Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas

Have a great day with friends and family

The week that was

Twas a busy week... bottling Monday, FinCom meeting and Town Council meeting to report on Tues/Weds, A Christmas Carol Times Two! to help with on Thursday... a couple of productive meetings Saturday morning, errands mixed in for the remainder of the day  put up the tree and lights

Christmas tree 2013

before setting down by the fire place for the evening to wind down.

roaring fire 12/14/13

Christmas 2012 - part 1

Dolores' sisters and parents gathered for Christmas dinner. A day of family fun, good food and plenty of conversation. Unfortunately, Diane broke her ankle which dampened the spirits a little. We did take the time for a family photo:

Connie and Joseph Proulx Family

The Sherlocks will be gathering today. For those who aren't able travel to Franklin, we'll use technology to its fullest and do a video session to connect virtually.

angel on top

The wreath on the front door arrived a couple of weeks ago. The window lights went in this past weekend just after the tree was set up.

The angel in lights went on top then Allison took over to decorate the remainder of the tree.

Are you preparing for Christmas?

Sherlock Christmas 2011

Christmas has been a very busy family event this year, more so than ever as we hosted both the Proulx side and the Sherlock's for dinner. Not at the same time. The Proulx's were at the house for Christmas Day for steak on the grill and the Sherlock's gathered on Wednesday for an Italian buffet.

Photos of the Sherlock clan can be found here
http://jerrysherlockstory.blogspot.com/2011/12/jerrys-clan-christmas-2011.html

More photos will be posted as time permits.

What I want for Christmas

What I want for Christmas is this helicopter!



No, I don't really 'want' this. There are so many other things that would be more practical and realistic. This is so far out on the scale of the wish list!

The commercial for REI that they used this device to make can be viewed on Chas's post here

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas - 2010

I wish you and your family all the best on this wonderful day!

Fairytale of New York

From Steve Garfield, a good cover of the Pogues Christmas folk classic:




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Enjoy!

Christmas - Sherlock half

Part 2 of Christmas was the gathering of the Sherlock's on Sunday. The turkey and ham were prepared on Saturday. Dolores and my sisters coordinated the remainder of the meal dishes. While we didn't have room to sit all at one table, the 27 who did eat ate well!

The turkey:

Dinner time!

Game time! I think "Catch Phrase was in high action here:

More photos of this special event can be seen on Jerry's Story. He was very pleased to have all 13 grandchildren together for this event.

Enjoy!

Christmas - Proulx half

We do Christmas twice each year. Once with Dolores' family and once with my side of the family. This was part of the choice we made to be home for the holidays.

Christmas for the Proulx's was at Joanne's house this year. We did a "Yankee swap" gift exchange.

Before the swap started, Joanne shared a photo album she had put together from the family photo archive:

Joey (who is not yet of drinking age) initially opened a bottle of Bailey's and got excited. Alas, he didn't get to keep it.

Dad Proulx was puzzled and challenged by the tape to open his uniquely shaped choice. It turned out to be a great one to reach those hard places on the back to scratch.

Dolores opened this sweat shirt but it looks like it fits Carolyn, who will wear it first?

While not all the gifts are shown here, everyone did end up with something good. I trust your Christmas was enjoyable!

Merry Christmas! (video)

In the spirit of Christmas and having fun, here is a short video of the ImprovEverywhere group providing some assistance to one of the Salvation Army bell ringers.

Enjoy!



Read more about this group and how they prepared this event here

Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Steve's 2 Cents to view this video.

Last minute prep

Some food shopping and last minute gift shopping all in preparation for the big day tomorrow.

We'll buy some fresh bread dough for our roll-ups which is a Christmas Eve dinner tradition. The roll-ups are like a calzone. The bread dough rolled up around (1) ham and cheddar cheese, (2) some Italian sausage and mozzarella cheese, and (3) some pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.

My father will join Dolores, Carolyn and I for dinner. Allison is with Brad in New Hampshire.

Time to go for a walk to start the day.

Enjoy the family time this holiday season!

What she'll miss

Carolyn is coming home for Christmas and writing up the things she'll miss that she found while she was in Greece:

During my last walk around the city I was thinking about how many things here I am going to miss, and its a pretty long list. I'm going to miss the weather for one (its about 40 degrees warmer than Boston right now). But I am very much looking forward to snow and a white Christmas. I'm also going to miss the food, the feta, the chocolate, and the tavernas. The Greek lifestyle includes sitting at restaurants or cafes for hours at a time with the staff in no rush for you to leave. In fact, they encourage you to stay with live music, and rounds of wine and dessert on the house. I'm going to miss walking down the street and seeing a group of old men sitting outside relaxing and playing backgammon.

Read her full posting here

And the angel takes her place

In the 'many hands make light work' category, the family divides the duties for preparing the house for Christmas. Dolores takes down the ones from Thanksgiving and sets out the Christmas decorations. I take care of setting up the tree.

I string the lights on it and then do a single light in the front windows. The girls usually alternate turns in putting the angel on the top. Allison was out to a movie with her cousin and Carolyn was in Greece so I had to place the angel then string the lights from that plug. Now the tree will be ready for the remainder of the decorations.

The girls join in decorating the tree. This year, Allison will have the lead with Carolyn providing some advice via Skype from Greece.

Enjoy!

The naked tree

First step to decorate the tree is to put it up:

Tonight, the lights will get hung on the tree. Allison is stopping home this weekend to decorate it. Her sister Carolyn will participate via remote connection from Greece.

