Scattered Thoughts . . .

We've skipped a few years of celebrations due to the pandemic.   Although, I have to be honest, we did recently discuss the wisdom of celebrating this year considering how many people are now sick with the virus, the flu and other viruses.  We took a chance and headed to Stowe for our annual Christmas celebration anyway.   We started the afternoon at Idletyme Brewing.  Frank and Christine met us there.  We had some wings, a big pretzel, and a few delicious beers.   I started with Zog's Pale Ale.  Sheila started with a Stowespresso which is made with Green Mountain Vanilla Vodka, Kahlua, Baileys and cold brew espresso.  We both tasted a unique Stout sporting notes of chocolate and coffee as well as a unique Vanilla Porter.  Personally, I preferred the Zog's Pale Ale and stuck with that.   Here is a photo of Sheila's Stowespresso... Here is a photo of the big pretzel with beer cheese dipping sauce as well as a spicy mustard dipping sauce.  This was "okay".  We&#

Back a month ago, we went to one of Lukey's hockey games at Stowe Arena.  After hockey, we all went to a local Christmas Tree farm to cut Christmas trees and then went out to lunch.  I'll write more and share more photos of the tree farm and lunch but this long overdue blog entry is about Lukey's hockey game. Lukey was in goal for this particular game and he did a good job.  It is funny, it seems like every time I started recording video, Lukey let up a goal!  I did happen to capture a few good saves by him but the video is a bit misleading.  He actually did have a lot of saves...  far more than goals scored against him.  Most importantly, Lukey had a great time in goal! So, here are a few photos from the game. At the bottom of the page, there is a short video too... It is difficult to spot at first but, in this photo below, Lukey blocked the shot with his right leg pad...  the hockey puck is blurred because

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!

After we went to a Christmas Tree farm to cut Christmas trees this past weekend, we headed to a restaurant for a nice Christmas lunch. We've been doing this family Christmas lunch thing since the grandchildren were born four years ago. I don't think our intentions were to make this a tradition... I think we were just hungry that first year after cutting Christmas trees and lunch sounded like a good idea... after the second year of doing the same, we started thinking of it as a tradition. By now, it is definitely a nice tradition and something we look forward to each Christmas season.  Our lunch was delicious... the drinks were delicious... the desserts were delicious... the service was outstanding... and the atmosphere was warm, cozy and Christmassy... Arriving at the restaurant... Happy to see Gee again... I had to shoot a photo of this... I even advised Lukey to never attempt this in a real NY pizzeria... he was dipping his pizza in ranch dressing...