My Little Butter Vampire

Well, I accidentally left the butter out the other night.  Here's what I found in the morning:

Now, I see Sterling's fang impressions all the time (mostly on my arms), but I love this picture!  Not only do you see her fangs, but also perfect impressions of her little middle teeth!  Seriously, you could make a plaster cast of this!

It is clear, too, that butter was not to her taste.  But I am thrilled to report that she did not puke it up anywhere!  Or anywhere that I've found yet...

An Invitation to Deliciousness (Oh, Yeah, and Please Buy Stuff)

As the holidays draw near, Newburyport has what are called "Invitation Nights."  On these two nights -- two consecutive Fridays this December -- local businesses stay open late and invite customers to visit and browse and buy.  In addition, most of them offer something special, like drinks or snacks or little gifts.

It's quite a spectacle!  The stores were packed.  In some a person could barely move at all!  And the snacks were much better than I expected.

I am currently very poor (buy my condo in Seattle, please!), so I went to experience it and to eat and drink; not to buy.  Two of the stores I visited had delicious champagne punch, one of which had a big, plump blackberry in the bottom of each cup.  (I don't like blackberries, but I was impressed with the effort!)  Several of the stores had cookies, and the local bookstore had wine.

However, the place I was most impressed with wasn't even a store!  A local insurance company, Chase & Lunt, displayed an artist's work in each employee's cubicle, and outside had hot chocolate and kettle corn (being made in actual kettles!) for everyone.  (I have to admit, my friends and I were sort of laughing about the poor employees who probably frantically cleaned their desks that morning, knowing that every citizen of Newburyport and the surrounding area were going to be walking by.  I can't even imagine!  I don't think I could clean my desk that well even if I tried.  I wonder if the insurance company has a closet filled to overflowing with everyone's stuff.)

Here's a picture.  Hot chocolate under the tent to the right, kettle corn to the left.  Also at the right, my two friends and coworkers: Diane in the white coat, and Jessica to her right.

As we meandered down the streets, we came to the town square.  Jessica hadn't seen it yet, so we crossed over to take a look.  Since I had attended the tree-lighting ceremony, the town had added red bows to the tree.  There were also several local citizen/volunteer bands playing.  Little kids were dancing with their parents, and Jessica and I broke into song once.  Here's a shot:

For the first time, I saw that the town square sported a menorah, since Chanukah began this weekend.  Poor Chanukah.  I know it's not one of the more important Jewish holidays, but it's always relegated to the background.  In the town square, the Christmas tree must be (I'm a terrible estimator), perhaps, 20-25 feet tall.  Here's the menorah, barely taller than me:

But it does have electric candles for each night of Chanukah which is fun.  I'll probably go down several times to take a look.

Strangely, the menorah is plugged into a tree.  If you click on the picture so that it's bigger, you'll notice that the tree behind the menorah has the menorah cord wrapped around it, and plugged into a socket that has been strangely set on the tree.  I'm not sure what's going on there.  It's very odd.  I think that socket is there somewhat permanently.  I'll take a closer picture for you later, but if you notice, there is a black tube that goes from the socket down into the ground.  I think that connects the socket to the town square power source.  Weird.

One of the stores Jessica and I visited was the local toy store.  It was very fun, and downstairs I spied this!

The good news?  Sterling is not that big any more!  Anyway, I kind of love that stuffed animal.

Next Friday is another Invitation Night, and I'll definitely go again.  There are tons of stores I didn't go into, which means there is tons of food and drink I didn't get.  Seriously, Invitation Night is as good as Sunday at Costco, except with more cookies.  I won't miss it!

A Pig and Two Pugs

Yesterday I had the most fun program at the Newburyport Public Library!  Farmer Minor brought his potbellied pig (Daisy II) and two pugs (Lily Pug and Dixie Cup) for a program called "Pig Out on Reading!"  I have been so excited about this program -- a pig in the library! -- that the staff is probably glad it's over so they can stop hearing about it.

Here are some pictures:

The van!

Lily Pug is ready to go!

Lily Pug travels with Farmer Minor and  Daisy II everywhere they go.

Me with Daisy II (who is a boy), Farmer Minor, and Lily Pug (front) and Dixie Cup (back).  All animals have their own strollers, and Farmer Minor brings his own rocking chair!

I learned that potbellied pigs have excellent hearing and smell, but they are almost blind.  One should always approach a pig from the side.  If you approach from the front, you are nothing but scary shadows, but if you approach from the side, the pig can hear and smell you coming without being scared.

Lily Pug loves, loves, loves to lick and kiss.  My entire face and neck were covered in dog kisses.  It would be gross if Lily wasn't so cute.

