Happy 2014, everyone! Mother Nature wanted to be sure you were paying attention, so she let the mercury plummet and the heavens open up. I trust you are all warm, wherever you are.

Our Foster Christmas began at HillHouse on Christmas Eve morning. Scott and I visited Mom and gave her a new calendar and a cool barometer that everyone there is enjoying. We traveled along to Durham to spend the night with Scott’s mom, Jean Bean, and learned that my sister Deb was out of power and wasn’t expecting it back on until Friday! (It turns out she has a nice neighbor with a generator and they got their power back on Thursday, but still.)

We spent Christmas Day and had a great meal with Rand and Angela in Deerfield. Will was home from ASU and his girlfriend Leandra was there, too. Jessie and Gracion helped us celebrate as well. Thursday we came home and had the rest of the Foster Christmas here with our traditional favorite, Finnan Haddie.

With the luxury of a two-week vacation from school and days off from BRB, we were able to return to New Hampshire to celebrate New Year’s Eve with friends at Pierce Lake. We kept warm and had a lively game of Mexican Train Dominoes that we had to finish in the morning. (I want that game for my birthday!) School starts up again on Monday, and it’s supposed to be 45 F and raining; Mother Nature is up to her old tricks again.

Arthur Pierce sent me a brief message: “We are at a B&B in Carrabassett Valley so Elizabeth and Nicole and their two kids can enjoy our camp. They have skied and swum and sledded. We all celebrate the new year with CV neighbors tonight.” I also saw Alice’s posts on Facebook that she and her family were also at Sugarloaf.

Emily Thomas got the Arthur Pierce message from Tom Sturgis on the blog and sent me this clarification: “I've worked with Southern Weddings since I graduated from college, about four and a half years ago, first as the art director and now as the creative director.  It has been a crazy year of growth for our small company (was three employees when I arrived, now six full time and one part time!), and the most exciting news of 2013 was that we entered into a limited partnership with Southern Living.  It was very unexpected (they approached us) but has worked out well so far.  We are creating special wedding sections that are inserted into issues of their magazine three times a year (the first is in the January 2014 issue).  These special copies are sent to 400,000 demographically-selected subscribers, which is an amazing opportunity for us to expand our reach.” I would say so, Emily! Thanks for that!

Wanted: news.