Daybreak Tuesday 12/24

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

This is the last Daybreak of 2019. And I'd like to tell you how grateful I am to all of you who've made it such a pleasure: who signed up, who created space for it in your inboxes, who sent photos and thoughts and kind words and corrections, who drove its growth by passing it along to friends, and who helped build something out of nothing by supporting it with your contributions. Thank you! You've made this a wonderful, memorable year.Another sunny day, though colder. Thanks to last night's cold front, we won't get much above freezing today, if at all. But thanks to today's (and tomorrow's, and some of Thursday's) high pressure, it'll be sunny and quiet and pretty much perfect. Calm winds from the northwest, down into the teens tonight.Dartmouth plans 300-unit complex for grad students on Mt. Support Road. The $50 million apartment development will go up about a mile south of DHMC, and provide housing for 500 or more people — first dibs to grad students, but hospital employees and the general public may also get a shot. At the moment, the college can house only about a third of its 2,000 grad students, says the VN's Tim Camerato. Hanover resident no longer a billionaire, but still NH's richest. This is interesting. The Union Leader reported yesterday that Andrea Reimann-Ciardelli, the Reimann family heiress whose Emily Landecker Foundation helps sustain the Upper Valley Aquatic Center, CHaD, and other Upper Valley organizations, has been dropped from Forbes' annual list of billionaires. Only, that happened in June. Oh well. Always happy to give a shout-out to her foundation's good work.Here they come.... The NH primary is just around the corner, and after a lull the candidates are headed back our way. Just to help you plan:

Odds are good there'll be others coming through soon. Keep your eyes peeled.

This is cool! And no, it's not retouched. It's a light pillar, photographed over the weekend by Herb Swanson up in Lyndonville. These happen in calm, cold conditions when ice crystals in the air refract light. You were a lucky man, Herb! Thanks!And this is stunning: Looking south across a Mt. Washington snow field, the snow-covered Whites spread out into the distance.In case you're not going to be atop Mt. Washington, but in a car instead... NHPR reports that AAA is projecting its heaviest holiday travel season in the 20 years since it began keeping track. Five million cars on the road in New England alone, the uptick a combination of a strong economy and Christmas falling in the middle of the week (so people taking more time off). The longest delays (uh-oh) expected to be this Thursday.Bald eagles rebounding more than loons, study finds. New Hampshire Audubon and the Loon Preservation Committee joined forces to look through 16 years of breeding data for bald eagles and loons to see not just how their populations are faring, but how interactions between the two species are affecting them. In the last six years, the NH loon population has grown 10 percent; eagles are up 80 percent. Eagle predation, though, accounts for only a small percentage of loon nest failures. Things like lead-tackle poisoning have a bigger impact. VT human services secretary calls for prison reforms, independent investigation. In the wake of the scandal involving the women's prison in South Burlington, Mike Smith is proposing criminalizing sexual relations between corrections employees and people on probation, parole or furlough; requiring drug testing for all corrections officers; and reforming the way it investigates employees accused of misconduct. He also wants to engage a private law firm by the end of the week to conduct an outside investigation.VT ready to drop more bucks to lure people to state. The New Worker Relocation Grant Program, a follow-on to the state's now-notorious remote worker program, is set to launch Jan. 1. It was approved by the legislature earlier this year, with $1.2 million going to grants of up to $7,500 to reimburse people who become full-time residents after moving to the state to take jobs with Vermont companies. Okay, last Daybreak of the year, let's give this spot to William Daugherty's drone. I know, it featured in yesterday's, too. But over the months it's given us such pleasure, and Daugherty was out in that lovely late-afternoon sun yesterday flying it above the Connecticut River's Sumner Falls in Hartland. 

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SO, ABOUT TONIGHT...

There are services, carol sings and festivals of lights wherever you turn.

Facebook's a good source (just click on "Events" and explore from there).

Or you could head to Babe's in Bethel for It's a Wonderful Life.

Which, of course, you have to see with other people on a decent-sized screen. Starts at 7.

Or there's a pajama'd Polar Express in Claremont.

At the Claremont Cinema Center starting at 7. 

But you'll do whatever you do on this particular evening. 

In the meantime, to close us out for the year here's

(you may know it as "Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy") from Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn's 1960 

Nutcracker Suite

. As one commenter says, "This is how Tchaikovsky really wanted it done.  He just didn't have the instrumentation."

I hope that if you're celebrating Hanukkah Night 3 tonight or Christmas tomorrow or Kwanzaa starting Thursday or just hanging out in this place we live, your next week is filled with warmth, friends, community, and good food. See you Jan. 2.

Daybreak is written and published by Rob Gurwitt                     Banner by Tom HaushalterAbout Rob                                                                                   About Tom

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