It may be difficult to separate the Christmas season from the bearded man who drops onto rooftops ‘round the world from his reindeer, but what the season is truly about is gathering family and friends to fulfill traditions passed down through generations, laugh, joke, reminisce and simply enjoy good company.

I feel a little like a who in Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who, shouting “We are here! We are here! We are here!”

Santa’s elves have been hard at work preparing for the man in the red suit to make a pit stop at the CCC next Thursday, Dec. 21.

It doesn’t quite have it’s foot in the door but winter has managed to make it’s way to the front stoop.

At first they need us and then we need them — that is what happens when a pup joins a family.

Thanksgiving brings our summer friends, college kids and extended families to town by the bushel.

“Our rural ancestors, with little blest, Patient of labour when the end was rest, Indulged the day that housed their annual grain, With feasts, and off’rings, and a thankful strain.” – Alexander Pope

In 1918, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, an armistice was declared between the Allied nations and Germany in World War I.

Periodically, I hope to include in the Chilmark column a guest appearance from the woman who kept us fed with all of the newsy tidbits she could get her hands on over the past, let’s just say, many years.

The local apples, sweet cinnamon and tender crust came together in the kitchen of Beth Mayhew into an, oh so delicious, rustic pie that I was lucky enough to enjoy for breakfast a few days ago.