I knew all last year that last Christmas would be our last Christmas in this house. And it didn't really make me sad. It just made me want to do something different. I didn't want to sit around and reminisce about past Christmas' in this house. Kendrick had an awesome year last year so we decided to reward ourselves and fulfill our kids "dream" of staying in a cabin at Christmas time. We have cut back A LOT as far as gifts go. Each kid gets 4 gifts now (want, need, wear, read) and we don't exchange gifts with my family anymore so we wanted to do something special and create a memory together instead of spending money on things that would break and get thrown away or exchanged later on. I was able to find us a great deal on a a cabin that sleeps 16 in Bear Lake so we spent the 23rd-27th up there snowmobiling, sledding, watching movies, playing games and eating WAY too much food.
The drive up there was terrifying. In Randolph we ran into white out conditions that not only made it impossible to see the road but had us going maybe 5 miles an hour and praying that we wouldn't get stranded and have to sit in -29 degree weather. Because of the weather, Richard and Tiana decided to stay home. But my parents still came up and they got there on Christmas Eve.
I do believe this was our kids favorite Christmas. They had been begging and dreaming about a Christmas like this for years. And while it was a ton of work to play Santa and figure out how to pack a tree and gifts and luggage and food for 6 people and 4 days into our van-I wouldn't be opposed to doing this again another year when the kids are a little bit older. But THIS Christmas (2016) I will be excited to just stay home and enjoy our new house and create some new memories with our larger family of 7.
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