The 16 Days of Christmas

The kids' school is closed for two weeks.  That's what happens when they go to a private pre-school/kindergarten that is attached to a university and operates on a university schedule.  I suppose we should be grateful it's not a whole month between semesters!  Any way you slice it, this is a rough time of year for us and the other Windy Hill parents who don't work at the college.  We can't realistically take two whole weeks of vacation or sick time to cover the weekdays, so it's time to get creative.  Last year we swapped kids around the block on different days to be watched by different parents, but that was when Haley was at the hospital daycare (open 355 days/yr) and now we have two kids to pass around to others.  This year, we were saved by grandparents.

Making a real feather pen with HaPa

Walk in the woods

  New London Ice Rink with Molly

My parents arrived for the first shift, up to and including Christmas Day.  Then Andy's mom arrived on Christmas Day to cover the following week.  We're very grateful that they were all able to come for so long, and the kids clearly enjoy the time with their grandparents very much.  This stretch has been one constant Christmas Holiday as far as they are concerned- the 16 days of Christmas!  The first week was the build-up, with presents mounting under the tree, a diminishing advent calendar, visits to cousins in Mass, and that perky little elf-on-the-shelf to find each morning.  On Christmas Eve we made oyster stew (after my dad regaled us with stories about having oyster stew every xmas eve growing up in upstate NY...apparently this is a real tradition in the northeast because we got the last container of shucked oysters after lining up at the Hannafords fish counter at 8:30am!) and bundled up to spread magic reindeer oats on the front lawn just before turning in to bed.  Santa arrived right on schedule and Christmas morning was a flurry of tissue paper and boxes as the kids dove into their stockings and presents under the tree.  Then, in case anyone was feeling post-present stress disorder, Grandma Chris arrived with a whole car-load more of gifts for the kids.  Amazing.  Week two has been the methodical opening and enjoyment of each one of the toys and gifts the kids received, starting with the most exciting (video games! remote control shark! 110-piece art set!) then to the semi-exciting (board games! new books!) and finally working their way towards those addition/subtraction flash cards and the set of new toothbrushes and flossers.  So it goes.  When it's all said and done next Tuesday morning, I think they'll be ready to get back into the groove with their friends at school.  I'm sure the grandparents will be ready too!

Xmas morning

Getting to the good stuff

Haley with a vienna sausage (stocking tradition in the Dean family, along with a jar of green olives)

making Hylunkens (danish donuts) 

finished hylunkens- stuffed with jam and berries

Haley's new doll is getting a rough ride

xmas elves

Fisher John

Fisher John Dean made his arrival on December 22nd.  A new cousin for Aiden and Haley, and a beautiful Christmas present for Micah, Becky and big sister Phoebe.  So far he's got my dad's hair, Micah's eyes and brows, and Becky's mouth.  But put together, he's a little guy all of his own.  Fisher seemed remarkably peaceful and quiet for someone who had only a few hours early been dragged from his warm watery environment into the cold air, kicking and screaming.  He slept for the duration of our visit, and only scrunched a nose once or twice as he was passed from Grandma to Grandpa to Aiden to me.  When it was my turn to hold Fisher, little Haley-doo took it as a personal affront and howled "no no no no no no no.." while trying to scale my pant leg.  After that performance Andy didn't dare try his luck with Fisher since our little "daddy's girl" is even more attached to him.  Hopefully Phoebe will be more accepting!

We're so happy to welcome little Fisher into the family!   Even if he doesn't end up liking fish. ;)

WWF - New London Tour

Wishing for Fish(er)...

Phoebe and Haley eye each other (suspiciously?) at lunch

Our newest nephew/cousin, Fisher, will make his arrival very soon - less than a week now - so we took some time last weekend to get down to Gloucester to visit Micah, Becky and Pheebs before "all he@# breaks loose" (as Andy likes to refer to that blissful time immediately after a child is born).  We had a crib mattress and a box of infant boy clothes from Melanie to deliver, and we secretly wanted to sneak in a little winter coast birding before the year comes to a close.

Walking to Wingershaek

Ho ho ho

Phrozen Pheebs 

 Aiden with the clam fork

Razor Clam Shell

Not much birding was accomplished, aside from a small flock of ruddy ducks that were new for the year, but we had chilly walks on two of Gloucester's finest beaches- Good Harbor and Wingershaek- and a great pizza & subs lunch with Micah, Becky and Phoebe.  Micah wanted to show Aiden how to dig for steamers in the tidal flats at Wingershaek, but it was so frigid that we were only able to bare fingers long enough for a few razor clams.  Poor Haley and Pheebs were essentially sandblasted ice cubes by the time we made it back to Magnolia Ave.  We'll visit again in a few days when Phoebe is a big sister!

Good Harbor Beach

Getting Into the Spirit...

I get a free Christmas Tree at my work- it's one of the perks of working for the Forest Society, since we own a working xmas tree farm in Bethlehem, NH. But...you have to order it, and I completely forgot this year. So found ourselves treeless last weekend, just when we had some perfect downtime to decorate and get into the spirit of the season a little. Luckily, Andy's work came through. His boss's husband's family has a small Christmas Tree operation here in New London, and they put us on the list to pick out a tree. Since they stopped planting new trees at Elephant Rock Farm in the early 2000's, they only plan to do pick-your-own tree for a few more years. Though there weren't thousands of trees, there were plenty of beautiful fraser and balsam firs, and the view alone was so worth the trip! We got a great fraser fir, a tractor ride, and plenty of free greens for a wreath too.

