Dec. 31 is a special day for our family. It’s our youngest daughter’s birthday. Yup! New Year’s Eve. Not an ideal date just after Christmas and the heavy party day prior to the new year. All through her growing up years we attempted to create a fun day but as you might guess, not many people/family/friends are available. Schools are closed, many businesses are closed, and often the weather is very challenging.

Our good friend Tom Evans from Clinton, New York, and Southport summers all of his life, was in the same boat. And he always sent Morgan a card or called with birthday greetings.

For him, I suspect, the date also held many obstacles. It’s not the best answer to stay home and play “Go Fish” with the family. Although Tom probably was able to better entertain himself than a growing up teenager. I must say though, Morgan was very gracious about her birth date and seemed to make the best of it. We always tried to come up with something fun and new. Sometimes we’d rent a cabin in Rangeley and ski at Saddleback and visit with Aunt Bea and Uncle Bud. Aunt Bea taught both our girls to ski during winter school break and sometimes our visit included a small but intimate birthday celebration. Not a perfect substitute for hanging out with pals from home, but not too bad either.

In more recent times we have started Morgan’s birthday celebration with an observation of sunrise from dear old Ocean Point, facing east toward Monhegan. It can be a hit or miss proposition. Sometimes the sun doesn’t show up as hoped for. Sometimes it shows up late and every now and then we can catch it just as the golden rays break the horizon. It certainly can be very dramatic and fulfilling for us all to be together for the first light of day.

It takes a lot to get us up and out early – not that the 7 o’clock-ish sunrise is particularly early. We invariably see lobster boats working off shore knowing that captains and crew have been up since 4:30 or 5! But for us, being together has come to be a rather special tradition, especially in these complicated times of worrisome travel.

This year we didn’t catch a glimpse of the sun until a bit later in our visit. In other words we didn’t get to see the sun pop up out of the ocean. There were clouds on the horizon with totally blocked first light. But, we are a patient lot, and within about half an hour the clouds moved around just enough for us to get a good dose of solar joy! As you can see from the photo, and sun’s height in the sky, our view to the east was somewhat obscured until it wasn’t. And it was quite a balmy temperature. We weren’t wearing shorts but we weren’t in heavy parkas and protective foul weather gear. It was rather comfortable, but admittedly a bit odd for Dec. 31.

Not to worry. We hung out on the rocks for about an hour. Watched the surf, listened to the gulls and just enjoyed being together. It was a good start to the day. We all went home for a nap and made plans for the rest of the day. I am the acting co-chair of entertainment, working remotely.

P.S., please pardon the lens flare – flew too close to the sun!