Polar Express

There are so many different ways to indulge children at this time of year.  There is the Nutcracker at the Flynn, a play about toys coming to life at UVM, the Polar Express and more.  None of these events are free, so I asked the kids which special treat they would like this year.  Cal got to go on the Polar Express last year at the last minute, so I thought she'd rather go to the Nutcracker and figured John and Hazen could go do the Polar Express.  

However, Cal wanted nothing to do with doing something without Hazen.  She insisted that whatever they do, they do it together.  And you guessed it, Hazen really wanted to do the Polar Express.

Getting tickets to the Burlington Polar Express is next to impossible.  You either have to volunteer as an elf a year in advance or enter a lottery which involves sitting online at exactly 4pm on an afternoon in October only to find that the website crashed and only the luckiest actually get the golden tickets.

We had heard there was a Polar Express in White River Junction-- an hour and a half drive away.  They aren't giving these tickets away, but you can buy tickets less that a few weeks in advance.  

So we went for it.  John thought I was insane and said there would be no way he'd spend a day driving a car to go on a train.

It was a haul..... but it was so, so sweet to see how happy the kids were to be on the adventure:

It really was a magical experience.  The kids drank hot cocoa, ate cookies, hugged Santa, and got a bell.  Sure, there are a lot of other more productive ways I could have spent my day, but seeing the joy and wonder in the kids was more than worth it.  And John even admitted he was sad he didn't get to come. 

Snow, Snow, Hello Snow!

I love winter.  I love playing in the snow.  After working full time as a ski patroller and living in the big mountains for years, I wondered how I would take to being tied down by a full time indoor job as a teacher.  But then it occurred to me....... teachers get snow days.  When it really, really snows and the skiing is the best, we get snow days!  As it turns out, teachers do get a bunch of snow days, but they are often because of ice or frigid temperatures or flooding and not epic powder days. You end up making up days that were never really about playing in the snow.  However, every once in a while, we get that perfect storm. 

 

Last week was one of those weeks.  The snow started falling on Tuesday night.  By Wednesday morning, there was a heavy layer of snow.  Not epic powder, but heavy snow that made driving difficult and blanketed the mountains with the base it so needed. Throughout Wednesday, the snow kept coming down and it continued until Saturday morning. In total, the mountains got almost 30 inches of snow!

Now that Cally is in school, she too gets the snow days that I get.  This means that I don't have the freedom to ski all that I want, but it means that I get to share the fun with these two shredders!

And part of being a shredder is carrying your own skis to the mountain (and wearing a faboo one piece).

Snow days also mean putting in some hard time building snow castles and sledding.  But, if you play your cards right, it also means getting out for a dog romp and fresh tracks. 

I'll take surprise snow "break" any time.  Especially if I can spend some quality time with my family and make some fun turns!

Thankful

There is so much for us to be thankful for and this thanksgiving.  The kids had the entire week off from school.  John and I had to work on Monday, but were otherwise free to play. We were fortunate to have both friends and family visit during the week of Thanksgiving.

Deb was one of my favorite friends when I was in graduate school in Missoula. She and Gray moved to Missoula together (sweethearts from college) and got married the year after I left.  We haven't been in great touch, but Deb got in touch because their family wanted to come scout out Vermont as a potential place to move.  It turns out, they have children almost the exact same ages as ours and in their short visit, they became fast friends. 

Within hours of the Davidson crew rolling out of town, Grandma and Bumpa drove into town.  They came armed and ready for lots of action (and just in time before a big snow storm came through).

Super Grandma read books, built a ginger bread house, painted toe nails and even took the kids on a hike (with Bumpa), giving John and me some time to catch up on grading and painting windows.

The grandparents even took care of the kids so John and I could get out for a rare lovely morning skin and ski date on Sterling Mountain on Thanksgiving morning.  Sadly, 100 yards from the top of the mountain, John's ski's got caught in some heavy now and pitched him forward. He fell on his shoulder and immediately knew he had broken his clavicle.  The mountain was not open, so there was no ski patrol to call.  He asked me to hold his sunglasses and said he'd be fine skiing himself down.  He grit his teeth and made it down flawlessly, but upon trying to cross a water bar he fell again.

A quick trip to the hospital with Bumpa later, the evidence was clear:

Fortunately, Grandma was able to "pinch hit" with preparing the big meal while John and Bumpa were at the hospital.  But, even a broken clavicle can't keep a good man down.

 

John did manage to get out of feast prep and clean up, but he refused to miss a day of sledding the following day:

And because we are crazy, we even braved Church Street in Burlington on Black Friday to see the lighting of the Christmas tree and a very funny performance of "Twas the Night Before Christmas".  It was cold and crowded, but this little reindeer was in heaven!

While the snow didn't really stick around.  It stayed long enough for the kids to make their first snowman on their own.  He had a scallion for a nose and a pig hat, but we are so thankful to have them working together, laughing and loving each other.

We are also thankful for a great surgeon who squeezed John into his schedule less than a week after the accident to repair his broken collar bone.  Now John is on the road to recovery with seven screws and a plate.  Onward and upward. The sweet nurses hear that we have two kids, so they sent us home with all sorts of doctor "stuff" so the kids could play surgeon.

And finally, we are thankful for a new heating system downstairs.  Good bye forced hot air, particulates floating around our house and cold mornings.  Hello hot water radiators on a timer that forced us to get rid of a little clutter.

Stick Season

November is often referred to as "stick season".  There usually isn't enough snow to ski upon, but it's usually pretty cold and grey.  It's also hunting season, which means that you can't really hike all that safely in the woods. That said, there are a lot of great things that happen during stick season. The UVM Outing Club always hosts the Telluride Mountain Film Festival.  It's always been one of my favorite events, but it is really fun to be have the kids join us and enjoy it.  This year, Hazen was thrilled to sit with "the big kids"- Tanner, Augie, Timmy, Willem and Shae.  And seeing Dad as one of the MC's of the event is always fun.

Cal's been spending some time teaching Hazen how to write.  It's pretty cute to see them work together and to hear her encouragement.  These two have their moments of butting heads, that is for sure, but they also have beautiful moments of helping each other and being generous towards each other.  Case in point..... Cal is allowed to borrow one book from the library at school this year.  Of the six books she has taken out, three have been selected for Hazen-- a book about Superman, another one about dinosaurs, and then another about monster trucks.  Even the librarian made a point of telling us how unusual it is for a sibling to take their only book out for a sister or brother.

Uncle Jamey and family were up in Stowe the weekend that John was in the backcountry with his students in early November, so we spent some time on the bike path-- honing the bike skills before swapping out the bikes for skis. 

In other news, Cal's school hired Jon Gailmore, and artist in residence, who helped each class in the school write a song and then perform their songs for all the parents and community members. Cally's class made up and sang a pretty cute song about dogs.

Cal's also been busy creating at Poker Hill Arts, an after school arts program.  She painted this amazing moose (with the help of her teacher who sketched his outline).

Luckily, even if the gods aren't always making snow early season, the resorts are.  I did get out for a beautiful tour up Smugglers Notch for some variable manmade snow. While the snow wasn't the best, the views certainly were.

The best part about November is celebrating the birth of John!  And incredible father, husband and friend to all of us.  He can chef up and incredible meal, rewire a socket, drywall, paint and play like no other.  We are so fortunate to have him in our life.  This year, he played hooky on his special day.  He ice climbed with a friend in the morning, ski toured in the afternoon, and then was treated to a fun dinner out with the family to top it all off.

Stick season also gives us time to get chores done.  And without epic snow, we "chucked wood" as a family and rewarded our hard workers with a visit to the playground.