Our Christmas greeting this year

 

Another holiday season is here. Another year almost faded away into a memory. As we go through day by day, we hope for sunshiny days, but in reality, we go through this life in a fog, not seeing the future. We think the path is straight but sometimes we come to a fork in the road and a decision has to be made. Or there are times when a mountain raises out of the fog in front of us. We must face things that seem insurmountable. Step by step, we make it through. We sometimes enjoy beautiful flowers along the way and scenic views of life we never knew we would experience. 

Life is a journey, our route not straight, full of crossroads and detours. We carry two suitcases along the way decorated on the outside with the stickers of our life's milestones. One with memories to save and when we rest, we open the case and reflect on the happy God-given memories which give us strength to get through the hard climbs. The other suitcase contains our thoughts, our hopes, our dreams and our treasures of life. It also contains our anger and regrets and lessons we have learned weighing us down. Each day we need to take the anger and regrets and leave them in our past to make room for the good things. We keep the lessons learned to remind us. And hopefully we can share our treasures that God has blessed us with, with others. 

Our lives this year has had struggles. I will not focus on them. We have loved ones near us and enjoy the little things and the big, like a kitchen remodel and a getaway. "It's a Wonderful Life" is my favorite movie and I guess it could be this year's theme as we went to Seneca Falls, the town that is said to be the possible inspiration for Bedford Falls. We saw the museum and at home, we were able to attend a showing of the movie on a big theater screen. In the movie, as George Bailey traveled through his foggy life, he kept being faced with detours and mountains. He had wanted a suitcase covered with stickers of exotic places he had been, but instead he had stickers of love, appreciation and hard work. Although his last mountain seemed insurmountable, with the help of friends and a guardian angel, he realized the value of life.

Our suitcase this year is covered with stickers of loved ones and places close to home. It is a wonderful life.

Our wishes for you in this holiday season are suitcases that are not weighed down with sadness or anger or guilt, but heavy with memories and the love they represent. May your new year be one of many more happy memories made and the right choices in what to leave behind. Vayos con Dios. May God bless your journey and may many stickers cover your suitcase in the new year. 

Matthew 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Love,

Debbie & George

49th Anniversary Trip Part 5 (Final part)

 

Next day our stop was Bethel, NY to see the museum devoted to Woodstock, the place of the music festival in 1969. It was very informative and fun to look at the nostalgia of the time and the musicians. Although this is usually looked back on as a demonstration for peace, the 4 young entrepreneurs did it purely as an investment venture. Besides the displays describing the festival, there were several short videos. 

It was interesting to learn about all the planning that went into this. The organizers paid the performers quite a bit and some performers even demanded higher amounts. They pre-sold many tickets, but never expected it to be as big as it got. People knocked down the plastic fences and entered the festival without paying. They had to give up trying to sell tickets. They even eventually offered refunds to those who had paid for tickets. The whole event was a colossal loss of money to the founders--they say equivalent to $9 million dollars today. Eventually they broke even with the movie and album sales. 

A couple of things I'll mention, it was surprising people came together in the town and made sandwiches and fed them for free. It would have been a chance for another entrepreneurial person to make money but then again, the frustration due to the long lines for the food vendors and the high prices, ended up with some of the booths tipped over and raided. (Sounds contradictory to the peace movement). West Point dropped food via helicopters, as did the Air National Guard. Due to traffic jams, performers had to be brought in by helicopter. Another note: everyone always talks about what a wonderful experience it was, but they said there were those who did not enjoy it--the rain, the mud, the crowds, the lack of food and rest rooms. 

I am going to let a lot of the pictures of the informative plaques speak for themselves. There is much more than what I took pictures of. It was surprising how long we spent in the not so big museum. 

We got to sit in this bus and watch a movie about Woodstock on the windshield. Very clever.

And here outside, down the road is the actual site of the festival.

We spent the rest of this day getting closer to home and one more stop on the next day. Not the prettiest view from our motel room, but still I like seeing sunrises.

Our last stop before home was the Storm King Art Center in New Windsor, NY. Due to our limited mobility, we only saw a fraction of the 500 acres and 250+ sculptures. Fortunately, there was a tram that let us see some of the artwork riding around, but that is only a tiny amount. So, we did do some walking but this is for the young and healthy to roam all around. It's a beautiful setting and the artwork was quite interesting. Here are some pictures.

Bench and chair made from coins!

Art lovers, this is a wonderful stop is you don't mind hiking. 

Thus ended our most diversified vacation ever--from the smallest chapel in a pond, movie museums, fun shopping experiences, historic sites from women's rights to the Civil War, to Mark Twain's burial place, boathouses, walks along the beautiful finger lakes, waterfalls, air museum, Woodstock Museum and art sculpture park. The only thing that wasn't diversified was the weather--only one day saw a little light rain and the weather was mild for this time of year. I was extremely grateful to have found the app: Wanderlog. It helped me find things to do and to arrange them in the most efficient order. It is awesome! Thanks for "coming" along with us. Maybe you saw something you would like to visit.