Further ramping up the holiday spirit, we spent an evening at the McVrankens watching Christmas specials in our PJs. The first viewing was The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, a timeless classic if there ever was one. Before the show, the kids acted out the scene where the grinch cleans out Whoville of toys... they tiptoed around filling garbage bags with Molly's stuffies while the adults (whos) pretended to sleep. Those nasty little grinches showed no inclination to give back our stuffies after we woke up, however, so we just did the most logical thing and pressed play on the VCR (that's right, V-C-R). Following the Grinch was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, the one with Hermey the dentist-elf and the abominable snowman. I hadn't seen it in at least 15 years, so it was fun to watch this 1960s classic from the perspective of the hyper-PC present... it's so full of bullying, gender stereotypes, and discrimination against those with disabilities that it'd never be made today, but as expected the kids loved every minute.

Other weekend activities included a hike to Clarke Lookout to take advantage of the amazingly sunny and mild weather, and a minor league hockey game for Aiden and Andy. Aiden's friend John took a few of his friends to see a Manchester Monarch's game for his birthday, and they had front-row seats to watch the action. Aiden came home screaming "Lets Go Monarchs! One, Two...One-Two-Three!" and hasn't stopped since. To say he loved going to the game would be a definite understatement. I think we'll have to try it out sometime this winter as a family and see whether Haley can get into hockey too.

At Clarke's Lookout

Let's Go Monarchs!

Redemption for the Poop Eater

For months now, Kimball's breath has been horrific. At first we branded her a "poop-eater"... we'd seen her snarf up little deer nodules in the backyard, goose turds at Low Plain, etc. so it wasn't an entirely unfounded accusation. The problem is goose and deer, both herbivores, don't even have particularly stinky droppings. Was she finding some cat poops in the yard? I remembered TarDog, our big black lab when I was growing up, loved to eat "spicy ground meats" as we called them, left by the cats in the backyard. That always made her breath really foul. But only for a few hours. Kimball's was constant. We gave her every kind of breath-freshning chewie you can find at the pet store, and even started scrubbing her teeth with a special doggie toothbrush (which by the way comes with *gag* beef-flavored toothpaste, so I couldnt imagine how it was going to improve her breath. It didn't.)

Next theory was that at around 6 months of age, maybe she was losing baby teeth. I'd read online that puppy's mouths can become a bit sour when they are getting adult teeth. "A bit sour" did not begin to describe our cute little pup's breath, but maybe.... that theory was abandoned by her 7 month birthday, when her adult teeth should all have been solidly in place. I began to suspect a gastrointestinal issue- I mean, she has been diagnosed with Giardia and Coccidia before, and those can be terribly hard to get rid of. Maybe parasite activity was wreaking havoc on her GI system, causing chronic halitosis?

Poor Kimball, recovering

Wrong, wrong, all wrong. Finally, while dutifully brushing Kimball's teeth one night, Andy discovered that one of her teeth was turning brown at the base. A trip to the vet confirmed that Kimball had at least one rotten adult tooth. "Hmm... I have never seen this before in a dog this young..." was the vet's comment. Great. Anyway, poor DimbleDog was put on antibiotics immediately (which in less than 24 hours, completely cleared up the bad breath) and then went under anaesthesia to have the tooth extracted. After the procedure, the vets gave us her tooth (now in 4 pieces) in a little bag- apparently it was deformed wtih an abnormally long root, which probably contributed to it's "going bad" soon after coming in. Hopefully, the rest of her teeth will fare better. We are just so happy to be able to enjoy puppy kisses again!

Thanksgiving 2011

Aiden and Grandma Chris at Alley Pond Park

Our holiday trip to Long Island was as frenetic as ever this year. We do LOTS of driving, on crazy roads with crazy NY drivers, as we have LOTS of family and friends to visit in a very short time. Long Island to New Jersey to Long Island to Queens to Long Island to Queens back to Long Island... and so on. It's a whirlwind, but very worth it. We spent Thanksgiving Day at Uncle Mike and Aunt Mary's house in New Jersey, where there were 26 of us sharing the Thanksgiving table. Aiden and Haley are the youngest by far, so they get lots of special attention (mostly of the tickling variety) and get to play with the Rapps' old legos, transformers and playmobile sets. Of course, they are in heaven. Aiden also got some tutoring in a Wii version of the Legend of Zelda from his cousin Douglas, and some geography lessons from cousin Jeanne. The roast turkey, thanksgiving sides, and numerous pies were all incredibly delicious, as was the lithuanian kielbasi. Haley sat on my lap at dinner and the kielbasi was all she would eat. Later that evening she burped in my face and I don't think I've ever smelled that telltale garlicky meat stink from anyone that small before. It was a bit unnerving!

"Kids" end of the table

"Spin & Point" to where you want to go!

We also spent some great time with Grandpa Dada, including a gorgeous walk on the Fire Island lighthouse beach in nearly 70 degree weather. Not to shabby for a few days before December. Kimball liked chasing the surf, and Haley liked plopping her butt on the sand to just sit and watch the mesmerizing crash of waves rolling in and out. When Aiden gets to a beach he's automatically in treasure hunting mode; he loves to see what kinds of flotsam and jetsam he can discover in the wrack lines and receding waves. His haul this day included three skate egg cases, a cool sputnik-like seed pod, and a handful of little clamshells as tiny as a pinky nail.

Fire Island lighthouse beach

DimbleDog at the beach

...notice Haley watching the waves

Learning something important

We had a lovely brunch with the Siegers & Hamms on Saturday, visited with Grandma Guppy in Queens and Grandma Rising in Brightwaters, spent lots of time with Dan & Paulette, and I even got to zip into Queens to meet Lisa, Whitney, Aly, Will and Ed at a delicious "hole in the wall" korean BBQ place one night. Pretty much as full as four days can be. We're very thankful.

Little Peter on his swingset

Carrie and Elizabeth

Aiden's new "Amityville Warriors" hat- thanks Grandpa Dada!