The town that fooled the British

Saint Michaels, Maryland. This is where Anne's folks, Chandler and Edith live, on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake. An historic small town with rippled brick walkways that connect the neighborhood charm. They foiled the Brits plans by hanging lanterns in the trees so the cannonballs overshot the actual houses during a night attack.
There is a wonderful Maritime Museum, a crab house out over the water you can motor (yes, in a boat) up to in the town harbor. Chan & Edie's house sit on a small channel, with it's own dock and davits for lowering the mahogany speedboat "Sputnik" into the water. This is a sailing family though, with several different small craft and most everybody knows how to use them.
Welcome to the family center. We (now 20) have been meeting at either July 4 or Xmas for the fifteen years that Anne and I have been married. And we're at it again, with everybody rolling in over the weekend.
We plan on having a very merry Christmas, and wish you good health and Light for you and your families.

The Red Lion Inn

We stayed with Natalie Shiras, an old friend of Anne's last week in Lee, Massachusetts while she did her three day interim ministry training. This is the Berkshires, lovely rolling hills and their towns and Congregational churches ( one of which Nat is the minister).
Snow was predicted for the day we were leaving, but we didn't expect 14"! We got an hour down the road (we were going to mosey along through the hilltowns on a two lane road) to Stockbridge, because I wanted to show Anne the great old hotel I found a few days earlier, The Red Lion Inn. Since 1773, it is the longest continuously running hotel in the country. We got there and realized we would be foolish to continue our trek. Snow was coming down like, well, look at the photos. All the merrier for us. I played piano with a guitar player in the tavern and we were safe and cozy for the night. We took off the following day in fine weather and returned to DC.