These photos were taken Christmas morning, on our very last job.  Rockport has a tradition of binging Santa by horse drawn carriage to Dock Square on Christmas, where he gives a nice bag of gifts to all the children who come out to see him.  In years past, Bruce Drohan did this job, and now he has moved to Tennessee with his beautiful Belgians.  This will be the only time I could do the job, for I too am moving out of state- to Maine.  I hope very much that it will not be the end of a tradition decades long for Rockport, but as of now there are no likely prospects.  It was a very bittersweet moment.  Several weeks later, my carriage was bought and trailered off to Natick by the Capital Whips carriage company.  Coincidentally, the photo my husband took shows the carriage in almost the same spot.

It is taking a strong stomach to sell the equipment I spent so many hours refurbishing, and then used for years of happy memories with the public.  It is not clear yet whether Rob and I will pull together a new business once we get established in Maine.  For the record, let's add a photo of him driving the carriage at the Dickens festival just before Christmas.  I am pleased that we developed the job into one we did together for several years.  Now we would like to experience having horses at home at last, and use our wagonette to drive along Appleton Ridge next summer.