We dropped max off for his flight hime around 7:30 this morning. it’s been such a great visit with him. he is such a great mix of wonderfulness.. 

From there , DIane and I went to the place where Fluffy is being kept. It’s in the old Fitness Edge building in Williston. 

We put in about 2 and a half hours of prep for new years including winding a new stainless steel wool  halo for the poofer and getting the dance floor lights wired up given that we’re goign out with only one side clouded. Everyone is excited for Wednesday !

we had to head home bacuse my freind Suzanne and her family were in town and coming for dinner. 

As part of dinner, diane showed me the miracle of her cold frames.. despite -6 degree weather this week, the greens in cold frame are still doing great. She cut form fresh rosemary for the focaccia while I ate a tone of parsley.. I love parsley !!!!

Suzane, her husband HansMaaarten, their 9 year old son Illia and their friend Kim showed up around 6.   Suzanne is a a Prof at NYU (where My dad went to college ) > she a cognitive neuroscientist and performance artist.. Just my kinda people. HansMaarten is an architect, Ki is a Designer/Strategist at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NYC.

They are all really smart and fun people Suze, Hans Maarten and Illia are Dutch and switch between languages magically. it was fun hearing their stories .. Kim is fascinating too. she soemtimes lives up here in Vermont , just up the road in Williston. We’d love to see her more when she’s up. Gabe came home .. Games a Cancer biologist.. and Kim is a strategist at the most prestigious cancer treatment and research center in the s.. or maybe in the world. THye had lots to talk about ! 

Suzanne and I worked with our friends Sean and Gregg on our freind Mike’s Xenbox project last year.   We had Miek and Bob Weir of ht e Grateful diad play music while we gathered EEG and other bometeric info from them  (see here ). the project is still moving ahead.. though slowly.. 

in that project I came to really respect Sze and her colleagues creativity and technical skills. It was so fun getting to host them  here !

We made home made pasta on the ‘guitar, diane made foccawsia and Kim amade soem delicious Eggplant parmigiana. It was so much fun spending tiem with them all. .!

I would love to find a way to work with Sue and her group on another project !.

ok. tomorrows new years ever. we hope to see size and family there tomorrow too !

nite all, nite sam

-me

 

It was actually, a very peaceful and quiet day, which was welcome after all the partying of the last couple of days. Both Max and Gabe were out seeing friends so Diane and I enjoyed hanging out the house. Both Gabe and Max went over to check in on Chris to see if there was anything they could do to help with the champ burn that’s going to be for New Year’s. On the way home Gabe picked up an order of delicious Indian food from our new favorite restaura of India corn. We had a delicious Indian feast and then just hung out together. Played some music and played video games. It was like old times…

Old times, but I don’t think I took any pictures that day that never happens!

I guess it really means we needed a quiet day like that 🙂

nite all, nite sam
-me

It wouldn’t be the chanukah  holidays without latkes. 

Another flashback moment this morning. I took Gabe up to to Bolton to ride the mountain with friends. just like we did hundreds of times when he was a kid

today was  our latke party.. we were thinking we would get about 25 folks. I think we got closer to 35. 
it was super fun..a nd the whole house smelt like yummy fried stuff.. This year we also tried a recipe that gabe had found. Pickle latkes..( it’s a real thing.. look it up !). we started cooking early so we could feed people as they came in

about 5 pm people started showing up. .. and started eating !

Mid way we gathered folks around to light the candles.. we had a few folks there who knew the prayer and sang with me. 

there was lots of playing with baby James

Kasey liked my spooky glasses

user nice getting to talk to everyone .. like these two 

Happy Hannukah everyone  !

may your hues smell like Al’s French Fries forever and ever Ah-men

nite all, nite sam

-me

Today was great.. today was our christmas.. even as adults we all love the traditions of our holidays. 
The kids came down at the crack of dawn.. well.. ok.. maybe `11 AM..   We even got a letter to sanat.. and a homemade ‘Grammacohn’ in the shape of the gramaphoen we’ve been workign on. 

Lots of  the presents this year were experiences and other non ‘stuff’.. all of us have too much stuff already.. .. but there was still plenty of stuff.. it was really fun.

We always bring sam in to our celebrations.   it just feels right. THis year I made the kids and diane metal samstones.. oen of Pewter whcih my freind eliot helped me cast.. and the others in woods metal.. using the same mold . 

one new tradition was ‘Caga Tio’ .. the poop log’. . Its a weird christmas tradition in Catalonia.. kids decorate a log.. and keep it warm and fed leading up to christmas.. then you threaten it with sticks until it ‘poop’s out small presents.  CHeck out this story for the straight poop on Caga Tio

here’s our version

we took a break to eat lox and bagles.. adn a yummy pantone from Beckys parents

like all our christmases.. We took this one slow and it was actually getting dark by the time we were done.

 

One of the gifts we’ve given the kids and ourselves was four tickets to tonight’s Gogol Bordello show. Gogol Bordello’s one of my favorite bands… I first saw th in the early 2000’s and a bar in Austin. Through weird set of circumstances, I ended up getting to be friends with Eugene lead singer and Pam who plays the huge drum. The show has been a surprise for our kids, but a whole bunch of their friends were also going, Nate, Hannah Deborah, Ian, Maddie, Austin, Lindsey, Avery, Joe,// and I ran into ton of friends there… Homer and Mary , their daughter Ray, and many others

it was an AMAZING show !!!.. Eugene still has the same firey energy and stage presense he had when I first saw him 20 years ago.. and the band was great. they pulled up some members of the two warm up bands.. and then Pam came out an d the crowd loved that

the show ended aroudn mdinight.. and while the place was clearing out Eugene came to the stage door… He saw me and invited me backstage… I got Max Gabe and Diane and we went back for a short bit. It was really great to talk to him and Pam and Sergio their violin player. Eugene told me that he carries the sandstone everywhere with him… Which is really amazing. Anyway, it was great to be able to see them !  it was one of my favorite shows ever in Higher Ground.. and I’ve seen zillions of shows there

here’s to traditions.. old and new..  !

nite all, nite sam – we love oyu 
-me