Fun Old-Fashioned Family Christmas, 2025: Christmas Morning on Tybee Island

Matching shirts; literary allusion, of course

Xmas mirth

Completely unrehearsed surprise; our stockings generally are candies
and other small things

But this was a huge tin of Anis de Flavigny that I'd never seen before;
my favorite candy (seen above with normal size available in fine stores
in France); might last me until Valentines Day

A glass from Paris, "Rue Jean Bart," the street "our" apartment is on
in Paris, sixieme arrondissement

And assorted more pix...

Fun Old-Fashioned Family Christmas, 2025: Savannah, Part The Second

 More Savannah scenes, different days...

In Bonaventure Cemetery...Christmas Day afternoon

Alternative spelling of the original German Scheraus; the family emigrated
from Germany to the Salzburger settlement of Ebeneezer/New Ebeneezer in
1741; I'd always been told that that part of the clan that stayed in Georgia 
rose to some prominence in Savannah

But for all the Spanish moss, could be a scene in Pere Lachaise...

The Johnny Mercer bench...with titles of all his greatest hits... very impressive

The Mercer plot; something I missed on a previous visit

The Conrad Aiken bench, which we missed on an earlier
visit; poet laureate, but not a nice person (I have read)

Estuary country

Vicki and I visited this house the day after Christmas

In the slaves' quarters, names of known slaves in the families' several
plantations inscribed on the brick wall

Now a garden, would have been a slave work area in the day

In the house...

Nice Arnolfini mirror

The house was designed by a younger family relation and is notable

for its over-the-top symmetry

And this second floor catwalk/hall: we have toured great and not-so-great
houses world-wide and never seen anything resembling this...

Friday evening family dinner at the Pink House

My fried shrimp; not pictured: the she-crab soup

Her pecan-encrusted chicken

Fun Old-Fashioned Family Christmas, 2025: Savannah, Part The First

Savannah is just an half hour's drive from Tybee, so we spent a couple days or more exploring its abundant historical and cultural treasures. We'd all been there before, numerous times in some cases, and so, again, the documentation is not what it might have been. Among the visits/meals/tours not pictured are the nice Indian resto for a lunch, Leopold's, of course, the Mercer/Williams House (no fotos!), several interesting bookstores and other shoppes, and more. Search "Savannah" in the box to the right for pix from other visits. It's a neat place, the old town.

The early 19th century Telfair Mansion, now home of the Telfair Academy

Peppino Mangravite, Prohibition, 1935; numerous New Dealers portrayed, not least Harry Hopkins

Gaston Balande, The Port of Rochelle, 1949

One of the museum's several galleries

Henry Cleenwerke, Bonavenure Cemetery, 1860

Julian Story, The Black Prince at Crecy, 1888

John Singer Sargeant, Henry Augustus Cram, 1893;
New York attorney of note

Silvia Shaw Judson, The Bird Girl, 1936; one of four known casts;
the Savannah version, aka Little Wendy, resided on a family plot
at Bonaventure Cemetery until more recently moved to the Telfair;
muy famoso as a book cover for Midnight in the Garden of Good
and Evil

Another gallery: the "sculptures" are largely plaster-cast from a former
director's trip to Europe; nice work...

Childe Hassam, Avenue of the Allies, 1917; Hassam was right
up there with Mary Cassatt in bringing Impressionism to
Americans; and vice versa...why the US has nearly as many
Impressionist paintings as Europe...

Hassam's Brooklyn Bridge in Winter, 1904; we think Monet might
have approved

Alfred Smith, Bordeaux, View from the Bridge, Winter Day, 1904

Frederick Carl Frieseke, The Garden Umbrella, 1910; painted at
Giverny; was a neighbor of Monet's

It's an artsy town, even the streetside utility boxes

In one of the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
buildings

Why it's such an artsy place...SCAD has taken over the
city center...beautifully...

Bookstore cat