Christmas is a Comin'

Snow on the bushes

Can't see it, but it's snowing!

 I love the Christmas season. Today it really feels like Christmas.  It started showing around 10 a.m. and while it didn't stick to anything but leaves, the big flakes came falling down for awhile and was beautiful.It's every child's dream - to have snow for Christmas.  Doesn't happen very often in Elba, AL.

We had snow for Christmas many years when we lived in TX, GA, MN, NC, SC, and Germany.  We really don't miss the cold weather.

Today is James' birthday and that's when we usually put up our real tree.  This year I put the pre-lit  tree up the first day of December.  Since we are not having company this Christmas, I only put 2 ornaments on the tree this year, the electric train ornament from NYC and a special ornament of James'.  Then I used some red bows, lights, red and gold balls.   James always wanted lots of presents under the tree and could hardly wait for me to wrap them.  He loved buying gift wrap and bows.  Our paper always had Santa Claus on it.

We put Santa Claus in the front yard and a big wreath on the house above Santa.  And we hung our Moravian Star, as we have done since we lived in Winston-Salem near Old Salem, a Moravian village.

The creche is in place on a hall table and we turn the light on in the stable and leave it burning until January.
One of the camels has a hole in his back where it cracked during one of our moves.  Joseph's head keeps falling off despite super glue.  The cow only has one horn left.  We've had it since 1970-  40 years ago!  James' teachers made the figures for children in his special class when he was in school in Paris, TX.

Carolyn turns 60!

I can't believe my "baby sister" turned 60 on Nov. 20.  I was 16 when she was born, the youngest of 7 children.

Last weekend I flew to Charlotte, NC and my sister Alice met me at the airport so that we could drive to Black Mountain, NC on Sunday to attend our sister Carolyn's 60th birthday party on Sun. night.

The party was so much fun. She rented the Rec Dept center on Lake Tomahawk for the occasion.   She planned her own party but some others helped supply the food.  She baked her own cake, to resemble
Mt. Washington, N.H., where she hiked a couple of years ago.

This is how Carolyn looked when I got married and lived in Germany.  We came back to the U.S. when she was only 4-1/2.  She asked me if I was her sister or her aunt!  I left home to go to college in 1952 when she was only 2 years old, and never lived at home after that.

Our mother died when Carolyn was 12 and in the 5th grade.  The other 4 sisters and I helped "raise" her.  I think she turned out pretty good!!

She is the most artistic person in our family - in many ways.  A great artist, decorator, cook, gardener - you just name it and she can do it.

She asked people to donate canned goods instead of bringing her a present and you should have seen the big basket of food we delivered to the fire house for distribution for the needy for Thanksgiving.  What a great idea.

Carolyn and Dave will soon be grandparents again - next March (Beth and Matt).  This time a girl.  Little Jack was a year old in July and belongs to son Doug.

Pictured here are the six sisters (plus a friend of Carolyn's).  I am the oldest and Carolyn is the youngest.  This was taken in May at Beth's wedding.

Soccer Grandparents

Last weekend we traveled to SC to see our 15-year-old granddaughter play soccer at the SC State Cup.  Two weeks earlier we went to Charleston, SC to see her in the play-offs and they won and went to the big games.  So like any good grandparents, we packed our suitcases and took off to Spartanburg for the final games.

Jim and Nell with Nerissa

On the way up there we went to Clemson, SC to visit her sister who is a senior nursing student there.  We visited her at her apartment on Lake Hartwell and later took her out to dinner.  We took our laptop computer with us so we could listen to the Elba High School football game on the Elba radio station.  It was amazing that we could go to a website, and put in some info, and voila!  There was Elba Tigers football coming out of the speakers!!  Nerissa listened to the game with us (not exactly Clemson Tigers that she was used to). We were so excited that Elba won in the 2nd round of the play-offs for state title.
They will play again this Friday night and I will be sitting in the Memphis airport on a 2-hour layover between flights when the game is going on.  I'll have to keep checking via telephone calls.

Nerissa and Grandpa on her balcony

 Nerissa lives in a beautiful condo with two roommates.  This photo of her with her "grandpa" was taken on their balcony overlooking the lake.

The condo is not far from the Clemson campus.  Most of her classes are in hospitals this year.  She said she has to get up very early to get to the hospital a few miles away.

