A Giant Sandwich Christmas

Well, another Christmas has been ticked off the calendar. It was a great day! We left the snow in East Sandwich behind and traveled to Christina and Lou's to spend the day. The children were busy playing with the presents from their parents when we walked in with our own bags of goodies. Suddenly, mayhem was upon us, as presents blended with discarded wrapping paper, and I panicked about what would wind up in the trash without ever having been opened. Indeed, I did find an unopened box with a cash gift inside, on the floor and halfway under the sofa. Argh!

The Village of Sandwich sponsors "Holly Days," which includes several events that take place throughout the Christmas holiday season. Part and parcel of Holly Days is "The Sandwich Giants," which are giant light sculptures, sponsored by churches, businesses, and some residents, which stand along the streets and roads. The businesses' giants typically highlight what the business does. Over the years, there have been as many as 77 Giants. Just before Christmas, TSO and I drove around and took some pictures of these fascinating creatures. Here is a sampling:

Giant Angels
"Entering Historic Sandwich Established 1637"

Giant Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster Inn

Giant Dragon
Private Residence

Giant Fireman
Sandwich Fire Department

Giant Gardener
Scenic Roots Garden Center

Giant Gaslighter
Private Residence
(Perhaps in Honor of Merriam-Webster's Word of the Year?)

Giant Innkeeper
Belfry Inn & Bistro

Giant Nativity Scene
Corpus Christi Parish

Giant Old Man Winter
The Weather Store

Giant Piggy Bank
Cape Cod 5 Bank

Giant Saint Michael the Archangel
Mary's Closet Thrift Shop

Giant Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl Coffee Roasters

Giant Squirrel 
Beth's Bakery
(?????)

Giant Swan
Private Residence

Fun fact. The lights representing the water spouting from the fireman's hose, as well as the wind being blown by Old Man Winter, were blue and white blinkers, which was really quite something.

There were many other giants we saw: the tooth and toothbrush, the flag of the Episcopal church, a Christmas wreath, a poinsettia, an anchor, the Easter bunny, and a glassblower -- to name just a few.

The Giants were a real treat to see. They're clever, whimsical, and smile inducing. This was a nice little winter treat in Sandwich.

Ocean Effect Snow and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yesterday, Sandwich clocked a wind gust at 66 mph. By around 8 p.m., the temperature started going down. The winds did not, however. They were worse than the night before. At times, it seemed as though the back of our house would blow off, or, at the least, something would come crashing through a window. We woke up to a temperature in the teens. It is now 19 degrees.

Last night, the weather forecast called for "ocean effect" snow today in the "Cape and Islands" area -- the Islands being the Elizabeth Islands, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket. At around noon, we ventured out in search of salad for Christmas dinner tomorrow. It had been snowing for a bit, but not much was happening by way of accumulation. By the time we got to Hyannis, the snow was coming down at a good clip. Although the streets remained clear, the grassy surfaces were now coated with the white stuff.

As we ventured home, the snow began sticking to the road in earnest. 

Here's what they said about it on the evening news tonight.

By the time we got home, it was coating everything, including the ramp up to the top of the dune where our house is located.

Ski Mountain?

I managed to make it up the ramp and into the house where I began taking pictures of the beautiful impact of this ocean effect snow on our surroundings.

Snow-Covered Beach

Detrital Beach Chair Enjoying the Accumulation

Now, I don't know what it is about Cape Cod snowfalls, but this one is very different from what I was used to in New Jersey. There, unless it's a blizzard, the snow falls in a relatively orderly fashion. Today, on the Cape, it was crazy. The flakes fell without pattern. They tumbled, swirled, and seemed to chase each other back and forth like children on a playground. It's a wonder that any of them made it to the ground. 

After TSO and I settled in, we turned to the task of the day, baking my Nana's chocolate chip cookies to take to our grandchildren tomorrow morning, along with the chocolate and sprinkle covered pretezels we made the other day.

