Easy start to the day. I’m lookign at teh needle assembly for the 1883 edison gramaphoen we’re tryign to fix.. it’s pretty cool looking !

I picked up Max around 2:30. So nice to see him.. !

Max and Becky had spent christmas wiht Beckys parents in atlanta.. Becky stayed in Atlanta for  a couple of days and Max headed here. We’ll see Becky when she and Max come back here in Feb for Abbot and Megan’s wedding. 

we headed back for a quick family walk before the sun set

THen back to the house for homemade spaghetti ala guitarra .. it’s such a fun way to make pasta !

After dinner we did one of our family traditions. We went out to decorate a tree in the woods with goodies for the animals.   THe tradition came to us from a book we used to read the kids.. 

diane I will go fetch the string from the tree in a couple of days so not to litter.. hope the animals like it !
it was fun doing this all together.. it’s something we did since the kids were little.. we talked about doing it with Sam.. and with our dogs.. Chai in particular would always try to eat the goodies.. it was nice to go beck in the past a little

We got home still bundled up. so Max, Gabe and I decided to go sledding on the fantastic sledding hill we have in the back yard. THe sledding hill comes form an unfortuante incident that happened back in the mid 1990s . a neighbors rbothers truck accidentally came about 2/3 the way doen the hill. THe brake wasnt set.. but luckiny the truck was empty. We and the other neightbors have kept it clear and accessible for nearly 30 years.. the snow was FAST !!>. we took soem fun runs. 

 

The stars were beutiful.. don’t knwo if you can see.. but the constellation Orion was visible just above the sledding hill. Beautiful !

THen back in our cozie house for DIane’s basque cheescake.. and soem music.. Gabe played mandolin, max played guitar.. I dug up our old autoharp and diane played keyboard.. !
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funny thing about the auto harp.. we’d written some songs down when the kids were little.. they were on the back of one of my ICCAD tutorials from 1996 !

Nice to have our family together.. …

nite all, nite sam .. missing you so much 

-me

Today was Christmas morning, but we’re gonna wait until Max is here to do our celebrating. Instead, Diane Gabe and I went up and down camels hump. It’s kind of a tradition of ours. It was a beautiful bluebird day… Reasonably warm like in the 20s with plenty of snow. We brought our butt sled for the ride down, which was so fun.… We got Gabe to completely explain his thesis to us on the way up, which took about, the time it took to get to the top of this mountain… But it’s such cool stuff

We met a guy abotu my age hikign down as we hiked up. one of only 2 people we saw on our way up. He had a raggiday anne doll stickign out of his pack.. we asked abotu it.. it was soemthig he carried in mmemory of his grandaughter who had died.. we talked ffor a bit abotu the wonderful ehaliung of being outside.. we gave hom a samstone.. and conitued up . 

It hadn’t been that cold or windy on the way up, but we knew the last bit to the top would be both cold and windy… So we bundled up, went up and enjoyed the view… We also put a sandstone there as we always do and had a cuppa hot tea before getting down off to warm up.  It’s such a beautiful hike up!.

As fun as the hope up and visiting the top of then the thing we were most excited about was sledding down. We have a couple of these but sides and we had borrowed some from Carol and Kim. Basic ideas pretty simple. It’s a hard plastic thing and you hold onto your life as you go skating down the mountain. Use your feet to steer… Sort of. It is amazingly fun.

we made it down in just abotu an hour.. about 30 minutes faster than hikign alone could do it. 

then home to make soem veggie spring roles !. 

Diane. gabe and I found the old gramophone that my parents had bought in Cape Cod in 1963 (I think)… It was still in pretty good working order. I have to repair the needle a bit, but it should be able to some of the records that we have cylinders. It was so amazing to be looking at a working mechanism that was about 120 years old. Unbelievable.

such a nice day !

Also the first night of Hanukkah ! .. We lit the candles… .. not often that christmas and the start of hanukkah are on the same day

nite all, nite sam !

-me

Today was christmas eve so it was feeling very much like a holiday.
Our freinds Carol and Kim and Dianes other Bootcamp buddies came buy on a run and dropped off butt sleds for us to use tomorrow. THey were dressed for the day.. but not sure if they were dressed for the weather.. I think it was  below zero (F) this morning !

Diane and I got out for a quick ski in the fields and rivershore trail 

Our friend Tom came over. Tom is one of Gabe’s oldest and   best friends. It was great catching up with him. He’s become a Cooper… He makes wooden barrels, especially for saunas and wood fired hot tubs.… He’s such a great guy.

 

Late afternoon jen, time. nate, hannah, , daryl, avery, martha, andd later deb and ian showed up. We had cheese and oil fondue.. super tasty adn fun to eat !

We even had a meter for the spiceness level of all the sauces.. as soem of these folks have kinda mild spice preferences.. (never could understand that !)

Tasty way to get the holiday started ~

nite all, nite sam

-me

Did soem early pre holiday food shopping today.. whic involved buying a bottle of worcester sauce whcih will probably last us for the next 40 years

speaking of 40 years , I also ran into our old freidns Marian and Jack. DIane and I both worked with Marian about 40 years ago. Marian was a huge he in all the STEM outreach I’ve done over the years. Good to see them doing well !

Mid day I picked up Gabe at the airport.. SO good to see him. He got a new haircut.. ooks good. I dont think i’ve seen his ears since he was a baby !

one surprise for him and the rest of the family.. I bought us a mandolin t plunk around on.. Gabe’s been palyign since may and already sounds so good. He’s playing fok, bluegrass, irish and klezmer.. 

So nice to have Gabe here.. Max shows on THursday,. looking forward to having them both here ! 

We all feel Sam when we’re together. 

nite all, nite sam

-me