It's Beginning to Feel a lot Like Christmas...

We have some rituals......... With the kids away in Boston the weekend after Thanksgiving, we were impatient to get a tree.  The kids insisted we cut it down, but darkness sets in at this time of year by 4:15 and most laced would be closed by the time we could get there.  So, we did the most convenient thing and headed two miles up the road to Whites Christmas Tree Farm.  It's a big place with overpriced trees, but they are all so beautiful and it was easy to find one that would do the trick in our house.  It took a few days to get it up, but we had a lot of help decorating this year.

The Jericho Country Store is lucky enough to get a visit from Santa every year.  The kids aren't so sure how he squeezes Jericho into his busy schedule, but we managed to sneak in a visit to the Jolly man.  After skiing a few runs, the kids made their requests (a remote control car and LL Bean Sled for Hazey and a reading light and an LL Bean sled for Cal), before dashing off to a birthday party and gingerbread house decorating.

We headed to Mad River for a big fundraiser on Saturday night.  Red Hot Juba was playing, there was great food, and a photo booth. 

And the snow is here!  Cal and her friend Celine and Zephy and I played at Mills River

 Cally did some Skijoring

While the Kids are Away.........

Hazey's godparents were heading down to Boston to take care of their grandson for the weekend and asked if the kids would be interested in joining them and perhaps help out.  Hazey quickly jumped on the opportunity and Cal was a little more hesitant (because she hates sleepovers and is a bit of a home body).  Once she heard that they'd be going to the Children's Museum and the Aquarium, she was in. 

I don't have any pictures of their weekend, but John and I had such a fun impromptu date weekend (well, actually, more like 30 hours).  First we skied, then we got some stuff done around the house, we headed to Burlington for what we thought would be dinner and a movie.  We had the BEST dinner at Honey Road, but decided to do some Christmas shopping instead of perhaps falling asleep at the movies (I call that the $12 nap).  We spent Sunday lying in a bit, skiing some more, getting more stuff done around the house, and then met the kids and the godparents in Waterbury for dinner. 

The kids had a ball with Tom, Cara and Julius.  The report is that they were wonderful playmates for Julius and were easy breezey.  Cal only called us once (before she left, she asked if she could call me 100 times).  I'm proud of the kids.  I know how hard it is for Cal to be away. We are so lucky to have godparents who want to spend time with our kids and thank us for sharing them.  

For years, John and I savored a few hours to ourselves, for us.  As the kids have gotten more independent and busy, we get to spend more time together.  The more time I spend with this guy, the more I love him and feel so lucky to get to be with him for the long haul. 

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Farmington this year. It had been ten years since we'd been down to share the holiday with Nana and Grandpa, so we decided to see what we had been missing.  Peg has hosted Thanksgiving for 52 years! 

It was a gorgeous few days in Farmington.  John and I got to get out to meet some of his old friends for a drink on Wednesday for cocktail hour.  We came home to cook dinner for the hosts and then we went on a date to Ikea in New Haven.  I know, kind of random, but we wanted to avoid traffic and we knew exactly what we wanted so we arrived at 8:50pm and were out by 9:00.  On the way home, we stopped through Waterbury to see Mark play at a bar.  It was so great to see him in action. 

We spent quite some time on the bike path over the river

The kids got gussied up and the meal was delicious.   Peg and Lynn spent much of Wednesday preparing for the feast and they took care of almost everything.  It felt so strange not to be cooking.

It was great to see the Jones family:

 

While we were gone, our friends the McNight/Roberts family had stayed at our house and taken care of the pets.  Michael's mom lives in Underhill and they wanted a little more space.  Their son, Dean, is Cally's age so it was fun to have them staying with us for the weekend upon our return.  Dean and the kids have met before, but they quickly bonded and were fun slumber buddies. 

I'm so thankful that we got to spend time with John's family and eat a lovely meal.  Art and Peg were wonderful hosts and the kids loved seeing the Abbott side of the family.  We got home in time to hang out with friends and ski a few days.  Seeing the kids rip turns down the mountain was a major high light.

Birthday Guy

This guy is 52!  And we made it special.  First John and I skinned up Smuggs on a gorgeous day.  Then we went out to dinner with friends and hit a UVM hockey game. 

The day after his birthday, we had a first-- the kids hiked and skied at Smuggs.  We carried their skis, but they hiked. 

And it was so fun!

There was just enough snow at home for this guy to make his first snow man of the season.  He worked hard!

And a birthday wouldn't be complete without a cake from Cynthia:

Happy Birthday Johnny!  Hope all your dreams come true.  We are so glad that you are back. 

Montreal!

It's been a while since we made it up to Montreal as a family.  What a difference a few years can make!  The kids were so much more excited to try new food and explore.  John was up in the big city for an AEE conference (Association of Experiential Educators), so we decided to join him for the last few nights.  I think we had as close to a perfect weekend as we could have had.

We started with dinner at a great Ethiopian spot with a crew of fun UVM students who were up at the conference.  Hazey managed to run into a parking meter on the way, but he survived:

Unicorn bump

 On Saturday morning, we started out with some delicious crepes and then headed to the Old Port to hit the IMAX movie about Predators.  It was a chilly walk by the water, but a gorgeous day.

The IMAX theater is at the Science Museum.  We'd been a few times, but this time the kids got pretty into it.

Pretending to Dog Sled

Making a Bridge

We were having so much fun, but we needed to take a break for lunch.  Hazey had poutine and we had kabobs

 We headed back to the Science Museum to spend the afternoon in the Maker Space.  It was amazing!

Egg Drop Challenge

Playing with electricity

floating a boat

 We had a fun dinner at a small Italian restaurant.

On Sunday, we managed to hike up Mont Royal-- all 400 steps.  It was such a fun adventure.

Our weekend ended with a chaotic trip to Ikea.  It was a first for John.  Quite an experience.