to the wintry weather it is very much in doubt. We're having a snowstorm and it's icy and freezing outside. Windy too!

I have all the food ready, the party hats and the makeshift Times Square ball. But possibly no party guests. One person has already called to cancel. I told her that safety is more important than any silly little get together.

So this evening if I have no party guests, Molly, me, and Oscar will reflect on the year 2008.

The year I bought my first home, added Oscar to the family, had one great vacation to Martha's Vineyard, celebrated a birthday with a zero on the end of my age and started my blog! Careerwise, a very good year considering I work in the financial sector.

Ok, dear readers tell me about your year! And have a very Happy New Year!

The Year 2008 in review

The Year 2008 in review
Originally uploaded by cafechatelaine

I am participating in Cindy of My Romantic Home's Blog Party. I am supposed to create a photo collage of the year in review. So here are some significant snippets of my life from the year 2008.

I bought a condo and added a new kitty to my family. Vacationed at Martha's Vineyard and took a business trip to Philadelphia. Took daytrips to Maine and New Hampshire and enjoyed Autumn in New England.

Wishing you lots of photo opportunities in 2009!

Christmas Tradition

One of my favorite Christmas Traditions is to visit the Bedford Village Inn in Bedford, New Hampshire during the week after Christmas. The inn is exquisitely decorated for the holidays and so this is the best time to make the trip.

I always make the trip north with my sister and we meet up with our friends Lori Lee and Duane. Lori Lee used to own a vintage clothing shop so she has the most spectacular outfits and jewelry. She looks like she could have lived at the Inn in Victorian times.

We had a wonderful evening at the Inn last night. What a dining experience! My meal was delicious. I had orange dusted sea scallops with tomato orzo and sauteed spinach. We had a tiny shrimp salad compliments of the chef and several breads (anadama, focaccia, lavash, and multi grain). For dessert, I had a chocolate bag which had a chocolate exterior and chocolate mousse, white cake, raspberries and blueberries on the inside. Yum!

Our server assembled my sister's dessert table side. She had a warm ginger souffle with cinnamon ice cream and caramel sauce. It was fabulous! (She let me have a taste).

After the meal, we took a tour of the various rooms of the restaurant, looking at all the decorations. Each room had it's own designer. Some rooms were very elegant, others more simple. All were beautiful.

I photographed the rooms but my pictures do not do the Inn justice. You can click on the photos in the mosaic for a larger view. I tried to use available light as much as possible but some of the rooms were too dark.

I hope you enjoyed your tour of the Inn. If you find yourself in New Hampshire, specifically Southern New Hampshire, I would encourage you to visit the Inn for lunch, brunch or dinner.

Hope, Faith and Peace

When my sister saw this photo she commented that it looked Biblical, as if the animals were in a manger. I agreed. Actually it was taken at Island Alpaca in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts last August.

Anyway, the scene was peaceful and so this Christmas evening I wish you all Hope, Faith and Peace for the season and the coming New Year.

This evening we saw a very bright star in the east.

Until next time....

Running out of Time

I didn't need to be reminded by a tree in a Christmas store that it's almost time for Christmas.
Where did the time go this year? I always save vacation days from work for shopping and doing fun activities. This year I used them for moving and now I find myself scrambling to get all my Christmas "stuff" done at the last minute.

I don't have any gifts wrapped. I just finished my shopping today. Usually I'm done weeks before Christmas. No Christmas treats baked, yet. I finished my Christmas cards on Saturday.
Oh boy, what a line at the post office for stamps. And the line was at the automated machine!

After I finished my shopping, I decided to take some shots of the beautiful aftermath of
yesterday's snowstorm. That's storm #2 in 3 days. Anyway, I hope my camera has conveyed the snowy loveliness I witnessed.

I love this snowman! First of all he's made of real snow and second of all, he's not one of those

huge plastic inflatables that deflate every time the temperature gets a little mild. Also, he's

got a heart! Too cute.

It wasn't exactly comfortable walking outside today as you can see by the icicles on this house.

The sun was shining brightly but no sign of melting here!

Well, I must leave you now because there's some serious wrapping to be done and a list to be made for the trip to the grocery store.

I hope all of you have a relaxing few days leading up to Christmas! Watch one of those great old Christmas movies, or list to some Christmas music. Chill out, there's still time!

Snowy Weekend

I have a long weekend off from work. I was supposed to be off Friday and Monday but Friday I did do some emailing and returning of phone calls. I met my friend Kim for coffee then did some work. Then met my sister for lunch, a little shopping and work and then Kim invited me for dinner at her house. Wow, it's sounds like all I do is eat!

I took a picture of Kim's home's snowy front entrance. At Kim's we feasted on baked ham with fruit compote, scalloped potatoes, green beans, and brownies for dessert. It was warm inside as we watched the snow fall. She has a very cozy home with good smells of cooking, wonderful family, and great pets. The conversation was easy and it was great to spend a relaxing evening with them. Since they live only a few streets over from me I didn't worry about going home in the storm
Today is Saturday and everyone is cleaning up after the storm. By the afternoon, I was ready to do a little shopping. I have certain places I have to visit at Christmas time. I guess you could call them rituals. One of them is a trip to Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I love to visit the cool shops and see the interesting mix of people. There's always a lot of students walking around as the university is right there. MIT is not too far away either.

I took some photos of snowy Cambridge. Brrr, it was cold, I saw on one girl's Iphone that it was 20 degrees. It was windy too. Harvard Square is best enjoyed on foot. On a good day there is limited parking so today with all the snow it was quite the challenge. And when I did find a space, I had to climb the snowbank to put money in the meter. Oh I love Winter!

But it is beautiful! The red doors against all the white drew me to this church. Quintessential New England to my eyes.

Next to the church, there were Christmas trees for sale.

No trip to Harvard Square is complete without walking by Harvard University or Hahvid as we Bostonians call it. As you know we don't pronounce our R's.

As I mentioned, the shops are really cool in this area. This is the outside of a sock store. I heard a woman say they had the best cashmere socks in this store so I had to check it out. I am a cashmere addict. I have at least a dozen cashmere sweaters. I also have cashmere gloves and cashmere sheets. It's one of my indulgences.

I also went to a Holiday craft fair in an old church. Phenomenal stuff! Oh I could have gone crazy but I didn't. I got a funny card for my friend Don for his birthday, a pin for my friend LoriLee and of course, I didn't forget me. I bought myself a clock. The vendor makes clocks out of all sorts of old things like colanders. muffin tins, teapots. I bought one that looks like brass and is made from a mirror. The kind like the women of olden days had, a hand mirror they put on their dressers. It's so cool.

All this shopping made me tired so I decided to take a break and stop at Burdick's chocolates for some hot chocolate.

As you can see this is no ordinary hot chocolate. You can order it in dark, milk, or white chocolate. It's thick like a European drinking chocolate. I ordered 4 luxembourgers with it.

Two were to take home for later. I think they are sort of a meringue cookie. I got two cinnamon and two coffee. Delicious!

I bought a couple of gifts here. This shop is visually beautiful. I am sure I will be back soon.

That's it for today. I had a wonderful time all by myself. I am so happy I made it to Harvard Square at Christmas time because I said it was one of my rituals at Christmas. Just a few more days left until Christmas. I am almost done my shopping. But I'm not worried I still have Monday off. Of course more snow is predicted for Sunday, so I hope we don't get snowed in. Oh well. on the bright side, we are virtually assured of a white Christmas.

Until next time...