Christmas highlights

This Christmas, we met my family at a cabin in Island Park. We spent several days together doing lots of fun things, like celebrating Christmas, playing games, snowmobiling, etc. Instead of writing all about it, I'm going to just share a few of the highlights. 


The Good:
- Watching our little boys and boy cousins (there aren't any girls yet) decorate the Christmas Tree with Nanna.

- Soren loving snowmobiling (so much so that sledding paled in comparison). He just wanted to keep going. Speed didn't bother him, nor did going up and done hills. He is much braver than I was at his age! (Of course, he also didn't have to ride on a short track behind crazy older cousins).

- Napping in front of a big fireplace while it snowed outside. And reading the second book in the Mistborn trilogy in front of the same fireplace. Soooo relaxing.

- Playing lots of family games with my siblings and parents. I even got to teach them one of my new favorite games - Dixit.

- The fact that I didn't mess up the Cleaver Noodles on Christmas Day. I even got the flavor a little better than on Thanksgiving. Woo hoo!

- The beautiful "winter wonderland" in Island Park that was covered with fresh snow. All the trees looked professionally frosted.

- Sledding races with my sister. We made two tracks, one of which was better than the other so we would do best out of four. I don't remember who won, it was just fun.

- Watching Lucas interact with his little cousins Colt and Kender, who are both a year younger. After one of their baths, Lucas climbed into the tub fully dressed. That boy is my water baby.

- Snowmobiling around with my Dad and later Scott.

- Watching kids open presents - and watching my sisters and parents open the ones I had made just for them.

- Watching Lucas and Soren play in the snow. Lucas looked like a little marshmallow and loved to eat the snow. His preferred snow-eating method was to face plant. We gave them children-sized snowshovels and they had a great time digging. Soren gave Grandpa a snowball thrower, which we stole to play with, too.

- Singing Christmas carols and eating LOTS of homemade almond rocca.



The Bad:
 - I ate too much almond rocca.

- Lucas learned how to climb out of a Pack and Play, which meant he wouldn't go to bed and began to drive me crazy.

- Packing to leave for our family adventure at the cabin on Christmas Eve was a little stressful, but getting there was worth it.

- We returned home to a nasty dead mouse smell permeating our living room.