It started snowing the day after Christmas and the following morning we had about 18″ of snow. Luckily Chris and Ryan figured out how to get the snow blower running and they got us out of the driveway!
My mom rented us a great house in Shelburne, Vermont this year for Christmas. It’s been a lot of years since I spent the holiday in Vermont and it was such a treat to get to see all of my extended family. The weather didn’t really cooperate so the crowd was a little smaller than expected but we still had a great time.
We had our first real tree in the new house this year. Somehow the Christmas season slipped past us last year and I was determined not to let that happen again. I got all of our presents purchased and wrapped with plenty of time left to ship them to all of our family members. Ryan bought my the little Christmas decorations when he was in Japan this fall, they were the perfect addition to our Christmas decor.
My frosting skills are slowly coming along but I’ve got to find a cookie cutter that looks more like my grandmothers. These short round gingerbread dudes just don’t look right.
Winter is the perfect time to stay inside and work on craft projects. I
My Nana makes incredible Christmas cookies. They aren’t really traditional Christmas cookies but it’s really the only time of year she makes them. They are kind of like oatmeal cookies, but also have coconut and of course the main ingredient – gumdrops! I would give you the recipe but as Nana says ‘it’s a family secret’. You wouldn’t believe how hard it was to convince her to give me the recipe – I had to remind her several times that I was, in fact, family.
Nothing says ‘Christmas time’ like going to see the Nutcracker Ballet in Boston. Hillary and I got all dressed up and made a night of it. Our seats weren’t perfect but it was a lovely way to kick off the holiday. I hope we make it an annual tradition.
What better way to celebrate Nick’s birthday than to drive around really fast on a winding track in tiny little race cars? When they pulled out the helmets and neck braces I started to get a little nervous but I have to say racing was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. And I think all of those years of driving my bug (which is basically a go-cart) really paid off, I came in 4th!!
Aunt Nancy, Alex and I signed up to run in the 2012 Santa 5k when we were at the expo for our marathon relay. At the time we were all capable of running 13.1 miles so a 5k seemed like a great idea. Throw in some santa suits and it got even more exciting. Alex conveniently scheduled a trip to Florida the weekend of the race but Aunt Nancy and I ran anyway and my Dad happened to be in town that weekend so he joined us at the last second. It