Sunday afternoons are for...

Not football! At least not these days... on Sunday afternoons Aiden has skating/hockey lessons at the Proctor Academy ice rink in Andover. It's so cute to see all the little kids all geared out in hockey helmets and skates and trying their best to keep balance on the ice. Some of the kids, not much older than Aiden, are zooming around with sticks and hockey jerseys already. Aiden's group is in the "push-the-crate" phase but they're having fun, which is the important part. Lots of Red Light, Green Light and crate races back and forth across the ice. Not quite Wayne Gretsky yet, but...

Gingerbread BlockParty!

OK, it's a little odd, but my cousins Jeni & Glen have a tradition of making and decorating gingerbread houses after Christmas. Usually the sweet construction activities occur on New Years Eve, but this year to fit everyone's schedules it was a few weeks later. No matter! We have found that if you ask kids (big and little) if they would like to play with frosting and candy for an afternoon, the answer is always "yes!," no matter what day it is. Probably would work in the dead of summer too...

Jeni baked up a subdivision's worth of gingerbread walls and roof sections, made up some "spackle" and we all got to work. As usual, it's a comedy of errors trying to get the houses to stand up straight, or stand up at all, sometimes. Then comes the fun part- candy decorations.

We tried to keep Ciara and Aiden's candy consumption to a reasonable level, and after awhile they did get bored of construction and switched to playing with Ciara's toys. I, on the other hand, ate WAY too much candy and had a serious tummy ache on the drive home. I don't think I have felt that miserable in a long time... you think I would have learned that lesson when I was three, huh?

The finished products!

Here we go again...

With any luck, we will have a new little one in the Deegan household this summer! It took us quite awhile to be "ready" for this again, given the last pregnancy with Aiden and the several months I spent in the hospital with that one. And I can't say we will really ever be "ready" but we're taking this one day at a time. So far, so good... I have had a "preventative" cerclage surgery which will hopefully prevent pre-term labor, and we will be visiting the OBs at Dartmouth-Hitchcock very frequently to keep a close eye on things. It's still anyone's guess whether I will end up on bedrest, but if so I hope it can be in my own house! It's a stressful time for us, but we are trying to keep everything in perspective- hopefully about 6 more months of stress and worry and probable inconvenience, which is a very small price to pay for a new family member :)

Not for the Faint of Heart...

Last Hurrah

We really didn't think we'd make it to Florida this year, but as it turned out we had a small window of opportunity, a little less than a week, and we took it. A last hurrah for awhile, so to speak. It was wonderful to feel the warmth of the sun again and visit with Mom, Dad, and also Grandma Rising. We didn't tell Aiden where we were going until we arrived, which worked perfectly- he was so excited for each "surprise" - flying in an airplane (he really didn't care where to) then getting to ride in a new (rental) car and finally arriving at our destination.

It wasn't really warm by Florida standards (60s and low 70s) but I think Aiden spent the entire time in the water. He was so happy to just be out there. No one but Timber wanted to go with him though.

Andy, Mom, Aiden and I did a day's driving tour of the Everglades and saw lots of cool wildlife. Birds, of course, but Aiden was most impressed with all of the large gators.

We also went to a cool Butterfly Conservatory in Key West. There were thousands of colorful butterflies and birds flitting around. Andy went nuts and got some really great photographs of butterflies. Here are just a few below.

It had been really cold (just at or above freezing some nights) for a long stretch before we arrived - 11 days - which was the longest cold snap in at least a century apparently. When we drove through agricultural areas, you could see that all the crops were brown and frost burnt, probably irrecoverably. And even sadder were all the reef fish and animals washed up dead on the beaches. We saw parrotfish, pufferfish, moray eels, angelfish, tilefish, grunts, jacks, and even a green sea turtle lifeless on the beach at Bahia Honda.

Andy and I went on the ultimate birding experience - a trip to STA 5 in Clewiston, FL. STA stands for "Sewage Treatment Area" for those of you uninitiated in South Florida water management. Everyone we told (mostly family and all non-birders) thought it was pretty amusing that spots on the monthly "STA 5" birding trip are highly coveted, since the place is otherwise off limits to the public. We were lucky to get last minute spots since our trip was fairly unplanned to begin with. It was as good as advertised. We saw TONS of wading birds and ducks, including Purple Swamphens, Limpkin, Fulvous Whistling Ducks, and Snail Kites. And it didn't even smell bad.

Wood Storks at STA 5

Sunrise near Clewiston

And the moment of zen... which will have to last us another 5 months til it warms up in NH...

Skating into the new year...

One of the blissful frustrations of childhood, at least in the frigid climes where we happen to live, is learning to ice skate. Blissful because every kid says they want to go ice skating (ooh, what could be more fun? Can I please, mom?) but it's obviously supremely frustrating as you watch their ankles collapse inward and their little feet step and slide backward, going nowhere quickly. And then... whump! They're on their behind again.

The Town of New London floods a small skating rink on the town green right across from our house, so Aiden has been able to go skating quite a bit lately. We started him out with those double-runner "skates" for toddlers that you strap onto your boots- they were pretty stable but they kept falling off every five minutes. So we bought him a pair of real skates of his own. One parent of a 4 year old we met on the town green rink (whose kid was zipping around like a pro, mind you) mentioned that an area rink offers free ice skating lessons to kids as young as 3, so we're planning to check that out soon. We're pretty sure it's a hockey mill to raise up new Kearsarge High School champions from scratch, but hey, if Aiden learns how to skate and never picks up a hockey stick, that's fine too. Mamoo and Dadoo are not very constructive to learn from since we either don't have skates (in my case) or have no idea where they are (in Andy's).