We will see her again during Christmas holidays in Florence, SC, along with her sister Katie from College of Charleston and our little soccer player, Caroline who is in the 9th grade at West Florence High School.

Caroline in the center, #39

Caroline is in blue, #39, in the center.  She is a really good player and loves playing soccer.  She is hoping to get picked for the high school varsity team early in the spring.  Soccer is a very fast moving game.  It wore me out just sitting and watching!!

She had some good cheerleaders including her grandparents, her dad Bill, and her Aunt Alice and Uncle Jerry from Charlotte, NC - who came on Sat. and Sunday.

Unfortunately they were defeated (1 point) on both Saturday games.  But they were great on Sunday morning and won that game.  They didn't get to play for the state cup on Sun. p.m.  But just getting to the state level was a great accomplishment.

They played in Spartanburg, SC on Saturday and the games on Sunday took place in Greenville, SC.

Caroline's Cheerleaders
Uncle Jerry, Grandpa, Dad, and Grandma

Caroline - a winner!  Florence, SC "Strikers"
Very tired - but happy!!

Visiting Amish country around Lancaster, PA

Left Niagara Falls after lunch on Friday, October 8 and traveled most of the day to reach Lancaster, PA. We had dinner and went to bed early in order to spend the next morning in the Amish country.

Amish home in the country

We traveled to Bird in Hand where we picked up a guide for our morning outing in the countryside.  He pointed out that the Amish people have beautiful homes, all without modern conveniences such as electricity.


 We visited this farm and saw the dairy barn with the cows inside the barn.  They sell the milk and butter to people in the area.  The Amish have small farms and do not use tractors with rubber tires; just the metal ones.  Most of the kids ride modified bicycles they call Scooters.

Schools are very small and located in small communities.  More like home schooling it seems to me.

Pictured below is a "mock Amish wedding".  A couple was chosen from our group to get married by a Mennonite minister.  The ceremony took place in the school house.  Then all the guests stayed for a big wedding feast.

We went to a restaurant at Bird in Hand where we were served food such as found at a typical wedding feast.  The food was very good.

Amish wedding taking place (bride and groom were Dr. Joe and his wife Sue Herod from our group)

 This is an example below of an Amish country home.  The houses were all so neat and clean.  Never saw any junk or clutter in the yards.  They rode in buggies pulled by mules and horses so they didn't have any junk cars in the yards.   Most of the homes had clothes lines attached to cables so the line could be high off the ground.  We saw clothes flapping in the wind all over the country-side.  I wondered if Sat. was laundry day instead of the typical Monday.

Old Amish home

We left the Amish country later in the afternoon and headed back to our hotel to rest and get ready to go to the Sight and Sound Theater in Lancaster, about 20 miles from where we were staying.

It took us much longer to get to the theater than we had planned and we didn't have time to eat at the restaurant at the theater.  We barely got there in time to get inside and get seated before the play "Joseph" began.   It was wonderful!  A magnificant theater and even better play.  Live animals on the stage was amazing.  When we were getting seated I heard someone from the back call my name, and waving. i looked to see where he was sitting and at intermission I went over and there were friends from Elba, AL!

Hershey's Chocolate World

They knew we were going to be there and were looking for us.  They were on a tour also to another area of the country and stopped by Lancaster.

We got early on Sunday, Oct. 14 and drove to the beautiful town of Hershey, PA and toured the town that the chocolate baron built.  Then on to Hershey's Chocolate World.  Toured the factory and enjoyed a fun 3-D movie telling about the history of Hershey.  It was fun watching Hershey Kisses flying toward you as we looked at the presentation wearing 3-D glasses.

Of course you exited the theater into a giant gift shop filled with Hershey products.  I bought our son Bill a giant Hershey kiss for his chocolate tooth.  Later saw them at WalMart for about half of what I paid for it at the gift shop!    

We left Hershey around noon and drove to Knoxville, TN where we spent the last night on the road.  Got up early the next morning and drove through the Great Smoky Mountains toward Birmingham and then home to Coffee County.  A weary group of travelers were happy to get back home in the middle of the afternoon.

We said good-bye to all the friends we had made on the trip.  After 15 days on a bus,  they were almost like family to us!

