Winter Wonderland in Connecticut

Christmas 2014 we were in Connecticut with my youngest son and his family for Christmas.  The four of them live in an historic 3 story, 5 bedroom house in a street of beautiful old homes in an old part of the state.  The house is made to keep you warm with central heating, a log fire, double insulated windows and good insulation. Inside you are toasty warm. Outside it's a different matter.....
On Christmas Eve and we found ourselves sitting in front of the fire, having just got home from an evening of extended family hospitality that involved a house FULL of children and adults, some serious present exchanges and a big shared meal.  The snow had fallen (and melted again), the rain had come and the cold was... well, very cold!

I loved my first cold Christmas. Because I'm a Kiwi of course I've had cold Christmases before but they are not "on purpose" cold Christmases, they are "surprise!" cold Christmases in the middle of what should be summer. Thankfully we brought great jackets for our journey that we would never ever wear in Brisbane. We have rugged up with hat, scarf and gloves as well. It's cold out there! But the snow is amazing, it turns the world outside into something really beautiful, until the cars drive through it!
Holidays are time to do different things and while it is not a long holiday period for the kids, they did get nearly 2 weeks at home with us. We were mostly confined to indoors so we played games, read stories, rolled play dough, completed puzzles, wrote, read, french knitting (not so successful), stitching (one stuffed felt owl pillow complete!), and baked so much food.
It's great to find that my son has become a house husband and is also a good organiser and cook.  He has taught himself to make new, interesting dishes incorporating Spanish and Mexican flavours and to use local ingredients.  What a thrill when he pulled out and refer to the little cookbook that I made for him before he left home. I was requested to make some Scottish shortbread just like his grandma used to make (yes family, I did put Grandma's special markings on them) and a Kiwi pavlova (sorry Aussies, we made it first). Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without those.
There has been wood chopping, carol singing at church, a new closet made, interior house painting, walks around the park, a visit to the New Britain Gallery of American Arts, the Aquarium, the State Capitol,  a castle, a train museum, a plane museum and to the movies.

In the yard we watched the chickens (9 of them) with interest. They were still laying despite the cold and apparently are bred for winter conditions.  They really didn't like walking in the snow though.  An update on the chickens is that mid Feb with the temp at -11C and snow so high you cant see over it around the streets, the chickens are laying more eggs than ever!!
We loved our wintery Christmas, it was great to be with the family and we look forward to our next Christmas together.