Before

We eeked out quite a few of these babies. We mistakenly purchased mini semi-sweet chocolate chips, so the cookies are really rich with chocolate.

After

Time will tell whether the next generation will appreciate these goodies as much as the current and previous generations (shout out to Uncle Georgie!) do.

"Help!" Pleaded The Detrital Beach Chair

9:55 a.m.

We're in the midst of the storm here. The house was rocking overnight. The winds are gusting and blowing the waves sideways toward Plymouth. Unseen objects are banging around outside our house. Although the chairs on our deck have been relocated from one side to the other, my beloved detrital beach chair remains firm in it location on the beach. However, high tide is rolling in, and the water is getting awfully close to it in a way I have not seen before. I fear for the detrital beach chair's survival. The chair fears for its survival. Still, it is too nasty to undertake a rescue effort. By "it," I mean both the weather and the chair!

11:30 a.m.

The detrital beach chair survived high tide! Barely. The water came within a few feet of it.

Detrital Beach Chair at High Tide

3:30 p.m.

The detrital beach chair survived the wind and high tide. As we approach low tide, it is more than safe and sound in its original location and position.

Safe and Sound

Remarkably, our location here on Cape Cod is one of the nation's hot spots. As I write this post, it is a balmy 56 degrees here. In the Land o' Lakes, it's 24 degrees. It's colder in Tennessee (12 degrees in Memphis) and Kentucky (1 degree in Louisville) than it is here. Unbelievable!! I believe the temperature is supposed to drop here around 8 p.m. tonight. We shall see -- or feel, as it goes.

The Calm Before The Storm, And The Storm Itself

As was the case with Thanksgiving, life has become busier in our neighborhood since last weekend, as people have filled their vacation homes in anticipation and celebration of a weekend Christmas this coming Sunday. Folks have been walking along the beach, as well as the street. 

This morning, I awoke to the most beautiful sunrise. The sky was a magnificent combination of cotton candy pink, Creamsicle orange, and robin's egg blue. Yet, as is the case with cloud formations, unless the camera is at the ready, by the time one goes to the other room to get it and then returns, the beauty disappears. That is what happened to me. So, in addition to the shark fin and the marionette-esque seagulls, I now have the beautiful sunrise to add to the missed photo collection.

On another note, with the exception of those folks living under rocks, "everybody knows" that the "Bomb Cyclone" is coming. It's supposed to reach Cape Cod tonight, bringing lots of rain, very high winds -- close to 65 mph -- and some coastal flooding through tomorrow. Linemen for the local electric companies have had their vacations canceled so that they will be available to deal with all the power outages that are expected. TSO and I will be sure to have our cell phones powered up, and we're certainly glad that we have a gas oven, as we have lots of Christmas cookies to bake and Jiffy Pop popcorn to pop. Surprisingly, little to no snow is expected inland. How can this be New England? New England = snow. Doesn't it?

As I posted the other day, the sea has been very angry of late. Well, not today. This morning, it was as calm as it's been in a very long time. Indeed, a paddle boarder couldn't resist the pardoxical call of the quiet water.  

The Sea Is Calm, My Friends

Jim captured some evidence suggesting that even Fatty Wampus seemed to be enjoying the morning.

Fatty Wampus Was Here

That is, perhaps, until he either became confused or encountered another bird of some sort....

Ruh Roh

Although the rain and wind comes tonight, it seems that this morning was icy on the main thoroughfare across the Cape: Route 6. There were at least three roll overs, as people encountered black ice on the road. It even made the Boston news reports. After I was sure that the ice had melted, I decided to venture out and enjoy the weather in my own way, by checking out another thrift shop. This time it was the Cape Cancer Thrift Shop, which is right down the road from us on Route 6A in West Barnstable. It's an adorable little place, with good stuff, including furniture, but not clothes. I bought a holiday cookie jar, a picture frame, and a ring holder dish. All proceeds go to Dana Farber Cancer Institute. 

