Thanksmas

Last week at this time we were still gone. We had just concluded a wonderful four days at the YMCA Snow Mountain Ranch. We went up to be with Allison's family for a nice holiday in between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It was great because hardly anyone was there. We got about six inches of fresh snow the first night. And Alvin got to spend some "quality time" with his cousin Naomi.



The first night Nell and David fixed dinner. We had smoked pork and Mississippi casserole (there was even the option of casserole with or without green beans). For dessert there was a pecan pie and a buttermilk pie. After eating we exchanged gifts underneath the "lighted" lamp. Alvin wasn't really into opening gifts but he really liked the flashlight he received. Following bedtime for the kids there were some mean games of Sequence by the fire. David and I cleaned up two of the three matches.


The second day was a lazy day both for Allison and me. I was just glad to be away and have another four sets of eyes watching the kids. In fact, much of the weekend was lazy for me. I almost completely read the book I took with me - which was an enlightening read for me called the Americanization of Benjamin Franklin by Gordon Wood. I enjoyed it not only because I am quite fond of books about the Revolutionary generation but also because it gave a fascinating thematic look into the development of Franklin from a self-made gentleman to a loyal British imperialist to a revolutionary American diplomat. I am drawn to Franklin because of his nature and work as a conciliator and the events that occurred to cause him to turn his back on his values and his vision of a harmonious and united empire. I suppose I also liked it because it speaks to my strength of needing to understand context in order to comprehend the situation.

Anyway, I'm off topic here. We made it out the front door to build a snowman and do a little sledding down the driveway. Alli and I prepared a beef stew for dinner the second night and a pumpkin/cranberry/walnut upside-down cake for dessert. The game this night was Trivial Pursuit Millennial Edition which Mark and Kristen destroyed everyone at. We definitely ate well and slept well all weekend at 9000 feet.


Finally on the third day we mustered up the energy to go outside and do a little snowshoeing. We got to blaze some new trails in almost a foot of powder. Mark and Kristen made ravioli with french bread and roasted pepper tomato soup. That night we ate s'mores by the fire and played Apples to Apples. The next morning we packed, cleaned-up, and went tubing down the hill.



All in all we had a relaxing and fun time. The only minor difficulties were trying to get the Civic up the hill to our parking area after all the snow and the hairnet hair styles the kids sported after running in and out of the pop-up gazebo for seemingly hours on end. Oh yeah, and Alvin biting the head off his chocolate St. Nicolas.


You can see here that Alvin was sad to go home. To read more about this weekend see Mark and Kristen's blog at http://www.mark-kristen-naomi.blogspot.com/.