Old Man Winter

This year, the Cleary's didn't make a mastodon to burn to celebrate the Winter Solstice, they built "Old Man Winter".  It turns out, the old man didn't want to burn on the solstice because he brought forth a mighty ice storm and it didn't make sense to gather.  After the holidays, he delivered a "arctic front" that hung around for a while.  When the thermometers finally got into the positive double digets, the party was on!  And what a party it was!

There were at least 200 people in attendance and I had no idea what an amazing show we would experience.  The crowd was an eclectic collection of community members and fire fanatics.

First there was a "fire handlers".  It started out with low key dancers and culminated with truly amazing acts such as these:

Finally, Old man was ready to burn.  There were fireworks coming out of his crotch and eyes and it really was a spectacle.

We weren't sure how Hazey would do with this, as he hated fireworks this summer.

I feel so fortunate to be a part of such an artistic and creative community.  It really was a spectacular event.

Because the kids "fairy godparents" were traveling during the holidays, we decided to have delayed Christmas with them in early January.  Cara and Tom brought there new "mini pie maker" over to spoil us to tasty, cute berry pies.  And Scott and Cynthia delivered Hazen's new wagon and an amazing Animal Kingdom book for Cal.

With the temps finally "warming" we did make it to the slopes.  As you can see, Hazen's independence is apparent both on and off the slopes!  He's getting there.

And Cally had some major "breakthroughs" with her turns.  I think she's ready for poles!

Skiers

The crazy weather that we encountered before Christmas lent itself to some marginal skiing, at best.  So, we put in our time on the bunny slopes with the kids.

Hazen loves riding the lifts, but has little interest in learning to turn, snow plow, or stop.  We have taken to the harness and he can keep right up with his sister that way.

In order to get some exercise for ourselves, we did the Chariot shuttle to the top of Smugglers Notch.

 The kids ate maple glazed bacon donuts, while the parents burned off their donuts.

And we all skied down!

We did end up having to improvise with a few "assists"

And when we weren't tearing it down the slopes on skis, we were making tracks on the pasture next door.

For now, the kids are loving skiing.  We've been following their lead and making sure that they aren't feeling pressured or forced into our adventures.  It takes a lot to get this crew out of the house (without forgetting something), but when we get there, seeing those smiles and hearing the laughter is all worth it.

Christmas

The nice thing about the ice storm was that it made for terrible skiing conditions and allowed for lots of quality family time.  The kids love having family around..... they talk about their grandparents, cousins, second cousins, great aunts and uncles all the time.  I't s a lot of work to keep up with the energy that these two gingers maintain, but Bumpa and Grandma did it like professional grandparents.  They were here for five days and the kids loved every minute of it.  This is how they spent a lot of their time:

toe nail painting by Grandma

Bedtime books and pigpile

Needlepoint lessons 

 When the weather was really cold and windy, we had a great excuse to go skating as a family.  Just about everyone hit the ice:

Cally skating on her own!

We also found time to romp around with cousin Will:

and snuggle with Aunt Nif on the couch:

To prepare for Santa's arrival, on Christmas Eve the kids made cookies for Santa with Grandma

And wrote a big card with lots of pictures:

And we woke up on Christmas morning to the most beautiful snow covered icy wonderland!

The kids had a ball opening gifts and playing with new toys.

We even made it out for an F.F.O (and it was maybe 8 degrees above zero)

We are thankful for having so much love in our house this week.  Christmas with children really is amazing.  I saw this  Facebook post recently:

I whole heartedly agree with that sentiment.  There really was a little magic in our house and I'm so glad we got to share it with our extended family!

Five!

People who have older kids always say, "it all goes by so fast".  It didn't seem like it was all going very fast for the first few years, but all the sudden it really is.  I can't believe we are the parents of a 5 year old!  And what an amazing five year old she is.  She's bright, inquisitive, engaging, snuggly, feisty, motivated, and strong.  I have so much fun hanging out with this girl.  She makes me giggle and think in ways that I have never.  We love you Macalister Jane!

Above is the invitation we sent for her party.  We decided to go big for her celebration of the 5th trip around the sun.  She was very excited to donate food to the food shelf after her party and romp around with her friends.  We knew that Dec. 22nd would be a tough day, but more than 20 people responded to say that they'd join us for fun at the Fun Zone at Smugglers Notch.  We were most excited about the fact that three of her cousins, aunts and uncles, and one set of grandparents would be able to make it for the event.

Unfortunately, as the weather gods would have it, the weather was terrible on her birthday.  It had rained and frozen and the roads were all covered with a sheen of ice.  My brother called at 8:30am to tell us that he had called Smuggs to inquire about swimming after the party and the operator told him that the entire resort was out of power.  When I called, they told me the power was back on, but I couldn't get in touch with anyone about the status of the Fun Zone.  Because we had already shopped for all the food, her family was all there, and I thought parents might want to let their kids get energy out in an indoor environment, we decided to keep with the plan.  And I'm so glad we did:

The kids had a ball!

And so did the adults:

While only about half of the guests actually made it to the party, Cally didn't seem to be phased.  She loved seeing her cousins and the friends and families that made it there.  

We made it home for some gift opening

And even got a few good family shots:

Cally got to have her family birthday dinner the night before.  She couldn't decide between eating latkes, falafal, or calzones.  In the end, she choose calzones which she got to assemble herself and eat with her grandparents.  On the night of her actual birthday, the parents went out to dinner while she stayed home with her cousins and got to have her favorite babysitter for the night.