Jingle Quack!

The presents are wrapped, the cards are sent, the out of office message is on, and the packing is done (well, half done).  We are off to Telluride tomorrow on a ski vacation that we have been looking forward to since July.  The last couple of weeks have been manic but all worth it when I think of the down time we are about to enjoy in the snowy Colorado mountains.

Bring on the wine, good food, and most of all the powdah!

I leave you with Hank sweetly singing his rendition of a Christmas classic....hope you all have a very merry Christmas! 

Santa baby?

A few pics from our visit to Santa this Saturday.  Santa came all the way from the North Pole to Hank's school book fair.  It all started out just fine with Hank and Gus enjoying story time with the school librarian.  Once their big moment came with Mr. C, Gus has second thoughts.  Hank managed to get in his request for a "fixed zube tube" (the worlds most annoying toy which had recently broken much to my relief) and a silver bell (inspired by the polar express) in spite of his brother's protests.  

Thanksgiving and then some...

Time is flying and I haven't had a chance to put up a post about Thanksgiving - I can't believe that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away! 

We headed out to the cabin for the weekend to host Matt's sisters, Katie and Alice, and their families for Thanksgiving.  Sadly, Alice and her husband Brian had to turn around early in their road trip to deal with an urgent health issue, which was the right thing to do.  We missed them none the less but are glad to hear that things are on the mend.  Katie, David and the kids arrived on Tuesday and we came up Wednesday afternoon.  Just as we arrived it started to snow which was lovely!

Camp Kelly in the snow. 

The weekend was filled with lots of hikes around the lake, trips out in the canoe, fishing, chopping logs, watching movies and eating TONS of good food.  After Thanksgiving dinner, the kids had the brilliant idea of disposing of the turkey carcass in the lake.  Uncle Matt led the team down to the waters edge and Harrison launched the bird into the drink.  Country living!

Harrison and Hank taking selfies on Uncle Matt's camera.

William and Maggie teaching Gus about Tucker.  Or was it the other way around? 

This shot is blurry, but that's only because of the kid's speed.  Future Gretzky or what?

Log chopping, a favorite activity. 

The view from my morning walk around the lake Thanksgiving Day.

The Bells left Friday and we stayed up for the weekend to relax and enjoy the house.  The ski hill opened on Friday and Hank went skiing in real skis for the first time.  We are trying to prep him for our
 trip to Telluride over xmas when he will be put in ski school (wooohoooo - finally!).  So far, so good!

Skiing phenom! 

Gorgeous sunset Saturday night.  This is view from our living room. 

Saturday morning, we were sitting in the main room and out of the corner of my eye I see a bald eagle fly by and land on a tree right by the lake in front of the house.  This is not a common occurrence. Woodpeckers, yes.  Bald eagles with 5 feet + wingspans, no.   Then I noticed that many of the lake's resident Canadian geese were hanging around down there too.  All too soon, the reason became apparent.  It turns out that geese and eagle really like Thanksgiving turkey too.  Somehow the carcass had made its way to the shallow area in front of our house the birds were all trying to get a piece. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but the turkey this year was pretty damn good. The eagle hung around for a while and was fascinating to watch so we may try this method of rare bird attraction again.

Our friend the eagle. 

Sunday, we rushed back to the city to try and get the house all dolled up for Christmas and just like that the holidays were in full swing.  You can see our full Thanksgiving album here.  I'm in LA right now visiting my new little nephew Greyson and my old little nephew Hayes.  We'll be decorating their Christmas tree tonight.  When I get back to DC tomorrow we'll only have two weeks before we leave for Colorado...counting down the days!

The littlest elf of all. 

One proud big brother! 

Hope you all had a nice holiday and are enjoying the most wonderful time of the year.  Mwah!

Post script:  I am now back in DC by the hair of my chinny chin chin.  The ice storm made for a treacherous landing but God bless the pilots at Alaska Air for getting me back to DC (and not diverting the plane to Boston which was plan B - would have been wicked awful).