Practice generosity. That’s one thing you can easily do to boost your holiday spirit. This year has been especially trying and many have mentioned they’re just going to throw in the towel when it comes to Hanukkah and Christmas and forget 2020 ever happened. After having a few of these conversations and some others about missing loved ones and being homesick, a plan was devised.

The plan started off small. I’d reach out to a few friends and ask them to help me “adopt a Coastie.” As you likely know, Station Menemsha is home to 20-plus service members, many of whom are single and far away from the place they call home. My thought process —which was a bit of a selfish one since I needed a little kick in the pants to get my holiday spirit fired up — was to provide care packages for a few of the single guys at the station who would be working through the holidays. After an overwhelming outpouring of love and community spirit, we had the opportunity to “adopt” everyone at the Station.

Heartfelt thanks go out to the folks with the last names of; Ambulos, London-Thompson, Flanders, Thorpe, Malkin, Burkin, Walsh, Keene, Mayhew, Shipway, Carroll, Oliver, Nixon, Buhrman, Berini, Neumann, Fischer, Cody, Furst, Brooks. Scheuer, Goldman, Coutinho, Salvatore, Lawson-Young, Ruimerman, Weidner, Kimber, Armstrong, Knight, Thomson, Slater and Startzell.

This is the first year in decades that there hasn’t been a Chilmark kids Christmas party sponsored by the Chilmark Volunteer Firefighter’s Association. Department members put their thinking caps on and devised a plan with Santa. The man in red left his elves in charge and took an evening away from the workshop at the North Pole to dish out the first gifts of Christmas to our towns kids. He belted out a bunch of ho-ho-ho’s and chatted with kids newborn through fifth grade as the rode by the fire station with their folks to pick up their gifts and a few sweets tucked into festive bags.

Thank you to the last minute package wrappers: Linda Coutinho, Hillary Noyes-Keene, Traci Cooney and Bradley Carroll. Thank you to Jeremy Bradshaw for playing a pivotal role and to Christina Colarusso, Cody Coutinho, Chris Smith, John Cabral, Gerry Caton, Tauras Biskis, Jonathan Klaren, Jesse Burton and Bill Fielder, Erin Delaney, Mary Boyd, Liz Oliver, Janet Weidner, Jennifer Christy, Bea Whiting, Sue Merrell, Mary Ambulos, Anja May and anyone I’m sure I inadvertently forgot, for helping make this year memorable in one way or another.

He may not know it, but Kendall Harris’s social media posts that have him wandering Memory Lane manage to spread some Christmas cheer. He still has the artificial tree his family brought into their home in 1966. The memory seems vivid since Mrs. Harris wanted to wrap Thanksgiving and Christmas together before big brother Richard deployed to Vietnam. Another tidbit he shared was a glimpse of him and his fearless protector the family dog, Tammy. They were front and center on a 1964 (possibly ’63) Christmas card.

Welcome home to Judy Mayhew who did a little stint at Mass General. It’s nice to know she’s nestled back in atop DH’s hill with Ted by her side. They do make a wonderful pair.

Ken Iscol stopped by the Texaco, driving my favorite classic red Ford pick-up, to share news about his son Zach’s latest endeavor. He dropped off a newspaper clipping from the New York Post with a headline that read “Can’t fight City Hall? Send in the Marine!” The 42-year-old, combat veteran hopes he will have the opportunity to bring his resourcefulness to the job. He knows, if elected, he will be held accountable by the people so his plans to run things more efficiently will put government dollars to work servicing the local community. I have my fingers crossed for you, Zach.

And a quick shout out goes to Margaret Maida who always makes nice holiday gestures. For years she’s been thoughtful enough to bring me a bag of candy corn at Halloween time. I know, many of you don’t like candy corn, but Margaret knows I do. I’d just like to share I found the perfect hiding spot for the bag and I still have a secret stash. It’s hidden and wouldn’t you like to know where?