Well, we don’t typically do anything all that big on New Years Eve, but the church was invited over to a church families’ house so we decided to go.

First, we’d have to drive home from Portland.  Jess had a Dr. appt. down there this morning and then it started snowing.  We decided to take the Jeep this morning so I was glad to have that to push through the mess.  Traffic was slow on the Interstate, 25-35mph from Portland to Augusta.  Then the snow died down and we managed 45-60mph to Newport.

We arrived a bit later than nearly everyone else, but we arrived.  Billards, ping pong and food was served up and a good group of people enjoyed it.  We didn’t stick around to see the new year in, but enjoyed the evening just the same.

Biff works the cue stick.

We saw this when we were in Portland early this month.  We knew we were going to be back in the area again around Christmas, so was hoping it would still be set up for Nathan to try it.  I almost went.. but I just ate.

Or is that chowder? From what I learned, chowder has potato in it.. so even though I didn’t puree the lobster for a bisque, I guess it was closer to bisque than a chowder.

I was hankering for some lobster “soup” and decided since we were having all these cold, windy days, there was no time like the present.  And here’s a little tip for the frugal.  If you buy your lobsters pre-cooked, they weigh about half as much, so therefore cost about half as much!  And since the mess of cooking them is done, its just a matter of cleaning them and tossing them in some cream.  I bought two lobsters, typically they’d be 1.25-1.5lbs each.  They were 1.6lbs in total.  They weighed about 0.8lbs after they were cooked and drained.

And there was plenty of soup to go around.  I finally was able to get Jess to eat it (she liked it) and Nathan did too.  Wonders never cease.

Lobster, Heavy Cream, some whole milk, butter and S&P to taste. Mmmm.

Nick and I had wanted to get out and get some snowshoeing in this Christmas break.  We were both off, we were just waiting for some snow.  We finally got some.  Just not much.  Not enough to snowshoe.  So we decided to just “boot” through the woods.  We took the shotguns along in the off chance a rabbit crossed paths with us.  After three hours of trudging around, we didn’t see a single rabbit track in the fresh snow.  A lot of deer had been moving around, and some we thought we just pushed up, but that was it.

It was beautiful walking through the snow covered trees and good to get out.

Winter Wonder Land

Let’s just say this game makes Monopoly look like a short game of UNO.

Nathan received “Allies & Axis“ “Axis & Allies” from us for Christmas and we started this game yesterday!  That’s right.  We played for two hours before going over to the Harris Rd for a Christmas tree and meal.  Then we resumed play today.  We spent another three hours before he finally accumulated the nine necessary cities to win. Wooo.  The box does warn of the game time.  And it’s geared for 12+, but we knew Nathan and his love for history wouldn’t be deterred by long game play.

We’re still learning the rules, so maybe we can figure a way to shorten them up a bit.

Allies & Axis board game all set up.

The final tree picking.

We took our time at the house this morning and eventually worked our way over to the Harris Rd for our final Christmas.  The setting was a bit different this year. The garage was revamped for Thanksgiving this year and that worked so well, Jess’ folks decided to decorate it for Christmas and have the tree out there.  There was a lot more room for the boys to do there thing that’s for sure.

Another blessed year with family.

Nathan as "Joshua Chamberlain" and the Libby boys in their Davey Crockets.

Nathan was just as excited as he always is on Christmas.  It’ll be a few more years before he’s not the first one up on Christmas morning.  We were up before seven and all the gifts unwrapped in less than twenty minutes.  Which is a good thing, it makes you feel like you didn’t over do it with excessive gift giving.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and was able to spend it with family or friends.  Merry Christmas!

Nathan with his mostly World War II themed Christmas

Ever since I was a kid, we had stockings on Christmas Eve.  It seems to work out well.  It helps curb the excitement to get a little something simple to entertain us for a few more hours.  We’ve kept the tradition going at the house now even for Mama and Dada.

Nathan with his mostly baseball themed stocking contents

It warmed up today.  That helped melt the driveway off and also to make the snow a bit sticky.  Just enough to make snowballs and bricks.  I encouraged Nathan to go out and build a snow fort.  He jumped at it.  And dragged me with him.

We slapped up a small one with the limited snow available and Nathan made a couple of snowmen he could use as the enemy (I didn’t want to be the target).  We pummeled the snowmen and enjoyed the above freezing temps. It helped Nathan kill some time while he waits for evening to arrive to open his stocking. The slowest twenty-four hours in the year.

Behind Enemy Lines