Winter Carnival Weekend

New London's Winter Carnival was last weekend.  This event is only a few years old, and the Rec Department is doing a great job with it.  The best part is the Dinner with Jack Frost on Friday night, when there are big bonfires on the snow-covered green, and local restaurants serve cups of warming stews and hot desserts... all while the kids find friends and run wild, climbing snowbanks and slipping on the ice skating rink.  If the weather is nice, it's magical, and this year was perfect.  A tiny bit chilly, but clear starry skies and not much wind.  Another big hit (this is hearsay, since I didn't attend) was the dodgeball tournament.  The team Andy was on won the "championship" though he claims they felt like the jerks in a bad 80s movie since their team was the only one with no women on it, and none of their kids were there to cheer them on.  Oops.  At the time, Aiden and Haley both had friends over for playdates... and then we went to the fireworks- the third best thing about Winter Carnival- I don't know if it's the novelty of watching fireworks over snow, but I thought it was an awesome pyrotechnics show for a small town.

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The Frying Pan Toss (mostly Aiden and Andy)

Ski Joring

A couple of things they tried at the Winter Carnival this year were flops- I think they're still testing some things out.  The parade down Main Street, which anyone was invited to march or drive or prepare a 'float' for, consisted of one police car, Aiden's karate class marching (minus Aiden, since he had Sammy over), the town's 2 fire trucks, and a final police car.  It passed us from start to finish in the time it would take 2 subarus and a chevy to drive by behind a school bus.  No one cared, though... I'm just not sure anyone wants to watch or be in a parade in the dead of winter!  Hard to dress up when you've got to wear that snowsuit with 7 layers underneath.  The Ski Joring competition was definitely of more interest.  Ski Joring basically involves being pulled on skis behind something, which in this case was a horse, but could also be dogs, a snowmobile, or even a reindeer, apparently.  It originated in Norway, and it's a bit nuts.  Contestants get pulled around a course and they have to control their movement enough to grab little colored rings off of hooks along the way.  Every missed ring is a 5 second deduction, and the fastest around the course (including deductions) wins.  In talking with the spectators, people generally have one of two reactions as to whether they'd try it:  "I'd loooove to!" or "Oh, HELL no.."   I'm in the second camp.

Amazing Sunset on Saturday

On Sunday we ventured south to Kezar Lake to watch a bit of Musterfield Farm's annual ice harvest.  This is definitely a cool piece of New England history in action, watching how people used to (and still do, in this case) saw big blocks of ice out of the lake and haul them up out of the water.  Their destination is Musterfield Farm's ice house, which is packed with sawdust once the ice blocks are in, and the ice lasts all summer and is used for different events at the farm.  Pretty cool.  It was FREEZING on Kezar Lake that morning, though... just about 10 degrees above zero to begin with, and with a brisk northwest wind blowing across the lake.  Haley wanted to try out her new XC skis, but it was really too much for her under those conditions.  Andy stayed with her near the ice harvest while Aiden and I headed out for a quick ski.  I wanted to turn back after about 10 yards, but Aiden was determined to get to the island in the middle of Kezar (a favorite winter destination of ours, whether on skis, skates, snowshoes, or just boots) so we toughed it out with our hoods drawn tight.  Our reward on the way back was being blown by the wind so hard we barely had to ski.

This is our car in winter

Crusty Old Ice Harvesters?

Doesn't this look super cold?  It was!

After lunch at the new Salt Hill Pub at the base of Mt. Sunapee, we went downhill skiing with the Gloucester Deans in the afternoon.  After our arctic XC experience on Kezar, I was worried it would be unbearable at Sunapee, but it wasn't.  Actually it wasn't that windy, and the sun actually felt a bit warming.  We had some good runs and then called it a (tiring) day, heading home for soup and pizza with Phoebe, Fisher and Finna. That is a weekend the way I like them best- full of outdoor activity, friends, and family.  

Grandma Sally's new house!