Oh, What Fun! - Scenes from Holidays at the Cushing House and the Members Party and more!

Images by Bob Watts and Shelley Swofford, text by Bethany Groff Dorau

Well, friends, it has been a wild couple of weeks!

We welcomed the Horticultural Society of Newburyport and the West Newbury, Newburyport, and Newbury Garden Clubs on Friday, December 5. Furniture was tucked away, greenery and color swept through the house, and soon the whole place smelled like roses and Fraser fir. Then we all had a drink.

For the next two days, the house was open to an adoring public who were, as always, blown away by the creativity and beauty on full display in every room.

On Sunday evening, we hosted a bash for our members, who experienced the Cushing House at its twinkling best—lit with fairy lights and candles. Nearly 300 of you came through over the course of the evening, and we loved being with you.

Then, first thing Monday morning, as the garden clubs descended once again—this time to pack up the ephemeral beauty of the weekend—the annual fund mailing arrived. And it was a doozy.

This year, we partnered with Lowell’s Boat Shop to highlight the extraordinary opportunity created when the H. Patterson Hale Jr. Foundation committed to funding a shared staff position for our two organizations. Of course, it involved complex assembly, beautiful custom art by Alan Bull, and a lot of teamwork. For the next three days, we stacked and stuffed and signed the packets, and we are still delivering them to you.

As we prepare to close for the holiday break, I wanted to share a few images from Bob Watts and Shelley Swofford that capture these incredible six days. For my part, I’ll remember sliding into the end of this year once again so in love with this community, so proud of the work we’ve done together, and so excited to welcome whatever comes next.

The Museum of Old Newbury is for you. It is your community history museum. Thank you, members, volunteers, staff, neighbors, family, and friends (some of you are all of these!), for helping us throw open the doors and welcome more than 9,000 people in 2025. Onward!

Top: Meg Groff takes a turn at the punch bowl on a break from belting tunes with Busy Signal, a jazz quintet well known around town!

Above: Members were greeted at the door by co-presidents Bill Quigley and Rebecca Brodish. Look at those smiles! Members and their guests then made their way through the house, staffed by hard-working board members!

We have been extremely fortunate to have generous support for our holiday weekend. Not only do the garden clubs give their all, we are able to support them with decorating supplies from Long Hill Orchard in West Newbury, and Colby Farms and Tendercrop Farm in Newbury.



The West Newbury Food Mart, a local treasure (seriously, check it out), donates beverages of all sorts, wine, nog, and punch fixings included, and Cider Hill Farm in Amesbury filled our donut tree with six dozen cider donuts! Thank you all.

And on to the Annual Fund!

Early the next morning, the boxes of annual fund mailer components were picked up, and since the mailing had already been delayed for several weeks, we went to work right away.

What a crew! Staff, board members, and volunteers from both organizations—headed by Alicia Zampitella, our long-suffering graphic designer—laughed, danced, sang, ate, chatted, assembled, and delivered packets to you as part of our most important fundraising effort of the year.

Graham McKay, executive director of Lowell’s Boat Shop, and I thought about each one of you as we signed our two thousand letters, knowing that every envelope represented a vital appeal in support of both organizations. It was a heroic show of teamwork and generosity, and we hope you have as much fun with your diorama as we had sending it to you.

This mailing is the cornerstone fundraiser for both museums, and the support it generates sustains our staff, programs, and preservation work throughout the year. As you celebrate with us, we hope you’ll consider making a gift at a level that feels meaningful to you.

The end result is deeply gratifying—pictures have been arriving from all over the country of our members assembling and proudly displaying their packets, and, most importantly, helping ensure the continued strength of both organizations.

Want to see more musings from the comedy team of McKay and Dorau? Click the link below as we explore what we appreciate about our sites and our community.

On this week’s edition of Adventures in the Archives, we’re going in a slightly different direction than usual –this week it’s all about the music.



As you’ve probably guessed by now, I frequently find myself uncovering all kinds of fun and interesting treasures over at the Perkins Art & Research Center, and this week’s find was no different. An archival box, entitled, “Areas of the City,” contained a small folder with materials about Plum Island’s history. Also in this folder was a cassette tape, tucked inside of an envelope, with a somewhat nondescript note inside. The note said that the cassette tape included a recording of The Plum Island National Anthem – what fun!

It turns out that the tune was written by local musician Richard Johnson in 1979. He was apparently still riding the Bicentennial wave. Originally released on a 45, the song is an upbeat and hysterical ode to my favorite barrier island. After listening to it three times, Bethany and I were singing the chorus in unison. Have a listen to this recording, which is now a cherished part of our collection, and sing along, too.

-Ashley Serveiss, Collections Manager

Something Is Always Cooking...

Shakshuka

My extended family has done a Christmas brunch at my house for the last few years, which seems to best accommodate all of our other obligations at this busy time of year. We tend to have a rather bland New England palate, but I am always looking for ways to spice things up a bit without offending the crew. I made this dish recently and remembered how much I love it, so it is on the menu for this year, double this recipe, with the spices somewhat restrained. I'll let you know how it goes!

-Bethany

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• as many chilis or jalapeños as your family can handle, stemmed, seeded, and finely chopped
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 28-ounce can whole peeled tomatoes
• Kosher salt, to taste
• 6 eggs
• 1/2 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 tablespoon chopped flat-leaf parsley
• Warm pitas or crusty bread for serving

Directions:

Make the sauce: Heat oil in a deep 11- to 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add chiles and onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, about 6 minutes. Add garlic, cumin, and paprika, and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is soft, about 2 more minutes.

Pour liquid from the can of tomatoes into the skillet and add the tomatoes, one at a time, crushing them with a potato masher before you do. Add 1/2 cup water, reduce the heat to medium, and simmer the sauce, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Season with salt.

10 minutes before serving, add the eggs: Use the back of a spoon to make some divots in the sauce and crack an egg into each, evenly distributing them across the pan. Cover skillet and cook until the yolks are just set, about 5 minutes. Use a spoon to baste the whites of the eggs with tomato mixture, being careful not to disturb the yolk. Sprinkle shakshuka with feta and parsley and serve directly from the pan with pitas or bread for dipping.

Puzzle Me This...

Click the image to do the puzzle

This Christmas card was sent from a friend to Elizabeth Chase (Bayley) Bradbury, granddaughter of Robert Bayley (1808-1883), whose wharf was central to the Molasses trade from the West Indies. This card is a generic old-fashioned wharf scene, but she has written "Bayley's Wharf" above the greeting, and noted that it was her grandfather's wharf. Elizabeth was living in California when this arrived, and this seems to have reminded her of her hometown.