Since Aiden's school was on winter break for the last two weeks, we drove down to North Andover to see the Downers, Becky and Tim for a day. Abbie, Michaela, Livvy and Grayson are as fun as ever, and after Friendly's lunch (including "happy ending" desserts), gymnastics, Wii boxing and tennis, and a pizza party, Aiden (predictably) did not want to go home. Can't say I blame him... it's a tad bit more boring at the Deegan household than the Downers!

Becky holding Grayson (9 mos); the Downer's new Bernese Mtn Dog pup, Charlie

Gymnastics in Abbie & Kayla's Room

Alivia gets twirly...

Birds of 2009

So, this was an interesting year for us, bird-wise. We didn't go on any spectacular birding vacations (like Arizona in 2008, Iceland in 2007 or the Rio Grande Valle in 2006) and we didn't rack up many lifers at all (only 9 for Andy and 12 for me) BUT, all in all, it wasn't a bad year. Andy's year total was 253, which ties last year, and mine was 251, only a few birds behind. Considering I can't remember doing much intentional birding at all, that seems pretty decent!






The highlight of the year was probably our January trip to Florida where we escaped from parental duties for a few days of spectacular birding in the Everglades, Corkscew Swamp Sanctuary, and Babcock-Webb Wildife Refuge. Corkscrew Swamp was where Andy snapped this image of a Yellow-Throated Warbler which ended up being chosen for publication in a National Natural Landmarks (a National Park Service Program) 2010 Calendar. Very cool.


Also, we can't forget successful local NH hunts for a Northern Hawk Owl in February and a Cerulean Warbler in June. And a gorgeous September day off Jeffrey's Ledge watching whales, seabirds, and dolphins cruise the briny blue. Looking forward to more adventures in the coming years!

Happy Holidays!

Christmas was in Vermont this year and we had all the trimmings... some fluffy new snow, a huge tree loaded with presents, christmas cookies for Santa, and of course, a seafood feast. Add to that one very excited 3-year old and you can imagine what it was like. 90% of the gifts under the tree were for Aiden, so I'd say he made out like a bandit. We are still wondering where we're going to fit all the toys he received when his closet and toy boxes are already brimming at home. Time for a little New Year's cleanse, probably...

On Christmas Eve we had a wood-fired pizza party with the Pottmeyers... the big boys braved the chill to cook pies in the outdoor oven while the rest of us chatted inside and Gerritt and Aiden watched retro Tom & Jerry cartoons and 3 Stooges re-runs.

Micah and Becky brought a cooler full of lobster, scallops, huge shrimp, and tuna steaks up north so our Christmas dinner the next day was absolutely delicious, though it may seem non-traditional to some. It's becoming a tradition for us to have seafood-fest at every holiday that involves M&B... it's nice to have relatives in the fishing capital of the northeast! Our lone contribution was our harvest of oyster mushrooms, but those went over really well too. We ended up dipping them in egg and herbed bread crumbs, and then pan frying them in butter & lemon juice. We're currently waiting for the next "flush" of shrooms to mature so we can try another recipe.

Before we all went our separate ways (us to NH, M&B to MA, and my parents down to the FL) we had to make it into Burlington to stroll under the holiday lights on Church Street and eat at A Single Pebble. After a little Mock Eel, Double Garlic Broccoli and Bejing Street Noodles, we all felt fat and happy. And a special Boxing Day surprise- my cousins Sarah & Joe had their baby girl Francesca just a few miles away at Fletcher Allen Hospital!

Christmas Shrooms

Andy got an oyster mushroom kit for an early Christmas present so we have been growing and harvesting some huge shrooms! We're saving them up to bring to VT for wood-fired pizza toppings and some kind of innovative Christmas dinner dish, so we haven't tried any yet but they look yummy. Anyone have ideas?

In other news, Aiden's school is closed for two weeks so we're enjoying a lot more family time than usual. It has been frigidly cold out the last few days but we were able to get out and do some sledding and playing in the snow last weekend. Seems like everyone south of us (Mass on down to DC and Virginia) got a HUGE dump of snow earlier this week. I can safely say I do NOT have snow envy. You can have it, for once! The foot or so we have is totally sufficient for a white Christmas and doesn't seem to be melting away any time soon. Am i turning into a grinch?!

New dinosaur exhibit at our favorite winter indoor getaway- the Montshire Museum of Science

Tis the season...

Well, it only took 3 years, but Aiden finally agreed to sit on the big jolly man's lap. He managed to squeak out that his name is Aiden, and the important facts that he would like power tools and transformers for Christmas this year. Santa chatted and chortled and bounced him a little but could not get a smile out of him... all things in good time. I know Aiden was relieved to get down and get his giant candy cane as a reward. Now to concentrate on being good for about two more weeks...

Tree is up and decorated, and we've got about a foot of fluffy white snow, so it's officially the season. Making some holiday cookies with Aiden this afternoon and maybe we will wrap a few presents to put under the tree after that. Spiced cider and fleece socks. Christmas movies and balsam wafting through the house. Could be worse.