Welcome to Holiday Harbour!

I grew up in New England.

Don't let anyone tell you it's not hot in NE in the summer--and most folks still don't have air conditioning. So the weather cools and the first holiday of the season comes along on Columbus Day weekend, leaving everyone breathing in relief.

Columbus Day is a last hurrah. Most of the tourist attractions will be closing for the season soon. Plus, the leaves in New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and upper New York reach their peak that weekend. Hundreds of people pack up their things in dozens of cars and head north for the weekend to go "leaf peeping," and, on the way home, stopping at the state liquor store in New Hampshire to stock up on their liquor for the holidays. (It's not as depraved as it sounds. :-) There's no tax on liquor in NH and we always stocked up on a big jug of hearty burgundy to make the Christmas and Easter wine biscuits, plus, if we were out, a bottle of vermouth or brandy to offer the uncles on a holiday visit. These bottles could last many years; none of us drank and Christmas portions to visitors were served in shot glasses.)

I always thought of Columbus Day as being something else: the unofficial start of a larger holiday season than was encompassed by frantic shopping cumulating in dinner and torn wrapping paper on December 25. The weekend excursion was only the beginning: things continued with the somberness of Veteran's Day, the cheerful gluttony of Thanksgiving, the anticipation of the days before Christmas, the Yuletide season itself, and the snowy winter that lingered through Valentine's Day and many times into March. It was a special place, one of scuffling leaves and the scent of gingerbread, peppermint and cold noses, savory smells of baking cookies and Christmas trees, surprises, anticipations, the chocolatey taste of Valentine candy and the mysterious turning of one year into another--a welcome harbor after a journey through broiling summer and the onslaught of insect life and heat rash.

So here you will find "holiday" chat and chitter, books and magazines read, hopefully friends and celebrations.

And now, on with the festivities!