Great White North Christmas

We were lucky enough this year to spend Christmas at my grandparents house in northern Minnesota with my family. We all drove and met up in the middle. It actually worked out really well. Fortunately for us, the drive was shorter from Virginia than it is from Oregon (only 20 hours). It was made even better by the fact that Chris has a cousin who just happens to live at the halfway point in Indiana. We got to spend the night with them and enjoy a trip to the famous Arni's for tasty pizza. We had such a good time hanging out with the Phillips clan!

The roads to Minnesota were nice and dry almost the whole way. Once we were in northern Wisconsin it got pretty snowy. Thankfully, it wasn't too terrible, and we made it into Duluth just in time to see my Grandma in the hospital there. She had dropped something on her eye and needed surgery. It was pretty crazy timing. Here we all are coming to her house and she is having surgery. I'm glad that our route took us through the city she was in so that we could check in with my Grandpa and help out. My Grandma was released the next day, but she had to deal with a painful eye without sight for the duration. Hopefully it will continue to heal and the sight will return.

Our first few days were full of relaxing. The weather was really mild (in the low 30's) so we spent tons of time outside playing in the snow. It's the best to watch the big flakes fall when you are surrounded by trees. The kids built a snow submarine and had tons of fun running around, being pulled in the sled, and riding the four wheeler.

Neil had a blast in the snow. He couldn't go outside without taking a giant bite out of the first handful he could find. 

We didn't get a ton of snow while we were there. It only snowed for the first couple of days. We had a little more than in this picture with Chris. There was just enough on the ground to pull the sled with the four wheeler through the woods. 

Making peanut butter cookies. We had plenty of treats to get us through the cold days. 

This was a singing candle. Once lit it played Christmas songs continuously. Sounds fun right? Not so much. It was the most obnoxious music ever!! Seriously wanted to throw it in the snow. The directions said to let it burn at least 2 hours the first time. I couldn't take it after 45 minutes. It just had to stop.

Making our Santa cookies on Christmas Eve. Poor Santa had a lot to eat that night. 

Christmas Eve jammies. Claire is still really into cats right now. She even got more Warrior Cat books which she's pretty excited about. 

Christmas morning chaos begins. We all watched each other open gifts and then enjoyed a pan of carmel rolls along with bacon and eggs for breakfast.

Chris had David in the exchange this year. He bought him a tool box and some tools to go inside. Then he bedazzeled it to death. It was awesome! Normal tool box on the outside...but open it up and you see Philip Rivers with hearts. I think David liked it.

Kee had Chris in the exchange. He had asked for something awesome...he sure did get it! The shirt says "Everyday Struggles". They walked around saying things like, "you cats to be kitten meow." and other similar cat puns. It was two weeks of team cat. 

After Christmas it was time for more fun! We played outside everyday, we shopped, played games, and just enjoyed hanging out with everyone.

Being pulled behind the four wheeler was a hit. Grandpa had a good time pulling the kids all around the place.

We rented some ice skates and used them at a free rink in Duluth one night. The kids loved it even though it was really hard to keep them up at first. 

They did have these neat pvc pipe contraptions to help kids learn to skate. 

Even Neil got to try it out. All the pvc things were in use, so he went with a chair. It worked pretty well, although it was a major quad workout for whoever was helping him. I felt like Apolo Ohno after a while.

After skating, we visited a very impressive Christmas light display in Duluth. There were millions of lights and it was pretty cool. It was free to do and they even gave out free hot chocolate, cookies, and had big fires for roasting marshmallows. At this point the weather was getting a lot colder so we didn't stay super long. It was a fun adventure though.

Now that the weather was colder (about 0 degrees), we weren't so worried about playing on the ice at the creek next to the house. The kids used their ice skates some more and started to feel much more comfortable.

Neil wanted in on the action so he talked Grandpa into sliding him across the ice on his back. The kids all took turns. It did look fun and I almost wanted to try it. I probably would have but I didn't want my coat to rip.

We even got my mom out on the ice.

The kids sure loved riding around with Grandpa!

Chris on his way to do manly things like chop down trees. Looking the part of lumber jack.

One of the funnest things we did was go curling. We found a place that had open lanes and we tried it out next to a group of experienced guys. Let me just say it looks way easier on tv. Just getting the stone to slide took some serious effort. We all fell a few times. By the end we were getting the knack for it. Definitely a fun time! 

The crew besides my dad who was also there. We got to meet Kee's boyfriend Jeff. He got to come spend the second week with us. It was fun to get to know him. Hope he doesn't think we're too crazy.

 We played broom ball out on the creek a couple of times even though it was freezing outside (0-10 degrees). It's like hockey, but with brooms. It's so much fun except when you get bumped (or pushed) and wind up on the ice. It's a pretty friendly game, although we were all pretty sore afterwards. I think Chris and I are just getting too old.

It was so cold out that our breath turned our hair to ice. So here's a preview of me with gray hair. Chris was glad for his no-shave Nov and Dec beard.

On New Year's Eve we lit the brush pile on fire. It burned really hot and fast this time. We enjoyed watching the fire and then the wrestling matches that followed between the kids and Kee & Jeff. We even tried to do a couple of spooky games where someone would go hide in the woods and we'd go look for them. Those woods are creepy enough in the dark.

After our fire we went inside to warm up. We ate chocolate fondue and got ready for our annual glow stick dance party. It's always a blast! The adults stayed up until midnight, but we didn't really do anything momentous. Just chatted and played games.

On one of our last days we took a few pictures with everyone before Bree and David had to leave.

The whole crew minus Jeff. 

We had such a fun time with the family! It was really great to see everyone and the kids really liked playing with their cousins. I'm so glad that we were able to work it out. A big thank you to my Grandparents who let us all come invade their space for such a long time. I have such fond memories of visiting as a kid, and I'm so glad that my kids get to enjoy it as well. We love the great white north!!

Our drive home went alright overall. The first day went by without a hitch. We got to see our family in Indiana again, and eat at Arni's again! Pure heaven for Chris. We had a great time getting to know them all a bit better and can't wait until we see them again. Maybe we talked them into visiting DC sometime.  

The second day of our drive was not much fun. We dealt with crazy heavy rain through Ohio, and then through the mountains it was freezing fog. We couldn't see anything! Super scary and stressful. We made it though. Now it's back to real life and all that goes along with it. Gotta snap out of vacation mode I guess. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Happy New Year!