a long break

winter break: super awesome for kids, right? that's how i remember it. 2 weeks off of school, and those weeks were filled with treats and presents and parties, long days with dark evenings meant for snow ball fights and sledding and fort building, formless time and days sliding by. i never thought, not even once as a child, how my parents felt about winter break. did they love having us home from school? was it stressful to suddenly not have childcare? was it long and bothersome to have 3 wild kids in the house all day every day for two weeks?

but now that i have kids, and i am the adult, i have some new views on winter break. it's kind of irritating to not have childcare for the kids on the days i need to work, so i took vacation days, and david took some vacation days because all of our babysitters (college kids) were away on--you guessed it--winter break. and some of the days get looooong long long long, and a little cabin fever sets in. but overall, it was awesome. we played, we slept in. we watched movies and played games. we were outside a lot. we traveled a bit, we partied a bit, and we had fun. we enjoyed the absence of the morning stress of getting everyone up, ready, fed, and out the door with snow pants, boots, lunches, work out clothes, laptops, coffee, etc etc etc by 7:20 am (that morning crunch is the WORST; there are days that i wonder if my job is worth that degree of stress, but don't worry, because it is. it really is).

so kids, if you ever wonder what winter break is like for your parents, you should know that it's pretty great for us too.

we kicked it off with a kind of over sized holiday party, during which time james and our neighbor suzy ate way too many cookies.


we watched a middle school band concert at the capitol building. they were so adorably bad that christmas tunes were a little hard to recognize. like, jingle bells. i love middle school band.

 

there was no snow, but plenty of ice at the park, so there was a suited-up wagon ride to the park, followed by enthusiastic skating.


and despite the no-snow problem, we skied a lot, thanks to the snow making machines at blackhawk. these kids are naturals, by the way. 
(check out that brown field just beyond the tow rope)


we took a road trip to an aquarium.



we celebrated christmas, and a week later we celebrated new years eve. we went to the damon house, let the kids crash in the basement, while upstairs the adults chopped the top off of champagne bottles while i got my hands on a confetti guns.
kids:


adults:
(please accept my apologies for the insane look in my eyes and on my face. it's a mixture of glee and cold temperatures)

 and the highlight of the break? we got a new furnace, and while the kids may not have noticed, i have. i am super thrilled. the new furnace plus the new insulation has made this old house warm and livable again, despite the current outdoor temperature of -100 degrees (ok, it's actually 4 degrees, but still). i am really weirdly happy about this new furnace, and so happy to say good bye to this 30+ year old turquoise rust box of a furnace.




 and finally, just a day before the break was over, we got snow.