Niagara Falls - very exciting place

Beautiful Niagara Falls as seen from Canada.  So much water flowing and so fast.  The water beneath the falls is green - not blue as it is usually shown in pictures.  There was a hint of a rainbow among the mist when this photo was made.

Upstream from the falls

This photo shows the water flowing over rocks upstream from the falls.
The mist from the falls can be seen in this photo as the water falls over the ledge.  You can hear the roar of the falls all around the area.  The water never stops!

We rode the boat "Maid of the Mist" up to the bottom of the falls and I admit it was very scary.  They gave us plastic ponchos to wear and you can see in the photo here that my hair is very wet from the mist.

Nell on Maid of the Mist ship

 Jim and I took a tour "behind the falls" before going to the bottom of the falls.
The views were spectacular!  Even on this lookout point, you could feel the mist from the falls.

At the bottom of the Falls

In this picture of the falls you can see how forceful the falls are, creating a heavy mist all the time.  At night they have bright colored lights shining on the waterfall,  We walked along the parkway road at night and admired the beauty of the lights reflecting off the falls. 

The next picture of the falls and park below were taken from our hotel room, 22 floors up at the Embassy Suites.  You could open the window and hear the roar of the falls.  If you look close at the picture below (click to enlarge it)  you will see people walking along the parkway overlooking the falls.  This is where we walked at night.

We had lunch the next day, Oct. 8, at Skylon Tower. You take an outside elevator (see photo) to the top of the tower and the restaurant revolves around the top so you can enjoy views of the entire area.  And the food was delicious.  We had reservations so they were waiting for us and we had tables along the outer rim so we could all see the views.

Travel in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire

We left Moncton, New Brunswick on Wednesday, Oct. 6, and traveled all the way to New Hampshire where we spent the night in the White Mountains.

We had to enter the US Customs and they had us to get off the bus while the guard dogs "sniffed" us and our luggage.  Weren't there too long and they let us back on the bus to go into the US.

Covered bridge in NH

Leaves were not at their peak and it was starting to rain when we got into the White Mountains in VT.  We spent the day looking for moose and actually saw 3 grazing in the woods somewhere in New Hampshire.  The driver stopped the bus for us to take pictures. We saw a pretty old covered bridge along the way when we were traveling across VT and NH.

Tram used as ski lift in winter

Aerial tram that we rode to top

Franconia State Park Visitor Center

We got to Franconia, NH late at night due to rainy weather and two-lanes in the park.  We all went to bed early so we could get up the next morning and leave at 8 am, stopping at Cannon Mountain, NH, to go to the top of the mountains via aerial tram.  It was so foggy we couldn't see very far. The tram closes in the winter for tourists going to the top of the mountain, and  is used by skiers.  We enjoyed visiting the Visitor's Center for Franconia Notch State Park.

We traveled for awhile in western NY, going thru Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo.  The cornfields were very pretty and we saw lots of pumpkins still in the field, ready to be picked up. I called my brother-in-law Guy in Sarasota when we were passing thru his hometown of Chittnango, NY, but missed him.  It was beautiful in that area; rolling farmland.  He left there when he joined the Navy and never returned there to live.

It was dark when we pulled into the Canadian border and the Customs officer came aboard our bus and looked at our passports, and then sent us on.  This time we didn't have to get off the bus or have our luggage unloaded and inspected.  We pulled into the parking lot of the nicest hotel on our trip, the 30-story Embassy overlooking Niagara Falls.  

Arriving at Niagara Falls, Canada, at night

Niagara Falls will be featured next time.  Lots to say about this great place and some good photos.

Nova Scotia - 2nd day - Oct 5, 2010

Nell and Jim Gilmer at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Day 2 in Nova Scotia:  We traveled to the southeastern part of Nova Scotia, including Peggy's Cove and Halifax.  The lighthouse which includes a post office sits on solid rock. We had lunch at a restaurant near the lighthouse.  This little village on the Atlantic Ocean  has less than 50 permanent inhabitants. Many artists come here to paint the lighthouse and other scenes in the village

We left Peggy's Cove and traveled to Halifax, a big shipping port.  Our guide gave us a tour of the city and took us to Fairview Cemetery to see graves of many of those who died when the Titantic sank.
We went walking in the beautiful public garden before we left Halifax to return to Moncton,New Brunswick to spend our last night in Canada.

Public Garden

Fairview Cemetery