Ice Storm

On Thursday night the ice storm hit. Hard. We were up all night listening to limbs and trees crash down in the woods next to the house. The house itself is fine, some debris, but nothing too bad. But, of course, along with the rest of the state, and most of New England, we were without power. It took about an hour to figure out that school was closed (no phones, no internet, no tv). Once we realized how widespread the damage was we went on a hunt for a place that would be open for breakfast. As it turned out, there was once pocket with power near Portsmouth, so along with half of Southern New Hampshire, we headed out there with the Wheelers (blog link on the right). We ended up in Barnes and Noble for most of the morning just enjoying the warmth and the light. Then, Brian and I headed out to Western MA to spend the weekend with his parents. We decided to drive through southern New Hampshire rather than through MA to get there because it's usually faster (again, without power there was no way to tell how bad things really were). It was insane. We drove over more than a dozen downed lines, and we had to drive under about seven more dangling over the road. Most of the 2 1/2 hour route was just one lane cut through debris, trees, branches, power lines, most still in the road with just a small section cut out for one car to get through. And those were the roads that were open. Whole sections of 101 were closed, and that's a main road.

Western MA was fine where we were and we had a nice visit with the family. We stayed for an extra day because there was no school today (or, as it turns out, tomorrow either). When we came back, we took the Massachusetts route. I'm sure the other one is still mostly impassable, with 200,000 homes to restore power to the streets aren't a huge priority.

We're home, with power. Some friends aren't so lucky and they may be without power for a while. We don't have phone service, but that's just fine, at least we have heat and lights.

Hayden loved pressing the button on the penguin's foot to make it dance. Pure joy.
Opening presents from Grandpa and Mei Mei
Once she got the hang of it, Hayden decided there was nothing better than ripping paper.

Hayden met Santa on Sunday. She wasn't sure about the whole thing, but as long as Mommy and Daddy were there, it was okay.

Gingerbread Fun! Hayden loved making it, no interest in eating any of it. She did the whole side of the roof; she's quite proud of herself.

We got our tree from a great little local farm and Hayden has been fantastic with it. She still pets it like a puppy now and then, but she's been great about not really messing with it. This makes us happy!

Updates

Hayden is really into picking up and cleaning lately. When she's done with her play dough, she takes her cookie cutter, play dough and utensils to the sink and hurls them in. Then, she goes and wipes off her play table before pushing in the chairs and moving on to new games. Honestly, I don't know where she gets this. It must be from Brian, because....well, let's face it, my idea of picking up is hurling everything into the closet and shutting the door fast before it all comes tumbling back out. I really hope this neat thing is here to stay. We don't need two of me in this house.

We got our Christmas tree on Saturday. We were both scared that it would take up the whole living room, like last year's did, and there would be nowhere for Hayden to play. So, we made sure to find one that, while long and full, still fits easily into the corner of the room. Then, we found ornaments that are "shatterproof" (that's the hope anyway) and we went to town decorating. On Sunday morning, Brian introduced Hayden to the tree, telling her to "touch gently". Since that's what we say about pets, she put out her hand and gently stroked the tree. Now, every so often she'll go over and pet the tree. But, other than that, she leaves it alone.