Welcome, 2011

We decided on New Years Eve that instead of being totally lame by ourselves, we would invite a few friends over to be lame with us. So we had an extremely impromptu (like 3 hours advance notice) New Years Eve party, enticing people over with promises of roasting marshmallows on the deck and tromping around in the snow with headlamps. With temps in the 40s and beautifully clear starry skies, it was a great night for some kind of festivity.

Aiden with his new snowshoes on NY eve

And it was a very fun New Years, as it turned out. We had tons of laughs (and beer) as the kids ran around inside and out...there was some extreme snow-tubing, lots of flaming mallows on sticks, and even some poker. Two of the five kids even made it to the big hurrah at midnight (and then probably wondered what all the fuss was about... that's it? The big glowy ball drops and then everyone goes to bed?!) Since I don't think I've made it to midnight myself the past few years, I was impressed.

New Years Day was also gorgeous- sunny and 60! Too nice to waste a single moment indoors, so we hastily packed up the kids and drove to the seacoast to spend the day. We walked the length of Hampton Beach looking for shells and birds and poking in tidepools along the rocky sections, and then moved north to Ordione Point for some more exploring. Aiden took off his socks and shoes and ran in the surf, and then spent hours hunting for tiny bits of colored seaglass. His pockets were overflowing with treasures by the end of the day, the best find being a rare piece of yellow beach glass. Even I had to admit I hadn't seen true yellow sea glass before.




Then to top off the day we had an early dinner at one of those quintessentially cheesy oceanfront lobster houses- the kind with tons of flourescent lobster buoys hanging off the exterior and a giant painted red crustacean out front. Everything comes fried, except the lobster. We had fried fish, calamari and scallops, a lobster roll, and lobster stew. Sooo bad for you, but sooo good. Was worth every calorie. And since we hadn't made new years resolutions yet, we weren't even breaking any :)