Vermont

We went to Vermont to see Nana and Baba after Christmas. Drove up on New Years Eve and brought a lasagna, champagne, and Sprite for the kids. Once in Vermont, there was snow, our first of the winter. (Leaving for home, Jack wanted to pack some in the car. Sorry, Jack, it's not going to make it back. But we tried.)

Got there and opened presents, and there was plenty of great stuff but mostly I want to talk about this awesome L.L. Bean hooded sweatshirt that I shall never take off.

We got ready for dinner, with Kate eager to help out setting the table and doing things for Nana. Fascinated by little things I was used to but had taken for granted. "You have a drawer for napkins?!" That kind of thing.

We all watched a little of the Nickelodeon New Years Countdown special, and the Dick Clark Rockin New Years Eve special, and the Walking Dead marathon. OK, we all didn't watch that.

Tucked the kids into bed later than normal, it was New Year's Eve after all. I think they slept well that night, I slept not quite enough; up too late, up too early. But it was a low-key New Year's Day planned, even more so because Emily was sick.

One thing the kids love to do is, at it occurs to me now, what I used to love to do. Walk around in the woods behind the house, climbing on the giant rocks, climbing over fallen trees, creating and inventing forts and hideouts and secret bases. We found tracks of deer, and rabbits, and other creatures presumably. I found old pieces of the swing set from the flat place, and remembered playing games up there. It always seemed so much higher and further from the house, and maybe it was, and maybe it seemed that way to them. But I could always look down and see the house, from afar looking exactly the same as it ever did.

We found walking sticks and trudged around in the snow. Kate shouted that she was killing guards ("I killed 600!") and Jack staked out different territories as the base and the medical center and other facilities. We did this for about an hour, and then it was cold and time to go in.

Went out to eat dinner at Black Rock, as we always do. Had steak and pasta with butter, and both kids ordered Shirley Temples to drink. I don't know when this started or who ordered it first. I think they like the idea more than the actual drink.

At home, Kate and Nana read Ant and Bee books for about half an hour. Listening to them, I realized that Ant and Bee were kind of similar to Frog and Toad. Probably not as funny -- how could they be? -- but similar. Kate read, then Nana read, then Kate read again. Jack messed around with a Solitaire Chess game he got for Christmas; Baba sat on the rug beside and watched and offered advice.

I dug into old games and played them with the kids. Jack Straws, even though the device to pick the straws up was broken. This card game I used to play all the time with Robin and Scott ("Because she wanted... To Steal the Diamonds!"). Fortunately, they took right to it, and we all read the cards and finished the whole game. Kate didn't quite get it right; when she got the "Steal the Diamonds" card she didn't want to give it up, thinking you win by being the one who stole the diamonds. She's the same way in Hearts, now that I think about it.

We went to bed, got up for pancakes as always, packed up the car. Jack and Kate coaxed Emily up into the woods for round 2 of exploring, walking sticks at the ready. I knocked snow off the roof over the front steps. And then we piled into car and came back home.