JOHN S. ALLEY
508-693-2950
All is ready for Christmas tomorrow. After a month of shopping and a lot of decorating inside and out, families will soon begin to gather together to celebrate this most blessed day. The boats were packed with people going to and from the mainland to shop for Christmas last weekend; some got a head start traveling off-Island for the holiday to be with their families.
We are now officially into the winter season as of Tuesday and it sure felt like it early in the morning. Monday saw an all-day snowstorm that brought a few inches of the white stuff for aChristmas. If you are in the Providence area and have Portuguese blood, try making a pilgrimage to the Taunton Street Bakery in East Providence; truly a must!
Now the days are getting longer.
The 32nd annual solstice party held by Katherine Long and the Jacksons was a huge success, as always. It was a little different than in previous years without Tom, who died at the end of May. A wide array of people attended; the conversation was delightful and food prepared by many chefs was nothing short of superb. You kind of felt that Tom was looking down on all of us and was truly pleased that we were having a wonderful time.
Nori Duncan of Pawtucket, R.I., came for the party. She stayed with us and returned home on Monday.
John Kelleher, senior deacon, reports that there will be two church services this evening offered by the Rev. Cathlin Baker of the First Congregational Church. At 5 p.m. the annual children’s pageant will be held at the Agricultural Hall. Arrive early to enjoy the Christmas music. Later, at 10 p.m., a candlelight worship service led by Reverend Baker will be held in the church. All are welcome.
Shirley Mayhew reports that her daughter, Sarah, has arrived from Davis, Calif., to spend Christmas with her parents and family. Her niece, Caroline Mayhew, daughter of Jack and Betsey Mayhew, has also arrived from Los Angeles.
Will and Leslei Monast will have most of the family home for Christmas: Cal, from the University of Pennsylvania; Beau, who is a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; and their daughter, Rainey. Sarah and her husband, Elton Nascimento, have gone down to Brazil for the winter.
Mary Sage Napolitan is home on break from her studies at the University of Vermont to enjoy Christmas with her family. She is excited to see her Vineyard friends during the break.
Sig Van Raan reports that all the Van Raan kids are home for the holidays. This year’s gingerbread house project will include alternative sustainable gingerbread housing — energy-efficient gingerbread houses and a gingerbread tree house. His wife, Susan Dickler, is working on a gingerbread lighthouse; this is an annual project that gets more elaborate each year as the kids get older. Daughter Willie is off to Istanbul later this week to visit her dad. Daughter Sofia had a poem published in the University of New Hampshire literary magazine. She made the dean’s list with straight As this past semester. Son Jackson just completed his first semester at the University of the Redlands in California. On his flight home he was delayed in San Francisco and inadvertently missed his flight connection. Virgin Airlines put him up at the Hyatt Regency where he had a grand old time with food vouchers and room service. He arrived home a day later but certainly none the worse for wear. They wish all their friends and neighbors a very happy holiday season.
Martha Tack reports she and her husband, Carl, are on the Island to spend the holidays with all their children, Molly and Ryan Tack-Hooper from Philadelphia, Catharine from Washington, D.C., and Travis from Chicago.
Life has been exciting but complicated for the Tacks recently. When they left London in May after 16 years, it was their plan to retire to the U.S. and divide their time between the Vineyard and Williamsburg, Va., where they are building a house. Now retirement will have to wait because Carl recently accepted an offer to become a managing partner in a small consulting firm based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He started work this month and is already residing in Dubai. Martha will be traveling back and forth while the house project continues in Virginia. For the foreseeable future their carbon footprint is going to be looking ugly and she has asked Santa for a generous supply of suntan lotion.
Dan Cabot and his wife, Nancy, will be having Christmas dinner with her cousin Donald and his wife, Kay Mayhew of Vineyard Haven at their home. Cousin Ann Howes will be enjoying Christmas dinner with her children. The following day Dan and Nancy will head up to St. Paul School in Concord, N.H., to visit their son Davies and his family.
Pierce Kirby has just returned from New York city and will share a Christmas celebration with family at his Aunt Rosalie Powell’s house on Courthouse Road. On Monday night they all celebrated Rosalie’s birthday. He reports that it was a fabulous time. Pierce plans to move back to London, England, next month.
Simi Horwitz down in New York city, a frequent visitor, wishes all her Vineyard friends a happy holiday season. Ava Plakins and her sister, Naomi, also send the best for the holidays to their Vineyard friends. So does Toni Kurash down in New York city.
The holiday season doesn’t cramp Colleen Morris’s style over at the library. On Monday night the Scrabble club will meet at 7 p.m, On Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. come and make hats and noisemakers for New Year’s Eve.
Happy birthday to Ann Howes, Marg Luening, Gabriel Robinson-Lynch, Holly Coyne and Fred Thurber today; Christina Montoya and Michael MacLean tomorrow; Glenn Jackson and Rachel Baumrin on Sunday; Claudia Lee, Eleanor Luce, Mike Ovios, Mary Gross and Mark Bernard on Monday; Gary Blodgett, Kate Devane and Maitland Edey on Tuesday; Simon Hickman, Phyllis McMorrow, and Mary Van Nes on Wednesday; Beth Kramer, Max Skjoldebrand, Linda Cohen and Don Sibley on Thursday. Belated birthday wishes to Dr. Carrie Fyler.
Well, that is all of the social news for this week’s edition. If you have news of your holiday guests, please call or e-mail me.
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