So Thankful!

Thanksgiving is a time to be with family and feel gratitude for what we have.  This year, we weren't able to make the extended family thing work out.  Because we would be traveling so far for the Christmas holidays, we decided to stay close to home.  We had hoped we'd be able to resurrect the "Friendsgiving" that we had shared with local friends in years past, but folks were headed in different directions.  So, a few weeks before the day, I reserved a hut. It's a brand new hut that is part of the Vermont Hut System and it looked perfect. 

We rented the cabin for two night.  The first night being John's birthday.  So we celebrated him with a special birthday breakfast:

Then we cooked a chicken, prepped some stuffing, and packed up the pie and other food we were going to make at the cabin. We had a full van!

It took us a lot longer to get to the cabin than we thought it would!  It was dumping and roads were not great.  So, we arrived at the parking area just as the sun was setting.  Fortunately, the cabin is only 1/3 of a mile in, so we were able to find it pretty easily.  It took us a few trips, but we made it!

The cabin was more perfect than we thought it would be.  Cozy and warm!  

 Even Zephy loved it!

We spent Thanksgiving eating a great breakfast and then exploring the area and role playing "Little House on the Prairie".  The kids did art project and even.

The sun came out and the conditions were perfect for building a snow quinzee.  It involved making a big pile of snow and then waiting for it to settle.

While we waited for the snow to settle, we gave and received massages, and  drew on the frosty door

After several hours, we got to burrow out the quinzee:

Everyone worked hard and we finally had a real snow structure:

Next was the feast!  The kids did some decorating:

And even got sort of "dressed up":

The meal was amazing.  With only a propane cook top and a wood burning stove, we did it!  Chicken, stuffing, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts, cranberry sauce, and gravy.

And the best part was not being totally "stuffed" after the feast.  I feel like we ate so much more reasonably.  The kids were really fired up to have dessert in the quinzee.  In fact, Hazey wanted to sleep out there, but it was single digits below zero so we convinced him to sleep in the cozy hut.  However, we did eat pecan pie out there:

And we wrapped up the day with another night ski.

Friday morning, we headed out so that we could ski at Smuggs on some of the great new snow.

And it was totally worth it:

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad about not having extended family or friends to feast with and spend time with on Thanksgiving.  However, we made some of the most amazing memories for our little family.  We stripped away all the "stuff" that gets in the way of our life and spent time doing what we love.  I felt so connected to us as a unit. It will forever go down in history as one of the most intimate and special Thanksgivings.  And, to think it was John's birthday, too!  I love us!