Christmas in England
Just like last year we took a long Christmas Eve flight back to the USA so we could spend the holiday with our families. This time we got bumped to an early morning flight out of London (which was good), requiring us to leave the house at 4 in the morning (not so good). We decided to do a little celebration at home a couple days before Christmas for English Santa.
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| I had a feeling that Maya was going to eat Santa's cookies, so we set him out just an old carrot for the reindeer and some water. Clearly I underestimated Maya. |
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| She drank up all the water and then ate the carrot. Better luck next year, Santa and company. |
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| Alas, Santa came anyway. He doesn't hold a grudge. |
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| Play food and a tea set! |
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| At the airport the airline gave us all Santa hats. Here's Maya and me sharing a cup of peppermint tea at the airport. |
Christmas Day
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| Maya climbing the stairs at my mom's house. She's wearing a dress that my grandmother made me when I was little. Still looking good! |
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| Brenton and Sarah wearing the Santa hats. |
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| Peek-a-boo! Maya's new pop-up playhouse. |
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| A moment of down time with the Christmas dog. |
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| Dinner at my mom's house. Reading riddles. |
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| Bird head. |
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| Mom and me. |
Feeding the Ducks
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| Mallards at the Mill Yard in Amesbury. |
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| Time to feed the ducks. |
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| Tossing some bread. |
Artistic day out with the Metcalf family
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| It was cold out while we were home. Actually, it was so cold that one day the schools were closed just because of the temperature. Needless to say we all were getting a little cabin fever, so we got together with my friend Christine and her kids to play at dress-up place called "Imagination Station." Here's firefighter Maya - taking her job very seriously. |
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| The fashion show begins. |
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| Lady bug. |
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| Princess Grayson. |
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| Three pirates. |
Seacoast Science Center
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| First we got cabin fever, then we got real fevers. Between the three of us, we were sick in bed for over a week. Luckily Sarah came to visit and cheered us up with a trip to the Seacoast Science Center. Here's Maya and Sarah in the whale tail. |
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| Maya's favorite part of the whole museum was fishing off the side of the boat with a magnetic hook. |
Here's a video of us fishing.
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| Caught one! Is that a striper? |
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| Craig's getting into it. |
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| Beautiful skies over the New Hampshire shoreline. |
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| Sarah takes a spin in the underwater research station. |
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| Maya pilots a submarine in the fishtanks. |
Children's Museum of New Hampshire
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| Maya and I played with this big pin frame. You push the pins on one side of the frame and you can see the impression of your hands on the other side of the farm. In this picture you can see her hand prints over and over on the frame (and my arm print). |
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| Maya really like hanging out in the submarine. Cue the "Life Aquatic" soundtrack. |
Birthday Bowl-a-thon
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| Group photo from the back, Me, Kate, Sarah, Colleen, Mom, and Maya |
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| They look serious, but don't be fooled. There was a lot of cheating and fudging numbers going on a this score table. |
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| Goofballs. |
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Vogue.
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Blooper reel.
Back Yard Birdwatching
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| Back in Wigston, we took part of a national back yard birdwatch and cataloged all the birds we saw out the window over one Saturday morning. Maya helped me log the birds on my computer. |
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| There's one! |
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| Here are some more. Can you see them? |
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| Here's our grand total: 6 bird species. Not bad! |
