New Year's

Ah, the holidays. Home to snowshoeing, tobogganing, games by the fire, skating, and spending an hour with your neighbours using endless buckets of frozen gravel and sheer will to push your car up a glare ice hill on your way out.

You know, the usual.

Before I get to recapping our lovely and utterly postcard perfect New Year's celebrations, I would like to give a shout out to Janet and Doug, Carolyn and Murray, Rob, and Mom and Dad. we managed to sand a 50 metre track up a crazy hill to get out little camry back out of our 6 km cottage road, which it will never see again in the winter, thank the stars. And hey, what's a cottage trip without a car sliding down a a hill sideways, completely at the mercy of physics? Whatever, we all made it and it's all good, and just one more memory for the banks.

So, we had a group of eight make it out ot the cottage. We all got in okay even though the road was very icy and we'll likely think twice about it in those conditions . we all settles in and I immediately fixed myself a drink in preparation for the fresh mulled wine being prepared on the stove from home made wine. Mmmmm, wintery delight next to the fireplace. We had beautiful weather and spent the evening playing Cranium, a game where you alternately have to guess at facts, act out sayings, mold stuff out of clay or whatever whatevery your way around a board. it was actually really good. Not humiliating, but still active and fun. we ate chili and fabulous dips and chips ad other treats and we all indulged in yum drinks of all kinds. I highly recommend the new lime gin with tonic water, mmm.

Then we went tobogganing down our icy road of doom/delight. We ended up having three people stand at the bottom, middle and top of the track with lights (respectively) while we tobogganed and relieved each other from light duty. Proudly, eveyone sustained some kind of minor injury, which means it was totally worth it. we went down in ones and twos and threes and I shrieked a whole bunch, which is unusual for me (I like to think). It was super fun.

The next morning we had a lovely brunch of pancakes and fruit and cinnamon raisin bread which was yum. Som of us tried skating onthe lake, but the ice was honeycomb and we kept stalling. A few people drilled holes inthe ice with the auger to get water fo dishes and for fun, I suspect. the highlight of today for me was the snowshoeing we did inthe backcountry crown land. It was the most perfect weather, the mild air being enough to keep you cool while you're working, but not cold if you stop. We had a short randonné in the woods and had to turn back. It felt like magic to me.

We packed up and left around two after digging out one car that slipped off the road. Not long after, my car had the misfortune of not making it up the big hill, and we had the further adventures...which all ended well (my favourite conclusion of the experience being that the car won't be on the cottage roads in the winter again, whee!). I had the same thing happen to me when I was driving the car in the winter last year, and I tell ya, it's no fun. Perhaps not the best tradition?

we had a stop at Tim Horton's on the way home and when we got back at 6 it felt like 10, and I have that body exhaustion that comes from being physical and happy and busy and stressed a bit and pleased.

So, to recap, this weekend had:
* perfect weather
* good food and drink (!)
* action and adventure
* winter sport fun
* games and laughs
* knitting and mellowness
* a warm cottage and a roaring fire
* wonderful friends and family

sounds perfect, eh? We are among the luckiest on earth. Happy 2006 everyone! Time to ruin a few cheques getting used to it! ;-)
heh.

PS: theme for 2006; don't be a dork!