Scattered Thoughts . . .

Since Sheila's latest bout with cancer, I've been doing all I can to keep her happy and keep her mind off the cancer as best as I can. She had already received a few gifts to lift her spirits throughout treatment but she also expressed that she would like to visit Manhattan for Christmas. Needless to say, we headed down to Manhattan earlier this week to spend some time there while the city is decorated for Christmas.  As usual, we traveled on Amtrak so we didn't need to worry about staying awake while driving nor did we need to worry about where to park the car once we arrived in Manhattan. Amtrak has proven to be a mostly trouble-free way to travel for us. I'll write more about our journey on Amtrak soon.  I picked out an historic hotel and we reserved a good-sized suite by Manhattan standards. The location of this hotel was perfect for our plans... mid-town Manhattan, near all the animated storefront windows decorated for Christmas, near the Empire State Building

Every year, we kick off our Christmas season with a dinner with friends at a restaurant in Stowe. This is what we did yesterday and, as always, we had a great time. Thank you, Frank, for arranging this little get-together each year! The food was delicious! Actually, over the course of the day and between Adam, Sheila and I, we went through seven entrees... two orders of Maine Crab Cakes, Maple Buffalo Wings, an Artisanal Cheese Plate, and then three dinners at our table. Oh yeah... and we had a few desserts as well which were equally as good. Every plate was delicious! We had a really great time and this annual event with friends always proves to be a great way to kick off our Christmas season!