Christmas Day




All was in readiness for the early morning risers.




After several attempts, even Theo's cinnamon rolls were rising.




Breakfast in front of the wood stove, snow softly falling outside.
Then stockings,




and presents--Simon puzzling over his new puzzle,




Theo addressing her glamorous grey speaker and powerful tiny IPod.




Relaxing, taking it all in, enjoying a lovely day,




and playing with Uncle Rob.

Snow!

And Gwen's first sledding.
Shrieks of delight and "now more!"

Getting the Christmas Tree




After everyone bundling up for the cold, scouting the property, and much deliberation




we finally found the right tree--small but full (for here) and kind of jaunty.




Toby and David were sent in to cut it down,




Pine necklace crafted by Gwen.




"Straight--Yes? No?"




Magnifique!

Panama Arrives

Happy, happy to see them!



At the airport, getting ready for venturing out into the cold night.



And the next morning, pancakes,




plus Cheerios, Simon's favorite.




Then on to play--with the train set, brought up from Barrington, with faithful Tulip always slightly underfoot.

So cold that...




the wet mop froze.

Temperature

Thinking about things here and looking back at my recent Chocorua blogs, I realize how much energy we spend just keeping up with the elements: safety from hunters when we go walking with Tulip, outside animals wanting to be in (mice in the kitchen, raccoon in the barn), powder post beetles in the firewood, and cold.




Look how cold it got last night! The 9.8 degrees is outside, inside is 62.




But thanks to a new furnace, radiators, wood stove, and some baseboard heat, we stayed warm. Barrington is comparatively so easy...but not half as exciting..

Mouse Pad




No, not this kind,




But this, the kind kids use to make inky images like whales or cars. Max used these in Barrington to print his foot.




We brought them to Chocorua and, in an effort to find out how very wily mice were getting into our kitchen cabinet and destroying, among other things, my lovely supply of chocolate (sigh), we put a dab of peanut butter on a piece of tinfoil in the middle of each pad, thinking we could see which way their little, now inky, paw prints were going and how they got in.




The next morning this is what we found. Peanut butter gone, paw prints of green, red and blue all around but not going into or out of the cabinet. They especially loved the blue pad, tore it to pieces.




So, on the advice of people in the area who said mice could open cabinet doors and drawers, we taped up all the openings we could find, waited two days, and--sadly--found mouse droppings inside again!! Tonight we put flashlights inside, turn off all the lights and look for small cracks of light escaping anywhere.