And we're back to the cottage.  While Brooke gets fancy on her birthday weekend, I stick to the cottage. Winter visits are some of my favorite times to be in the Northwoods. My parents were already up when we arrived. They were just here last weekend and left the heat on so the house was already warmed up. Dad taught Meadow how to play kings corner. She caught on quick and beat him 3 times.

  I thought my breakfast was impressive and decided to photograph it. I'm on a poached egg kick lately. Meanwhile the rest of us have been on a sleeping in kick. And way too much Nintendo Switch. I was trying to relax myself before the big Packers NFC Championship game. Instead it made me more nervous. Also our living room is slowly being taken over as a playroom.  

  We were missing Victor's 1959 and decided to order it for breakfast.  So good. We were supposed to get a big snowstorm but the temperature was too mild that it made everything slushy.  Kind of a crunchy layer of freezing rain by the time we got outside. We still ventured to the lake anyway. The sidewalks were pretty icy. We finally got to put our ice tracks to good use. The kids wanted to play at Free Forest School aka the trees Meadow's teachers take the kids to every week. Well, at least when they were in-person.

  Meadow was feeling creative and made characters with candy canes and marshmallows. The Nintendo Switch has officially taken over our days. As it was getting dark we decided it was time to get outside. We had plans to go skate at Lake of Isles. While driving there we saw so many people skiing, hanging out, skating or fat biking on the lakes. Apparently the lakes are the new hang out. I have never seen them this busy. We passed on the lakes and went to the Bryant Park rink.

We skipped a big Christmas so we could still do our Northwoods NYE.  There's always a calculated risk, but keeping this tradition alive was important to us. This year we'd only have Blake and Brooke's parents up with us for New Year's Eve. We arrived just before dark and my parents showed up not too long after. We needed to get our Christmas tree cut down before the sun set. Meadow hadn't cut the Northwood's Christmas Tree for a few years. Meadow carried it out for us.

2020 was the year of spending lots of time together and more time outside. Since the pandemic started we discovered more places in nature. January Our favorite winter festival the Winter Kite Fest on Lake Harriet. It's always one of our favorite.  A nice walk through the snow. Hordes of happy people. February Our first international trip as a family. Mexico City and Guanajuato. We were really lucky to get this trip in before the pandemic. We had so much fun eating and exploring our way through two Mexican cities. March Before the world would change. Spending my birthday weekend at a cabin in Duluth. We got in our last visit to some our favorite Duluth restaurants in person. April Meadow found her love for baking during the lockdown. She briefly became an internet sensation every time I posted one of her videos. Yup, she made her own cooking videos on the iPad. May We added swings to our garage. This was still that moment when no one went anywhere. We got to playgrounds again, but t...