A nice close-up of Daisy II.

Finally, a half shot of Dixie, who does not usually travel with Daisy II.  Apparently Dixie is a mama's girl, and she is only one-and-a-half years old, so she's still a little skittish.

I wore a pig nose to greet the patrons as they entered.

Farmer Minor sharing the hilarious and heartwarming story of how he and Mrs. Minor came to adopt Daisy I, Daisy II, Lily and Dixie.  He is a master storyteller!

Kids of all ages were rapt!

Teens loved it, too!

A number of grown-ups (in the back) came by themselves to see Daisy II!

Farmer Minor kissed Daisy...

...and so did I!  (Children's librarians will do anything.)

You can't see very well, but I presented Daisy II with a Newburyport Public Library library card.  Daisy II has library cards from all over the world (you can see the framed collages of all of her cards to the right), as well as the keys to four different cities!

Dixie gets a hug!  And Lily gets to lick a hand.

Daisy looks a little worn out.

Farmer Minor will be making a national tour during the summer of 2014.  I'm not sure how far afield he goes, but I'll let everyone know!  If he comes your way, you must have him at your library.

Oh, and here's the website!  If you watch the slide show, you'll see that Daisy, Dixie and Lily have a cat best friend, too, which blows my mind.  Sterling would rather die than cuddle with a pig and two pugs.

A Special Small-Town Santa

This past Sunday I went to my first small-town Christmas event: Santa arriving in Newburyport via the Coast Guard!

For those of you who don't know, Newburyport is the birthplace of the Coast Guard.

 Here he comes!

What good role models, wearing their life vests! 

A hilarious side note: on the boardwalk, I was sitting next to a Grandma and her Granddaughter.  There is a parade after Santa docks, so in a nearby parking lot the police were getting ready to lead Santa in the parade.  The Grandma told me, "I always love when we have parades and events like this.  It gives the police something to do."  Ha ha ha!  I do wonder what all the police do in town.  I'm sure there are drunks on Friday and Saturday nights, and there are always secret, horrible things like domestic violence.  But Newburyport is not a hotbed of crime.

Here is Mrs. Claus walking along the boardwalk after docking.  The sweatshirt Mrs. Claus's handler is wearing says "Santa's Rotary Sleigh Team."

After  docking, there was a short parade.  In the middle of the parade were costumed characters.  Here's how it went based on cheers:

Frosty: "Yay!  Hi, Frosty!"

Christmas Tree: "Yay!"

Gingerbread Man: "Yay."

And then:  "EEEEEEELLLLLLLMOOOOOOO!  YAY!  YAHOO!  (screams)  EEEEEEELLLLLLLMMMMMMMOOOOOOO!"

I'm not sure what Elmo has to do with Christmas, but he certainly stole the show.

After the parade, we all trooped over to the town square.  Yes, there is a town square!  At any given time you can head over there and see people playing the guitar, kids running around, people sitting on benches and chatting, and Scouting troops selling cookies.  Also, it's not a square -- it's a triangle.  Hm.

Anyway, I was in the middle of the crowd and I couldn't see a thing, which was very disappointing.  I'm short, so that didn't help.  Also, lots of parents had their kids up on their shoulders so the kids could see.  This actually led to an interesting conversation I heard between two dads.

Dad #1: I love this town.  It's so cool to look around and see all the dads with kids on their shoulders so they can see Santa.

Dad #2: Yep!  This may be the only town where something like this happens.

Now, there are probably more towns like Newburyport, but not many.  It really is quite bucolic here.

Since I couldn't see, I found myself wishing I worked for David Pl. Reczek, Dentist.  Dr. Reczek's office is on the square, on the second floor.  Apparently he opened the office for his employees to come and watch the event.  Lucky ducks!

Other people did the same.  Many of the buildings in Newburyport have commercial businesses on the first floor, and condos/apartments on the floors above.  It was all very 227.  (I loved that show!)

After singing innumerable Christmas carols (and it wasn't just me who thought it went on too long -- parents with small children were grumbling), we counted down from 10, and the tree lit up!  I was very glad it succeeded.  I was told that last year there were some technical difficulties that led to a very anticlimactic countdown.

I was also told that the tree is donated every year from someone's backyard.  I'm not sure who is in charge of this event, but I'm told that there is some local competition about the tree choosing.  People from the group in charge troop from backyard to backyard to choose the Christmas tree, and it's an honor to have your tree chosen.

Anyway, a couple more pictures:

All in all, it was really fun, very unique, and I'm glad I went!  And now I know to skip the parade next year, and go straight to the square to get a good view toward the front.

My first Christmas experience in Newburyport!