Cape Cancer Thrift Shop

We had planned to have most of our grandchildren spend the night here last night, but, as far back as the Sunday before Thanksgiving, they have been passing various upper respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders back and forth to each other. Poor Christina has had no break, although, miraculously, she has remained well through all of the grossness.

One of the things we planned to do with them was to make chocolate-covered pretzel rods with sprinkles. It's very simple. Melt milk chocolate chips in a double boiler.

Dip the pretzel rod into the chocolate and spread the chocolate thin with a spoon.

Roll the pretzel with the melted chocolate into sprinkles. 

Place the rod on wax paper and allow the chocolate to dry. 

Voila!

That's it. We made about 50 of them. Oh, so yummy.

It's about 8 p.m., and, so far, not much is happening....

The Sea Is Angry, My Friends

The bay has been whipped up for days now. Jim has been saying, quite frequently, "The sea is angry, my friend." I had no idea why until he finally explained that this line was uttered by George Costanza in a Seinfeld episode (The Marine Biologist) that I had not seen. 

The funny thing about Seinfeld and other popular shows -- such as Everybody Loves Raymond, Frazier, and The Office, to name a few -- is that I listen to people rave about them for years but never tune in until a year or so before it's announced that they will be "ending next season." Consequently, there are many episodes of these shows that I have never seen.

Funny story. For years after Seinfeld had ended, I would ask people whether they remember the episode where George gets a mammogram. No one did. They would politely say "no" with an odd look in their eyes. I couldn't understand how no one remembered this episode, as it was hysterical! Finally, someone, maybe it was even Jim, challenged my memory and declared that there was no such episode!! Well, by this point, the internet had come into its own, and so the Google search began. Sure enough, there was no Seinfeld episode in which George got a mammogram!!! I must have dreamed it. I wish I had realized it was a dream while the series was still running. George getting a mammogram would have fit in nicely with the manzier episode. I could have pitched it to the writers and VOILA, I'd be in television, and they'd have another Emmy.

Anyway, the point of this post is that, this past summer, when the local real estate agent was showing us houses that we could rent over the winter, we asked her about the snow. She said that it really doesn't snow here that much, as the bay tempers the climate. However, she mentioned that it is very windy here. She was not kidding or exaggerating in any way, shape, or form. Wind. Wind. Wind. And today is the first day of winter. What's in store for us over the next three months?

It seems as though we put the storm shutters down at least once a week. On Friday of this week, we are supposed to have gusts upward of 50-60 miles per hour. I'm so glad I'm past the days when I would get upset that the wind is messing up my hair. I'd be crying nearly everyday.

The Christmas Spirit

Yesterday, TSO and I finalized our Christmas shopping for toys at a WalMart just over the bridge. Perhaps it's because I rarely venture out to do any kind of shopping or perhaps it's because this year is just different, but both of us noticed us how happy and jolly most of the shoppers seemed to be. There was cheerful banter in the aisles, a willingness to help each other, and smiles. People were smiling! Of course, that all ended after we left the store and got into our car in the primo parking spot we had found. We had cars vying for that spot in both directions. Who knows how they worked that out. Then, as Jim waited to turn left out of the parking lot, the person behind us just couldn't resist beeping his horn when he thought that Jim had failed to take the perfect opportunity to make a left out of the lot and into oncoming traffic. This was a perfect example of what the term "Masshole" means.

Aside from that incident, we had a very nice day, which we capped off by going to the gallery of a local glass blower here in Sandwich to pick up some ornaments. A substantial bit of Sandwich's history involves glass production. There are many glass artisans here, and there is the Sandwich Glass Museum, which is devoted to preserving the town's history, particularly that involving glass. At the gallery, known as the Glass Studio on Cape Cod, TSO bought me a beautiful blue handblown starfish ornament. It looks lovely on the tree.

See The Starfish?

Today was the fourth and last Sunday of Advent. Next Sunday will be Christmas. It'll be a lovely day, especially knowing that we will not have to drive 5-1/2 hours to get here and I will not have to go to work on Monday.

