Sue and I had a wonderful, but very cold, Sunday New Years Eve day and evening. With the wind chill, it was almost 20 below zero when we got up!

Our frosted kitchen windows!

We started out the day with what was supposed to be a very short drive down to Macy's in Newington, followed by a quick stop at the store to pick up a few final items of food. It should have taken a little over an hour. It took over two and a half hours....

Because it was supposed to be her just dashing into the store to pick things up, Sue wanted to take Beau with us. That was fine, because I could just sit in the car with him while she ran her errands. It would have been too cold out to leave him in the car for a long time. The temperature was about 3 degrees F, but the wind chill was something like minus 20 degrees F!

First, we had to stop at Dunkin Donuts for coffee. Of course, Beau had to bark his head off at the drive through speaker and server. Coffee was good, and kept us warm in the negative 3 degree F temperature, and about negative 10 with the wind chill.

After crossing over the General Sullivan Bridge in Newington, Sue did one of her spur of the moment change of plans that dictated I make a sharp veering turn off at the exit for the road out to Great Bay Marine. She thought there might be some nice picture opportunities to test her new camera out on.

High winds blasting at the river sent frigid and frothing waves against the outer docks.

Sue thought this 'Ice' cabinet sitting in the snow in the boat yard of Great Bay Marine was pretty humorous.

This shot of a snow blown driveway captures the day, and the recent weather, just perfectly.

Finishing with errands in Newington, we headed back to New Durham, stopping at the Hannaford in Rochester to get a few more dinner items. And then Sue suggested another detour out Ten Rod Road. And that turned into another detour out Meaderboro Road to see if the apple trees at Butternut Farm still had ice coating the branches. The sun was out, and it's a beautiful thing to see, if you catch it just right. It was a nice drive over there, but, unfortunately, not a picture worthy trip.

By the time we got home and had things put away, it was time for me to start dinner preparations work. Our friends Jen and Butch were coming over for an early New Year's Eve dinner as Jen had to be at work early New Year's Day. I was fixing that terrific Whiskey Shrimp meal with cardamom steamed asparagus.

Sue fixed champaign spritzers for her and Jen, while Butch stuck with his beer, and I was gently sipping on a nice Sauvignon Blanc as we sat in the living room. I had a warm, glowing fire going in the wood stove, though tried to keep the heat down so it wouldn't drive us out into the negative 10 degrees F below weather that griped at the house. Sue had also made up some Brie Bits and a Greek Spanakopita that was just spectacular. I had helped put that together earlier, and it's quite a process.

Butch, Jen, and Sue.

Dinner was lots of fun, though after a desert that Sue made: Bananas Foster served with Vanilla Chai ice cream - wow, Jen and Butch headed off. Sue and I did stick it out to watch the ball drop in Times Square on Dick Clark's Rocking New Year hosted by Ryan Seacrest. Though Seacrest is really good, our age group truly mises Dick Clark.

After the ball dropped, we watched the montage of videos from around the world where the New Year had already come in, and then a few of the music acts, before collapsing into bed around 1:00 am.