Christmas 2008

christmas_2008grandchildren, originally uploaded by shersteve.

Eleven of Jerry's thirteen grandchildren were present this Christmas. We sat 24 folks for dinner. There was enough room and there were leftovers. The eclair ring was a big hit for dessert, not much of that remained.

Merry Christmas to all!

12 Days of Christmas from "Straight No Chaser"

Another good mashed up version, a capella style of the 12 Days of Christmas from "Straight No Chaser"

Enjoy!

Christmas 2007 - fans

Christmas 2007 - fans, originally uploaded by shersteve.

One of several gifts that were created via WalMart.com or SnapFish, or one of the now many options for using your own photos.

This teddy (he is cute!) wears a simple sweat shirt adorned with the photo of Allison and Carolyn at the Beckham game back in August. Upload photo, pick object, pay with credit card, await delivery.

How simple is that!

Tree ornaments, coffee mugs, stationary, calendars.... the list of items is seemingly endless.

The calendar, in particular, is a gift that the family has created for my father since either 1992 or 1993. Some of us are kicking ourselves that we only made one of those each year. Dad keeps them all. He diligently uses the calendar for his scheduling. The photo archive now is quite extensive.

And so many stories! (background, there are six children each with kids so Jerry has thirteen grandchildren. Each sibling gets two photos in the calendar to fill out the year.) We call these "Papa photos" and there will be times during the year when it would be good to take a "Papa photo". So Dad's calendar has not only photos of his grandchildren but of them in different places, doing different things.... so many stories. Actually I should develop this further for a post on Jerry's Story sometime.

What gift did you receive or what gift did you give that was similarly "hand crafted"?

Lessons About Life, Enterprise, from Baking Christmas Cookies

Lessons About Life, Enterprise, from Baking Christmas Cookies

Peters on Excellence

A couple of hours in a hot kitchen can teach you as much about business and management as the latest books on re-engineering or total quality management. That’s my take, anyway, after a bout of Christmas-cookie baking. Here are 11 lessons for life (and enterprise), fresh from the oven:

1. Engagement. Watching others helps, but you’ve gotta get your hands dirty. I hadn’t made cookies for years, so I observed a friend do a few batches. I thought I was learning something, and I suppose I was—but nothing really clicked until my hands were covered with flour.

Lesson (for trainers especially): Cut the lectures. Get folks involved in “real stuff” very quickly!

2. A plan. I’m not keen on planning in general, but a time-tested recipe is a godsend. First, it’s roughly “right.” More important, it gives you the confidence to get started.

Lesson: Any plan is a help; it gives folks the sense they aren’t aimlessly flailing.

3. Art. The plan is an outline—not Holy Writ. Plans, including recipes, are made to be tinkered with—and eventually torn up. Cookie making, software design, and real-estate lending are art. And it’s the artists, not the slavish followers of others’ recipes, who land in the world’s halls of fame.

Lesson: Blind devotion to any plan is downright dumb!

4. Trial and errors. Yes, I’d watched a master at work (or at least a pretty good cook), but in my first hour of hands-on work, with instructions close at hand, I made dozens of mistakes, large and small. And in business life, real life, and cookie-making life, error is the fuel that drives you.

Lesson: Don’t “tolerate” mistakes. Embrace them!

5. The same mistakes. “Mistakes are OK,” some concede, “but don’t make the same mistake twice.”

Rubbish! I made virtually the same errors, in something as relatively simple as cookie making, over and over ... and over.

Lesson: Nobody ever did anything (interesting) right the first, or 51st, time.

6. A sense of humor. I was awkward at the start. (And at the finish.) I turned the kitchen into a disaster area. Kids and adults made their day laughing at me (or so it seemed). Experimentation—the nub of life and business—depends on learning to laugh at yourself.

Lesson: Learning is precisely about making a fool of yourself—often in public.

7. Perseverance. An ability to laugh at yourself and suppress your ego is key—but so is steely-eyed determination. Sure it was “just” cookie making. But I did want to do it right.

Lesson: Winners want to do everything well, no matter how trivial; and that takes focus and unrelenting drive.

8. Perfectionism. Certainly, the kitchen was a mess. Yes, I was the object of ridicule. But to master one’s craft requires nothing less than pain-in-the-butt perfectionism. Most see artists, and creative types in general, as scatterbrained. I’m sure there are scatterbrained artists (and bakers), but their work doesn’t end up in museums (or cookbooks).

Lesson: Creativity and perfectionism are essential handmaidens.

9. Ownership. It was made clear to me: I was responsible for the Christmas Eve dinner cookies. There were no backups available—and a long ginger-cookie tradition hung on my frail (i.e., incompetent) shoulders. The monkey was ensconced squarely on my back. So I did the job.

Lesson A: No ownership, no passion.
Lesson B: No passion, no perseverance.
Lesson C: There is no half ownership.

10. Accountability. When I’d helped with some previous cookie making (the day before), I’d screwed up the baking time twice. Now I was on my own. That should have made things more difficult. But, to the contrary, I was so attuned to the task that I didn’t come close to blowing it.

Lesson: Until you’re engaged in all aspects of a job, you don’t fully engage.

11. Taste. OK, I’ll brag: I made good cookies. Greatness takes practice—and exquisite taste. I may or may not practice more, but I doubt I’ll ever become to baking what Tom Clancy is to techno-thrillers.

Lesson: If we want great products, we need to find, attract, and retain great creators. Period.


Many thanks to Tom Peters for allowing this to be shared!