Not Quite The Same

About a month ago, I compiled the handwritten recipes of my Nana (my mother's mother) into a booklet, which I then sent to my uncle, siblings, and cousins.  

The compilation was a bit painstaking. At times, I couldn't understand my Nana's handwriting. My Uncle George helped me with deciphering letters and numbers. More challenging was the oft-absent directions for what to do with the ingredients. Again, I relied on my Uncle George, as well as my own memories of watching my Nana make these various desserts, to provide some sensible instruction for what to do. 

My Nana was known for her desserts -- cakes, candy, cookies, pies, and puddings -- which all of us loved. Indeed, her entire collection of recipes is limited to desserts, except, perhaps, the one for mincemeat. I never could figure out what that stuff is, and I never tried. It's like fruitcake. I just don't want to know! 

Last night, TSO and I decided to make a few things from Nan's Recipes: AB Cake and chocolate chip cookies. AB Cake is a very simple coffee cake comprised of the basics: flour, sugar, shortening, an egg, milk, and baking powder. The chocolate chip cookies were just about more of the same, except that brown sugar also was included and, of course, chocolate chips.

We made the AB Cake first. As we mixed the ingredients, I noticed that the batter looked just like it did when I was a child. It also tasted just like it did when I was a child. Silently, I entertained the memories of "licking the bowl" after my Nana had poured the batter into the baking pans, followed by eating the cake with "I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!" slathered on it. (By the way, when I learned what real butter tastes like, I could very much believe that that stuff is not butter.) I recalled the sense of calm and comfort that the infusion of flour, sugar, and fat instantly created with that first bite while the chaos swirled around me. 

While the AB Cake baked, TSO and I turned to the chocolate chip cookies. The experience and the memories were the same as they were with the cake, which now filled the air with its sweet aroma as it baked in the oven. Unlike the cake, which my Nana made randomly throughout the year, the cookies were a Christmastime treat. Yet, as Jim and I stirred and mixed the ingredients until they formed the cookie dough, my memories were not of happy Christmases of yore. Rather, they were of repeated trips to the cookie tin (i.e., empty coffee can) in search of that fleeting calm that was brought on by that first bite but which promptly disappeared when the cookie was gone. 

One of my most specific memories of my Nana's chocolate chip cookies was the tendency for them to burn on the bottom. Without fail. My goal last night was to prevent that from happening. Mission accomplished. 

Unburnt Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here's the interesting part of the experiment. Neither the AB Cake nor the Chocolate Chip Cookies tasted like they did when my Nana baked them. Was that because we baked the cake in one rectangular pan instead of two small round pans? Was it because the cookies were not burned on the bottom? Was it because the oven at the beach house is not the oven my Nana used? Perhaps these factors played some role. I am convinced, however, that the true explanation is that, despite our use of my Nana's own recipes, my Nana didn't bake them. Sure, the difference is subtle, but it's enough to make me uninterested in eating anymore of either. They're just not quite the same.

    

A Howler Homecoming

We spent last week (Saturday to Saturday) in Florida with our oldest grandchild, Penny. Back when we were the grandparents of only three grandchildren, and we had no idea that three more were to come, we promised each of them that, when they turned ten, we would take them on a trip -- half of which would be historically educational and half of which would be fun. Penny's unwavering choice since then has been Disney World and, when she discovered the Harry Potter books, Harry Potter World. We tacked on Saint Augustine for the historically educational purpose. Further, as her birthday is in July, and there ain't no way I am ever going to Florida in the summer, we moved up the trip to age almost 9-1/2 and made it the first week of December while things are decorated for Christmas, but the Christmas crowds are not there yet.

Other than our singular beach day in Saint Augustine, when the sky was overcast, the temperature was about 68, and the breeze was blowing a bit briskly, we had beautiful weather all week. 

