Happy New Year!

We have been having a wonderful holiday. Claire and I spent Christmas in Green Bay with my family, which was really nice. I've said before that this year was the first time that Claire really understood Santa's role, and it was great fun. On Christmas Eve I was explaining that Santa would come, and she naturally wanted to stay awake for the event. But after I told her that Santa wouldn't come until she was asleep, she literally ran to her room, jumped in bed and went to sleep. I went in to check on her not five minutes after, and she was out. I wish every night could be that easy! And on our last night at my parent's house, the neighbors had a pretty big fireworks show. A nice send off!














After Christmas, Claire and I stayed in Green Bay for Tim-O-Thee's basketball tournament. It was so nice to see everyone. Most of the Wisconsin people were there, and special appearances were made by Carly and Maeve. It was a lot of fun. Someone had an idea to spell out 'Go Tim-O-Thee on our shirts, and it worked out perfectly until we got to the game and found out we all couldn't sit together. But the effort was there, and honestly, the fun was in putting it together anyway.














Claire loved watching the cheerleaders doing their lifts and such...















And we cheered for Tim a lot, and for good reason. He had a great game (he's number 21).






























There are more Christmas and basketball pictureson flickr.

I don't think we have any plans for ringing in the New Year tonight, other than watching the Packer game, even though it looks like the odds we'll make it into the playoffs are not very good. Its still a rare treat for Mike and I to watch a Packer game, so we'll enjoy it anyway. And speaking of Mike, we are all very excited to see him, he flies in tonight!

Happy Holidays!

John and Mom are here visiting in Portland for the week. Drew arrived from California today and the best part of all, we're dog-sitting our dog friend Bear for the week! He is a bullmastiff and weighs 140lbs. Amazingly, he is small for his breed! We have had adventures at the YMCA, hiking in the gorge, hiking in Forest Park and trips to the airport at 3:ooam. Everyone enjoyed yummy food, ordered from New Seasons, for Christmas and a peaceful service at the Unitarian Universalist Church. As soon as I am able to, I'll get a hold of the pictures of our beautiful tree, appropriately named "Polly" by sister Emily ( :

Happy Holidays to all, sending lots of love from the northwest!
Maighie (edited by Emma)

Christmas Eve

Sunny Skies Again.

Another fantastic day in Maine. I can't believe its been so nice. Yet again today we were treated to temperatures in the upper 50's and bright sunny skies. So we spent the day outside at Wolfe's Neck State Park in Freeport, Maine. Its not a very big State Park, but they do have over 5 miles of trails through the woods and along the ocean and Harraseeket River. The trails were perfect, easily walkable for Mike and I, but just a great challenge with tree roots, rocks, inclines and declines for Claire. It was very peaceful, and of course, very beautiful. We didn't do a lot of planning, so we were pretty lucky that we went during low tide. It looks like the water gets pretty high:




























We even got our family picture for the Halberg Phone Directory taken care of!

December What?

So far, the end of this year has been mild. Or so I've been told. Since this is our first winter in Maine, we don't have anything to compare it to. But on days like today, anyone can tell its unseasonably nice out. I don't know what the 'official' temperature today was, but when my thermometer read 57 degrees, Claire and I jumped in the car and went to the beach.














You just have to take advantage of these warm days. I keep thinking that this will be it, from here on in its going to get chilly...and then it doesn't. Or hasn't yet, anyway. Its exactly what Eric was just talking about. In Hawaii, 75 degrees is cold enough to wear a sweatshirt. In Maine, 57 degrees in December is warm enough to head to the beach without a jacket. I kind of hope it cools off soon, I want to see some snow out here!

Thanksgiving - finally!

Emily and I have been asked to join the fabulously famous Halblog! We will be posting pictures from the "other" Portland and sharing our adventures on the West Coast. I am looking forward to sharing a blog with 3 wonderful people on the opposite side of the country - too cool! We hope you will enjoy this new addition to the Halblog as well ( :

The post is called "Thanksgiving - finally!" because I have been meaning to post about our trip to Ceour D'Alene, ID for a while now. We had a great trip to Idaho with two of our friends. We stayed with Carly and visited Uncle Matt's school, sailed in his boat with the snow and enjoyed great food provided by the talented chef Jennifer! There was also a trip up to Sandpoint for tea and books, outstanding fireworks, a light display and a holiday parade that included Shane standing on a Fire Engine - too cool! We also saw the new Bond movie Casino Royale, we were all fans. I actually think it may be my favorite Bond movie! Anyway, enjoy the mish mash of pictures.

Love to all,
Maighie

PS - Mike and Sheila, do you think I could move my flickr badge to your blog main page? I don't know if that's possible...let me know your thoughts ( :

Christmas is coming!

We cut our own Christmas Tree today, and had a blast. We had it up and decorated in no time. The only thing we were missing was a tree skirt, but a blanket from Granny gives it all the perfect Ironwood flavor.



















This is the first year Claire really 'gets' Christmas. She knows its coming and what its about. She helped decorate the tree and now that its up, she plays Pretend Santa and gives Mike and I boxes full of presents (wooden blocks, puzzle pieces and such). Last year she was excited about Christmas, but she definitely wasn't looking forward to it because she didn't know any better. At 2 years old, 'later' just wasn't in her vocabulary, much less "Christmas is on December 25, in a few weeks". So this year is different. Its very fun to see her so excited and point out Christmas lights when we are driving around, or watch her just sit by the tree and look up at it. She also spent the entire morning making Christmas presents for Grandparents, Uncles and Aunt Monnie. She put a lot of thought into each one, and each one turned out absolutely perfect.














Christmas is coming, and we can't wait!

Classic.

Today Claire and I were driving over a bridge when she noticed some smokestacks and the big puffy white billows of steam coming out.

"Mom, I can see a factory. What do they make there?"
"I'm not sure."
"Hmm...I think its clouds. Its a cloud factory I think."

Mackworth Island and Christmas Lights

This weekend we went to Mackworth Island, a State Park just off the coast of Falmouth. Despite the wind (it was actually very windy), we had a great time, and seemed to find something interesting around every corner. There is a trail that loops all the way around (1.4 miles total) that we followed and discovered beaches, a granite wall that sticks out into the ocean, a gigantic pet cemetery, and a part of the forest where you can build houses for the Fairies. We didn't actually stop to build one, and though I did take pictures, they really don't show anything. Maybe because most of the houses people built are pretty small and made out of natural things, like branches. Or maybe because the Fairies don't like having their pictures taken, so they magically altered my pictures. Either way, Fairies obviously enjoy their privacy.










































The above picture is the pet cemetery. When I saw it in the woods, I thought "Wow, that's cool. I wonder what that stone circle is about". And then when I got closer I could see all the grave stones inside, and it was downright creepy. But then Mike remembered reading that this is where the original owner of the island buried his pets (horses and dogs according to the headstones), and so it was a little less creepy...but still creepy.

Then, after it got dark out, we went to Old Port to look at the Christmas lights. There are a lot of very cool lights, and in true 'green' Maine form, all of them are LEDs rather than the incandescent bulbs. I've been wanting to see the lights for a while now, and I'm really glad we had the chance.