Our WinterCampers.com website has been hosted by Yahoo for several years and maintained by Mark.  However, as competing time demands have increased for Mark, coupled with increasing Yahoo fees had to seek an alternative for the web site.  We transferred the web site to Dreamhost and re-engineered the site using WordPress.  The goal is to reduce costs and use a web tool that will permit more people to blog and contribute content to the site.  It is still in a rough draft stage, but you can get sense of where we are headed with this at www.WinterCampers.com.

Friday night as we finished up dinner Kathryn noticed a fox in the pasture hunting for mice.  Kathryn and Eric raced for their binoculars and we watched the fox for about 10 minutes as dusk settled in.  The fox was running across the pasture and would periodically stop to rear up and smash down with it’s front paws – trying to pin a mouse.  I was surprised by the speed which it coursed the field.  It covered almost 20 acres in 10 minutes and left us.

Saturday we celebrated Dakota’s 3rd birthday at our house.  Here Dakota models the tiara and earrings she received from Eric.

Sunday was clear and sunny in the morning but as we had lunch we watched dark clouds zoom in and within a 10 minute span we went from partly cloudy to blizzardy- white out.  The winds and snow blew most all afternoon as we stayed inside and read.  About 3:30 the wind let up and we went outside.  Kathryn helped me fix the overhead barn door and we did a little sledding with Eric.

When I was a teenager we had a long reasonable steep hill behind my parent’s house infrequently used by snowmobiles. They cruised it just enough that we had a packed run that could be run for ~1 mile if one was brave enough to tack on the section that went through the woods and came out into the fields. After school my brother, my buddy Albert and I would convene at our house and select an operable runner sled. We could make one or two runs a night – as the walk up was time consuming and tiring. We generally had to steer by dragging our feet and tore up our boots in the process. Frequently the sled runs turned into bumper-sleds and invariable one or more sled had to undergo repairs after our runs.

The fastest sled was an old Flexible Flyer that was owned by my father when he was a kid. It received so much use that the concave runners were worn convex. It didn’t steer well, but it would out run the rest of the sleds. I still have the sled – with several replacement boards.

We have a small hill, out by the barn, that gets made bigger by the snow piles pushed up by the snow plow. It is perfect for kids to sled on. Only now they use plastic sleds, but the idea is the same. Below Eric gets a push from Kathryn while Trey looks on.

Dakota invents her own sledding style.

Eric hit the big ‘5’ and in celebration we held a bowling party at King Pin Lanes. It was wild! We had three lanes going – the kids, the young teens and the adults. It took some encouragement and practice but after a few trips the kids were doing fine. Eric and Trevor were carrying and unloading the ball like a big rock.

Afterwards we had the obligatory cake and presents. Trevor thinks the next best thing to getting a birthday present is to have your best buddy get presents.

Power Rangers and Dinosaurs ruled the day.

Staples offers a quick, cheap book binding service so once again I collected the postings from calendar year 2007, printed them out and got them bound.  In case one of my kids wants to read them sometime…..

We had several Christmas Celebrations. Saturday, December 22 we drove to Barb & Joe’s house for the Muller/Hay party and gift exchange. On Sunday Billie Jo and Dakota visited our house. Dakota had a good time playing with her play timbales and pilfering through Eric’s bookcase for books to be read to her.

On Monday Ed, Kelly, Phoenix and Izzabella came to visit. Ed and Izzabella check out the present process.

Phoenix opens a gift card to Barnes & Noble.

Christmas Eve we went to service at Unitarian Church and Christmas Day was spent at home. We played lots of games: puzzles, Sorry, Pick-up Sticks and, of course, Power Rangers.

Of course, Santa brought the requested guitar.

Little Acorn School held holiday festivities including a Christmas meal and a visit from Santa Claus. Eric and Trevor got into the spirit with their holiday hats.

Last year Eric was surprised by the visit from Santa and when asked what he wanted for Christmas Eric responded with “I haven’t really thought about it”. This year he was not going to be caught unprepared. For month’s preceding Eric has been stating he wanted a Red Power Ranger Rescue Truck – I must have heard it a dozen times. When I picked up Eric at the babysitters after preschool Eric informed me that Santa came to preschool and “I told him I want a guitar – a real one!” Where that came from I have no idea.

This was the weekend to get the Christmas tree put up. For the past few years we have gotten our tree from Buttenschon’s Tree Farm, on Luke Road in Marcy. They provide a tractor ride out the fields and someone helps cut the tree. They haul it back on a wagon and bag it for transport. On weekend’s they provide hot chocolate and Santa is wandering around. Here Eric, Kathryn and Jennifer load up on the wagon for the ride out.

It is doesn’t count unless you wander around in the field for a while checking out all the trees.

How about this one, Dad?

Eric was scared of Santa and Jennifer was scared of the albino blond guy walking around with a double bladed ax, but we got out of there alive and took the trees home. After several hours in the basement warming up the tree was ready to set up in the living room. We put tarps underneath as the tree continued to melt and drip overnight on Saturday.

Sunday morning Kathryn and Eric sorted out all the Christmas decorations and checked out the lights (thankfully!) before we were ready to put them on.

Sunday afternoon we invited Skelly’s and Boucheron’s for a tree decorating party. Below Eric waits his turn to put on one of the ornaments he made in pre-school.

The finished product (awaiting presents).

As I was driving into work today I saw a loosely organized flock of about 16 blue herons flying, in their own slow measured fashion, southeasterly across the air base.  I have never seen more than two herons flying together before, but a little research reveals that herons do flock together for their fall (but not spring) migration.

Kathryn and I take turns putting Eric to bed – usually at 8pm. On a ‘normal’ night our routine is that he gets some quiet time 30 minutes prior to bed. He has a snack (he is crazy about cheese, pretzels and dip) and then we get on with the business of getting pajamas on, brushing teeth, using the toilet,  getting the right combinations of lights turned on, playing soothing music on his CD player and reading a bed time story. Then when everything is done the other comes in for a kiss and goodnight.

The other night Eric was yawning during the bedtime story – Dr. Seuss’s One Fish, Two Fish, Blue Fish and when I hit the last page I looked down and he was out. The 1st time he has crashed enroute to sleep.

SOOOO peaceful……..