After resting and visiting with our son and his girlfriend in NC, we drove to CT to do a workaway for our friend Chris who opened up his second smokehouse restaurant. He asked us to stay in his three story house and paint the second floor apartment and spruce up the outside.


This involved power washing the patio and garage

before after

cutting and stacking some bushes and trees

scraping and repairing the living room ceiling and closet walls

before                                                                                                    after

 

removing wallpaper and painting the dining room, one bedroom, kitchen, pantry, and several other small rooms.

before                                                                                                                            after

before                                                                                         after

 

before                                                                               after

 

before                                                                                       after

before                                                                              after

 

and the rest

         

 

We also volunteered at the restaurant as “unskilled” labor. We cleared tables, helped restock the bar, and any other “unskilled” work that was needed at the time.  We got to eat at the restaurant and enjoy the WONDERFUL food served there. If you are ever in Meridan CT and want some good food go to Taino Prime.

We had a good time helping our friend. When we were not working, the house was close enough to our other friends and family, so we got to visit with everyone.

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We went to the Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular at the Roger Williams Zoo with our dear friends. There were over 5,000 carved pumpkins. Some hanging from trees, others along the walkway, it was pretty awesome. Take a look…

   

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We also went to the Mystic Aquarium Northern Lights. It is described as “A sea of lights leads the way through a mesmerizing journey along the Aquarium’s outdoor pathways. See Arctic animals in a whole new light – quite literally – as you stroll to theatric music in search of hand-crafted lanterns that bring Arctic animals to life!”
Well I don’t think it was all that, but the company was good and that’s what mattered!

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We celebrated our friend Shelly’s 70th birthday and Mike’s 58th.

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We went with my mother-in-law to see an amazing kite spectacular. Someone she knows loves to fly kites. Now we are not talking just any kind of kites, we are talking all shapes and sizes. From astronaut, penguins, sharks, ducks and horses that look like they are galloping when the wind blows, whales, crabs, and sooo many more. Take a look at the huge cat. He does this for free at a local park by the sea. It was really something to see.

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Myself, Mike and Mike’s mom drove  to David’s new home in North Carolina for Thanksgiving. We all helped cook a great Thanksgiving dinner and enjoyed each others company.

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We attended the family Christmas party. This is a party that has been going on well before Mike was born. Everyone on Mike’s grandmother’s side of the family gets together on the second Saturday in December. We all make a dish to eat, each family (7 in total) creates and brings a themed basket that is raffled off in a silent auction, and a gift for the Chinese gift exchange. Uncle Frannie leads a sing-a-long, which gets Santa to stop by (\and join in with the singing. It is a good time to get together with family members you only see once a year. There was over 100 family members that attended. Not many families can say they are close enough to do this.

We also went to the weekly coffee and donuts gathering on Tuesday morning.  This is when all the retired family member meet for (you guested it) coffee and donuts.  They go to a different member’s home each week.  I think they try to solve the world’s problems or maybe just talk about them (LOL).  It is so nice to see a family want to visit and stick together.  Not enough of this in the world anymore.

We visited some other friends and truly enjoyed our time “home”.

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On December 19th I got to do another thing on my bucket list – we saw Andrea Bocelli in concert. He was singing at Madison Square Garden in New York City. What a nice time we had visiting New York City just before Christmas. We not only saw the concert, which was great, but we got to go to Rockafella Center to see the Christmas tree, ice skaters, and Macy’s show of lights. To make it just that much more special, it even snowed just a little.

 

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We continued driving south and spent a nice relaxing Christmas with David and Tristen in North Carolina.
Then we were on our way again. We headed to Florida to spend New Years with some friends and start our next workaway in Kissimmee Florida which will be the subject of the next blog update.

Till next time…

“Good family and friends are like stars you don’t always see them but you know they are there.”
― Christy Evans