Christmas Bird Count... and SNOW!

It's been awhile since we've done a Christmas Bird Count.  Since Aiden is now a pretty decent birder (for a 7 year old, certainly!) and there is a local count circle that literally includes our house, we decided to participate in the Sunapee Xmas Bird Count last Saturday.  I knew we wouldn't likely be in for full-day outdoor slog in single digit temps with two young kids, so we concentrated on watching our yard feeders (from the comfort of bedroom windows) and a short trip up to the Colby Sawyer College campus to scan for any interesting birds.  Sometimes there are snow buntings or turkeys in the fields near Windy Hill School in winter... no such luck this afternoon, but we did find a nice flock of 55 cedar waxwings gorging themselves  on fruit from the ornamental crabapple trees on campus.  No bohemian waxwings mixed in, but it was still an exciting find for Aiden's first CBC.  He's joined a NH Young Birders Club (the Harriers) and Andy and I are secretly really excited to do some real birding again, even if this involves shorter or less involved field excursions to accommodate the pace and interests of children.  That is better than no birding, which is basically what we've been doing since Haley was born :)

We also got our first big dump of snow for the season this weekend- 14" of powder.  Even though it was bitterly cold on Sunday, the kids were still desperate to get outside in the white stuff, so we all went sledding at Twin Lake Villa (aka Suicide Hill).  The snow was fast under the sleds, and so light that it blew up in clouds around the sleds on the way down, coating everything (including faces) in a white rime.  But still, it was fun.  After a half hour of pulling Haley doo up the very steep sled hill on the snow tube, though, Andy and I were about to drop.  Aiden is blessedly big enough to climb back up himself, the snow only reaching to about his knees... instead of mid-calf for Haley.  Looking forward to our first skiing of the season (and boarding for the boys) once we return from our Christmas vacation!

Hot chocolate, cookies, and a reading of the Grinch after coming inside...

Chicken house decked out for holidays

Total chaos in the school gym for a showing of The Polar Express (this was during some technical difficulties)

Getting into the Spirit

This weekend was all about feeling the holiday spirit for us- since we are spending Christmas in the keys (I know... it will be tough), there are only two weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas for us to enjoy that chilly festive aura that happens in New England at this time of year.  Christimas in Florida will be awesome, but I don't imagine we'll be wanting hot chocolate and bundling up to see a tree lighting.  So we're blasting the Christmas tunes and making our holiday season count.

Our usual Saturday routine these days includes swim lessons for both kids at UVAC/Splash Park (ok, not very christmasy), lunch in Lebanon somewhere (usually Korean or Mexican if the kids get to pick), and guitar lessons for Aiden.  While Aiden was learning "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" on the guitar, I took Haley to her first Nutcracker Ballet on Saturday.  It was a production called "Clara's Dream" at the Lebanon Opera House- was really well done, and I was so glad that Haley loved it!  There were about a billion little girls in the audience and every one of them was rapt.  Haley did whisper to me, "Mama, is the nutcracker going to crack the princess's nuts?!" but then the ballerinas started twirling and she was lost in the world of sugar plum fairies and soldier battles under the Christmas tree.  They have a tea party you can go to before the production also- it was sold out by the time I bought tickets, but next year I will try to get us tickets to that too.

On Sunday, Aiden and I headed up to Bethlehem, NH, in the White Mountains, to the Rocks Estate Christmas Tree Farm for a day of volunteering.  The Rocks Estate is owned by the Forest Society, so staff are encouraged to come up for a busy pre-xmas weekend day and help with the Christmas tree sales.  Aiden's and my jobs included keeping the 'smores fire pit full of wood, helping re-stock christmas trees on the selling racks, carting xmas trees to the customer pick-up location, and assisting customers in which trees were balsams and which were fraser firs.  It was a busy, chilly day, but there was enough down time for Aiden to eat two bacon-wrapped hot dogs and a basket of fries for lunch, roast his own smores, and go on a horse-drawn wagon ride around the estate.  At the end of the day, Aiden found an old potato sack and cut eye and arm holes in it.  Then he decorated it with drawings of french fries (?) on the front and "Merry Christmas from the Rocks Estate" on the back and went around waving at customers like he was some crazy ghost of Christmas mascot.  Most people laughed, and I think everyone was slightly confused, but he got a kick out of it.  Another successful "bring your kid to work" day with Aiden.  He and I both look forward to these days now.

