We woke up Tuesday Christmas Day morning to a light dusting of snow that had fallen during the night. It was so pretty as we drove over to Marissa and Gary's at 8:15am. They were hosting us, Colin, and Gary's folks for Christmas breakfast. It was great seeing everyone and spending a few hours with them until everyone had to head off to other obligations.

Sue and I came back home around noon and decided that it was just so pretty out that we just had to go for a short walk in the woods over at Kingman Farm in Durham, NH. The air was crisp, and light snow continued to fall as we hiked one of our favorite trails - good exercise to work off some of the heavy breakfast!

After we got back home, we just puttered around having a relaxing day. Sue had a great opportunity to have a nice long chat with her daughter Jill, who lives in Westerly, RI, as well as chats with her mom and brother Alan before we started getting the prep work going for our planned dinner of oven baked whole chicken in a rosemary, basil, garlic and white wine rub. Sue made a spectacular side of baked stuffing and I sauteed (and then steamed) chopped carrots in a sherry, thyme, and garlic mix.

Once we got everything cooking - the chicken had to bake at 325 for a few hours - I lit a fire and poured out some white wine, and Sue and I sat down and played what must have been 6 or 7 sets (3 games to a set) of some of the most intense and challenging backgammon we have battled over. The smells of not only the chicken cooking but also the wood burning in the fireplace, and the view through the living room windows of the snow falling outside created an atmosphere of an idyllic New England Christmas day.

After dinner and cleaning everything up, I threw a couple more logs on the fire, and we settled into watching the really nice 1999 movie Notting Hill, turning in early so that Sue could catch up on some sleep in preparation for her first day at her new job as leasing agent and office assistant for a local apartment complex.