The Cabin

The holidays were a little bit different this year. We've done the family balancing act in the past - but this year my Grammy decided to spend Christmas with my Aunt in Arizona. Read: my side of the family wouldn't be getting together since Gram is the anchor. 

Since both of Brian's parents birthdays fall right before Christmas, and his mom was turning the big 6-oh this year, we decided to do something a bit different.  We decided that we'd all head up to the family's cabin the week before Christmas to just plain ole relax.  

Side view of the most peaceful place I know!

I ended up lucking out and being able to take the last 2 days before break off of work.  That in itself was a small miracle.  It isn't looked upon highly for teachers to have subs in their classrooms right before a huge break!  Thank you, Principal! You made my holiday rock!!

So, Wednesday the 19th, aka Carmen's birthday, we headed up as soon as I could get out of work. Carmen and Ervey were already there with Samuel and Della.  Jenny, Jeff and Sofia headed up about an hour after we did.

Let me just tell you....this cabin is like a sanctuary. Up until about 6 months ago, there wasn't even cell phone service.  It's just that isolated. On our last trip up in October, Carmen had DirecTV installed because we figured it might be smart to catch the news every now and then and not be totally cut off from civilization. It's the one place where we can go and NOT worry about work, what's going on at home, what we're stressed about, ANYthing. Most of the time I don't even wear anything besides PJ's or sweats.  We shower when we want to, if we want  to, and it's fantastic.

Matter of fact, this time, we had NO running water.  Period.  It was cold, and snowy and we didn't want to risk the pipes bursting.  So we went running water free. I never thought I'd say this - but it was pretty sweet "roughin it".  We always bring drinking water, and Carmen's cousin Chrissy lives at the bottom of the mountain - so we were able to fill up jugs for dishes and things like that.  

Anyway - cabin trips always start out the same.  Get there, unload, put food away, set up drink station, drink.  Then we mix in a little snack eating, old school board game playing, and VHS movie watching. Have I mentioned how great it is yet? No?

Just a small sample of our drink station for the week.

This time we took all of our dogs since we'd be up there for almost a week.  They had such a good time playing in the snow, and it was my little Molly-Mo's first time seeing the white stuff!  We lounged, had a snow ball fight, made snow angels, and attempted to make a snowman but the snow just wasn't ready yet.

Molly enjoying the snow and trying to steal her Dad's hotdog!

"Look Aun Sam! I a snow angel!"

Our nights were filled with eating (we made a full-on turkey dinner with all the fixin's for one night!), stroking the fire, and setting up our fire pit on the deck.  We'd sit outside and roast some 'mallow's, drinking to our hearts content, and just enjoying being together as a family. 

Christmas lights, the deck, the fire pit, life is GOOD

The kiddo's and I made a gingerbread house, which Haus-Pooch promptly ate, and we even set up a Christmas tree complete with a small white elephant gift exchange.

Sofie Jo decorating our tree

Haus (Background) decided he liked gingerbread, he ate everything in the front!

We had such a good time that Brian and me, and his parents decided to stay an extra night.  We came back the Sunday before Christmas Eve.  This trip was so amazing that I'm still thinking about it, weeks later.  It was just what the doctor ordered before the craziness of the holidays and having to come back to work. It has definitely got me looking forward to the next time we can escape! Family vacations are the best!