We also cut our xmas tree at Elephant Rock, carted it home, and decorated it.  It's always fun to unwrap all our old ornaments, some strange and many with their own storied tales to pass on to the kids.  Haley was an active participant in the decoration this year, and had about 20 ornaments on one branch before we realized it was scraping the ground and taught her how to spread them around a bit! The house smells like fir tree now, and the kids are well into their advent calendars and scouting for the elf every morning.  Feliz Navidad!

Giving Thanks

I remember last year at this time, how incredibly hard it was to feel thankful for anything.  Rationally, I knew I should feel thankful for my beautiful, healthy kids, for our home and our health and the life that we have created in New Hampshire.  But it was impossible to really be thankful for any of that when all I could think about was that I had just lost my Dad.  And my kids had lost their Hapa.  And my Mom had lost her husband and best friend.  It was so, so hard to feel anything outside of that strangling circle of thoughts.

I feel like I still miss my Dad just as much today.  But here's how I know things have gotten better, slowly, imperceptibly, throughout the course of an entire year:  it's now easy for me to feel thankful again, for all the wonderful people in my life, for the beautiful place we live in, and for the strength of our family.  Just realizing at Thanksgiving this year, that I can and do feel thankful for all of that, means that I must have been healing.  I hope it will continue.

This Thanksgiving was as fast-paced as they come, with 7 hour car/ferry rides to and from Long Island, hours spent in the car jetting between relatives homes throughout the greater NYC area, and frenetic but festive visits with cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents, and furry feline and canine relatives too.  The kids were thrilled with it all, though their exhaustion was clearly evident during occasional episodes of tears or irrational stubbornness (ah, Haley...).  We also ate and ate and ate, like any good Thanksgiving holiday should require.  Two thanksgiving dinners on Thanksgiving Day, one in NJ at Andy's Aunt Mary & Uncle Mike's house and one at the Field House in Brightwaters.  A lovely "cousins brunch" at Melanie's, and dinner at Grandma Chris's house with Grandpa Dada, Grandma Sally, Crazy Uncle Dan, Aunt Paulette, and the triplets.  There wasn't much idle time to think or reflect, which was probably a blessing for me, but I was able to take a moment to recognize that I was indeed feeling thankful.

Haley's Tea Party

If you've spent a lot of time with Haley, you'll know that one of her favorite things in life is a good tea party.  She's fond of tea parties at the beach, with plastic cups, salt water or lakewater for tea, and sand for sugar; tea parties in her treehouse in the backyard with only Kimball for a guest; tea parties in the bath with bubbles for sugar; and fancy teaparties with china tea cups and real tea and sugar cubes.  The only crucial ingredients are cups, a tea pot, something wet and something sugar-like in consistency.

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For months Haley has been asking to have some of her friends from school over for a tea party.  Finally, we decided we really needed to do this for her, and sent out invites to some of her little girlfriends.  It was so priceless to see how ridiculously excited she was on the tea party day itself.  She could hardly contain herself all morning, and was SOOOO serious while frosting, sprinkling, and decorating the cupcakes with tiny fairies.  Finally all the treats were ready and we set up the table and then... we still had an hour to wait.  Haley sat at her spot at the table with her hat and tutu on and waited... not so patiently.  "How many more minutes til my friends come, mama?"  When the first ones arrived, she ran out on the porch and SHOUTED at them to "COME INSIDE TO MY TEAPARTY!!!"

All her friends were dressed up in fancy dresses and frilly bows too, and they all dove into the tea party with abandon.  Or at least the treats.  Turns out no one much liked the fruit herbal tea, at least without a ton of sugar in it.  But the cupcakes, petis fours, cookies and other treats that her friends brought were all gobbled up.  After about 20 minutes, they all got up and migrated to Haley's room to play with her dress up box and all of her toys, while we got to know the parents of Haley's friends better.   Aiden was lucky to have an older sibling of one of Haley's friends show up so they could escape the girly-ness out in the backhyard. I have to say the tea party was a total success, and I hope we can do something like it again soon.

The next morning, Andy was washing all the tea party cups and saucers, and we had to laugh because a lot of the cups were full of solid sugar, and everything was stuck to everything else with a glue-paste of copious sugar melted in a bit of hot tea!