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  • November12, 2023. Saw the finest revival I have seen in New York for many a year! It was Bernard Shaw's "Arms and the Man" put on by the Gingold Theatrical Group at Theatre Row. It was directed by David Shaller (godson of Hermione Gingold) who had his cast come to the front of the stage at each scene to explain to the audience the action to follow. Shaw's humour never missed a beat--The audience was in stitches from beginning to end!

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Thanksgiving at Susan’s with Alpacas

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Ben Thompson

Since  we had to change the dates for our Caribbean cruise, we were able, to the delight of all, to accept Susan’s invitation to her Thanksgiving party in York, PA. As luck would have it, we were able to make a contribution by taking the Great-grandchildren, Jeremy and Zoe with us from New York.

As usual, Susan and Craig put in mountains of work and produced a monumental feast.

After Thanksgiving we all worked off a little of the extra weight by visiting one of the Alpaca farms, of which, there are many in the York area. Their quaint little old-fashion faces reminded me of my own great-grandfather.

Susan preparing the feast

Thanksgiving decor

Four generations at the table: Left to right; Me, Ethel, Kiowa, Christie, Craig, Susan, Kevin (Christie’s brother), Amy (Susans daughter) and mother of, Zoe and Jeremy. Kippy and Teddy are lying patiently in wait for the scraps to follow. The one person not in the picture is Carol (Mother of Christie and Kevin) and she is taking this nice picture. 

Kippy/Teddy enjoyed the jokes

. . . . . and made thoughtful contributions to the after-dinner talk

. . . . . . and this is Carol after she had taken the group picture

Zoe expressions

  Kelsey, at four months, enjoyed her first Thanksgiving immensely. Here she is in a series with Mum, Christie:

Ode to Joy!

And now for the Alpacas. The weather had turned bitter but we stayed to hear the farmer talk about the breeding of these cute domestic animals from South  America:

Look at all those funny things on TWO legs!

He's the black-alpaca of the family

A young edition of my great-great-grandfather

Fence love

Thanksgiving sentiment!

Filed under: New York Day |

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9 Responses

  1. sandy troy, on November 30, 2010 at 2:35 pm said:

    I was captivated by the beautiful scenes and beautiful portraits but what caught my eye was your comment about changing the date for the Caribbean cruise. Are you still on for 12/19?
    Sandy

    Reply
    • Ben Thompson, on November 30, 2010 at 3:40 pm said:

      Sandy. The change of date referred to the cruise we have just completed. The table is still booked for the three of us on the QM2. Looking forward to meeting you very much. (Widget to the right is up- to-date)

      Reply
  2. Isobel, on November 30, 2010 at 6:14 pm said:

    Hi Ben
    Great to see you all, and looking so well. My thanksgiving was pretty quiet this year, just went out with a few friends. Paul is coming for christmas and i expect we shall play lots of golf. Both boys are now divorced, and it had a great advantage this year. We all met up in England at colin’s house and Paul was able to see his niece and nephew, Ross and Julia. Then Paul, Colin and I took off for Lisbon. We toured central Portugal, staying in and houses and Palaces, fantastic. We learned more about the Peninsula wars than I thought possible. It was a great trip.. The first time the three of us had been on holiday togethe since they were kids.

    Reply
    • Ben Thompson, on December 1, 2010 at 9:02 am said:

      Isobel, nice to hear from you. I still have very fond memories of knocking around the Alentasia in a battered rental Mini with Dorothy and perhaps one of the children. I envy you your trip with the lads. As you can see from the home page, Kim has remarried and now lives in a miniscule town in Scotland–not as easy to visit as Milton Keynes! Don and Inge Horrex still have a residence in the Algarve (Way back from the coast) and we would be able to use it occasionally. But I don’t think we will ever take up the offer–Air travel is becoming too much of a bind for Ethel. We stick mainly to cruises out of NY harbour.

      Reply
  3. valerie, on December 2, 2010 at 2:05 pm said:

    Beautiful people! Beautiful animals!

    Reply
  4. Bonnie, on December 4, 2010 at 12:33 am said:

    What a lovely Thanksgiving! I especially love how you captured the expressions on Zoe and Baby Kelsey. And, fabulous pics of the alpacas!! Love to you and Ethel. Bonnie

    Reply

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