Happy Thanksgiving!

It's Thanksgiving week.   Family and friends.  Preparing for the winter hibernation by eating way too much.  And talk at the dinner table.  I wonder what conversations will be about around turkey dinners this year?  Time to break out Saturday Night Live's sketch of Adele last year.

We are heading down to DC hoping for an early jump on the craziness of the roads.  Our system is an early start beats all traffic.  It worked last week when I went down for a night for an award ceremony for a former colleague from Mexico.  Worked in the wrong way.  I got a late start and Rte 95 was shut down north of Baltimore.  Closed.  Fortunately, GPS found a way around and when I returned to the road I saw tons of flashing lights and hazmat trucks.  If I hadn't stopped for coffee and cinnabon, what might have happened?  (Fact check - I didn't stop.)

Anyway, lots has happened since our last letter.  Johanna made the Associated Press with her stance on the safety pin following the election (photo from Facebook).  Joe traveled to Switzerland for an international banking meeting.  And, we did win one election!  Our campaign to collect a small surcharge in our property taxes to help preserve historic buildings and improve city parks.  

Margaret and Annie flew to Pittsfield and spent the Veteran's Day weekend with us, helping the economy and hiking and laughing and commiserating.  Marj and Lew came up for one night while they were here and we enjoyed a chili dinner, that the Locherys also came by to join in the fun.

This followed a quick trip we took to CT, RI and Boston the previous weekend.  We stopped in to see Mary and Patrick in Stonington/Pawcatuck where Patrick is helping to manage a brewery.  He's doing a fair amount of different jobs, including acting as creative director.  We sampled one beer he named Jan-cember fest, a play on Octoberfest beers but this one lasts the whole year, from January to December.  He helped design the label.  And it tastes good!. 

We headed to Marj and Lew's for the night where the highlight was watching a Sasha Cohen which was, can you believe it, rude.  We then ventured north of Boston for an extended lunch with the sister of a Peace Corps friend who had died in 1980.  Pretty emotional.  We tagged all those activities on to what was really a visit to Mass General to see if Mary had picked up any tropical disease.  Happily, she hadn't.

We touched base with brothers following the election.  All are well with varying degrees of opinion and forecasts.  On the way down to DC, I had an early lunch, late brunch with Peter, who mentioned that Johanna had spent the weekend with them and Sean was enjoying his new job.  As we saw on Facebook, Sean has a new interest in his life!

I stayed with Margaret and Andrew in their new house which is shaping up wonderfully.  I dropped off a few things over at Joe and Leonor's, and had a chance to chat with Leonor for a little - Joe was still in Switzerland.  They got their wedding pictures which turned out really great.  If you want to check them out, they are now available on ​t​he photographer's website, - go to the ​WEDDING ​tab and choose photo galleries ​L&J​ ​using the password: L&J 24SET16.

And, we found out this weekend why Andrew and Margaret moved to a bigger place. They needed room to house two new kitties. Kimchi and Taquito. Not sure if the spelling is right. My history projects are winding down.  The editor has my final version of my photo book on Berkshire County mills.  My last tour at Shaker Village was last week, and presumably I have one more tour at Arrowhead tomorrow.  With the campaign over, that means I have time on my hands.  Any ideas?

Mary is enjoying her tutoring job this year, and her big news was finding out the freestyle relay team she raced with this year turned in the eighth best time in the world.  Yes, you read that right.  In the world.

And, since I can't top that highlight, let's close this letter out.

Hope you are all well and have a memorably wonderful Thanksgiving.   Love from over here.