Penny and Grandpa Wading in the Atlantic Ocean

In Saint Augustine, we took an Old Town Trolley around the USA's oldest city to get the lay of the land. Among other things, we saw the City Gate, which, at one point, was the only entrance into the city. According to our tour guide, this historic entrance was once scheduled for demolition. But then -- drumroll please -- the DAR got involved, with the ladies staging a protest while dressed in mourning attire and serving tea to those who would entertain their pleas to save the City Gate. It worked! Historic preservation prevailed!

Saint Augustine City Gate

Among other places, we also visited an alligator farm just outside the city with lots and lots of those extremely non-charming "ambush predators." They were very real, and, thus, very alive.

Ambush Predators Lying in Wait

"Greetings, Dinner!"

We visited some shrines and the Fountain of Youth. Newsflash: the Fountain of Youth doesn't work.

We're Still Old

We also met TSO's niece Aphia and her partner, Michael, for dinner one night. That was a nice little treat.

On Tuesday, we moved on from Saint Augustine to Orlando where we checked into an "official" Walt Disney World Hotel, which was outside the park but close by. We were on the 22d floor and facing the parks. This gave us a bird's eye view from our balcony of the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom and Epcot every night. The hotel had a lazy river pool, a baby pool, and a large pool. Penny loved it!! It was a nice experience.

I wish I could say the same for Disney World itself, but I can't. The only good thing about those parks is the joy they brought to Penny. Other than that, the experience was horrendous. I took Christina there twice in the 90s -- once when she was four and again when she was eight. It was the perfect experience. Everything was great. Now? OMG. Horrible. Perhaps I'll write another post detailing why and how much I hate that place, but, for now, I'll just keep things positive. 

Harry Potter World was very good, although Universal has arranged things such that, if you want to experience all of HPW, you must buy a ticket to two of its theme parks, as Hogsmeade is in one and Diagon Alley in the other. Not nice. The rides were top notch, however; and, our little Harry Potter expert felt right at home. By the way, Butter Beer is super yummy!!!

Hogsmeade

Hogwarts Express

Diagon Alley

As for me and my health, the trip proved too ambitious. I've had a cough since October 4th, which has taken me to a local urgent care three times now. (It took me two months to find a primary care physician here in Massachusetts, and I don't have an appointment until Friday, December 16th. TSO's first appointment is next July!!!!) Anyway, the warm, sunshiny Florida air seemed to do more harm than good, and I wound up at another urgent care somewhere in Orlando at 1 o'clock in the morning between Thursday and Friday. No flu. No Covid. Lots of prescriptions, however, causing the 24-hour CVS pharmacist to ask, "Do you have pneumonia?" Ugh. Now that I'm back at the beach house, I have added earaches and a sore throat to the mix. 

We returned to our beach house on Saturday to weather conditions reminiscent of those on October 1st, the day we moved in, except, this time, there was no hurricane. However, there was heavy rain, an angry bay with ocean size waves, brisk winds, and, yes, the Howlers had returned. It's now Monday morning, and everything remains the same. Call this autumn or meteorological winter or what have you, it is nasty. 

The Howlers are interesting. When we first moved in, I thought they were objecting to our presence. Yet, we never heard from them again until we returned from Florida. I thought, oh, how nice, they are welcoming us home. However, I noticed a new phenomenon, which made me think, oh, no, maybe they are not welcoming us, maybe they are objecting to us again, but this time bringing in the big guns, as  there is another phenomenon accompanying all the weather-related Sturm und Drang, which either did not occur previously, or we simply did not notice. Birds. Big ugly seagulls. Bobbing up and down, mid-air, outside our front deck doors and windows like marionettes suspended and controlled by a great puppeteer in the sky. Jim says they're riding the vortex of air that is in that area. They are soooooooooooo creepy. They look like they are staring at me as they bob, and I feel like a dead carcass being eyed by some ravenous vultures or other flying scavenger. Do they know something I don't know?

The skies are supposed to clear late this afternoon and are predicted to remain sunny through Thursday, at which point another storm is due to hit and stay a couple of days. I'll try to take and post a picture of a creep seagull if its ilk returns.