When I arrived at the air base/wildlife refuge the light was was still pretty poor. I HDR’ed the first two pictures of the 747 to make them a little more interesting.

The deer crossed the road in front of me and posed for a few seconds before hurriedly hopping off into the woods…. it is hunting season after all.

These turkeys were in a much larger group but again, they had moved away too quickly to get a shot of them all.

We took a scenic drive up to Castle in the Clouds in Moultonborough, a great way of seeing Lake Winnipesaukee.

Also in Moultonborough is a very picturesque airfield. We stopped for a while to see this light aircraft take off.

After a visit to the “must see” Old Country Store, and a delicious lunch at Harts Turkey Farm Restaurant, we took a drive down the west side of the lake through Alton before returning home to the seacoast.

After eating we played monopoly until late. My canny ability to avoid landing on Park Place and Boardwalk kept me in the game a few hours more than I perhaps should have! It was easily the most fun monopoly game I have had.

The following morning we woke up and opened our presents around the tree. Meghan’s parents were very generous and we came away with lots of nice gifts.

After we had opened our gifts we made our way down to Boston to see the rest of Meghan’s family. We had a delightful Turkey and Lasagna dinner with the most delicious pumpkin pie dessert courtesy of Meghan’s sister.

After dinner we made our way home again and opened our gifts from each other.

Here are some of the many generous gifts I received over Christmas:

Thursday was my first Thanksgiving Day in America. We travelled to the Keene area of New Hampshire to celebrate with our parents and my wifes’ sister. A great time was had by all! The Thanksgiving meal was fantastic; it included turkey, sausage stuffing, sweet potato, cranberry rolls, vegetables, prosciutto ham, salad, pumpkin bread with cranberry butter and a gorgeous sweet potato pie.

Following the meal we went on a 3 mile walk. We walked to a nearby monument which stands where the house of the mother of a former president used to stand. It was nice to get a stretch of the legs and help the turkey go down!

In the evening we played Clue (Cludo in the UK) until we got tired.

The following day my father and I drove across the border into Massachusetts to do a walk to Royalston Falls which is a 40 foot waterfall. We saw a series of small falls and some wonderful rock formations along the ravine but did not end up seeing the main fall (as we discovered when we got back and read the literature!). While we were in the ravine it snowed a little and transformed the forest into a winter scene. On the walk back to our car I slipped on a cleverly disguised block of ice and fell over! Don’t worry though, the camera around my neck was left undamaged! I landed on my left arm and bruised it a bit though!

For the remainder of the day we drove with the rest of the family to some covered bridges and to the Vermont Country Store, followed by coffee at Burdicks.

I really enjoyed my first Thanksgiving and I am now looking forward to my second!