New Year's

New Year's Eve always comes too soon for me.  I love Christmas break!  The kids have new toys to keep them busy (they spent all day every day on their Kindles, for sure), the tree is still glowing in the front room, and there is no homework to get done every day.  I like our new tradition for New Year's Eve a lot though.  This is our second year hosting Christopher's oldest brother and his family at our cabin for the holiday.  Their kids are teenagers, so they are happy to have a fun place to go as a family away from the parties the older ones wish they at. :)

Usually we spend all of break up there, but Christopher didn't have that much vacation left, so we just headed up on New Year's Eve itself.  We warned his brother that the snow was too deep to drive up to our cabin, but he tried anyway . . . and got stuck.  Everyone laughed, and when I told his family to hop out so I could take them up on the Argo, they abandoned that ship very quickly!

Of course, after some puzzles and Wii time and far too many snacks, it was time for the annual "Martinelli's challenge" at midnight.  Martinelli's is known for making sparkling, non-alcoholic cider, and is the Utah "special occasion" drink.  First one to drink an entire bottle wins!

I had stuck the bottles out in the snow earlier so they would be nice and cold.  But I put them out to early, so they were actually almost frozen solid.  Oops!

It made the challenge even more painful, I guess.

Which is fun only as a spectator.

The next morning we all slowly had breakfast and headed out to enjoy the snow.  Well, David had to head down early to the hospital, since he was on call, and had a hilarious story about how he spent two hours changing a flat tire that was frozen to his car.  The rest of us just had fun sledding!

I am so in love with Jasmine's new outfit.  One big piece means no snow at her midriff, and it was too retro cute to pass up at a garage sale last summer.  Kaitlyn taught her that is it awesome because it has a compass attached, so she now thinks that is what she should tell everyone about.  If only she would keep the cute, fur-lined hood up!