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| Christmas is coming! |
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| Snowy little house in the big woods |
California has been suffering one of its longest droughts
ever. But just in time for our move-in to
this little cabin tucked away in the forest, El Niño roared into the Golden
State and hasn’t stopped. We were buried
under more than two feet of snow just before Thanksgiving, and our prayers for
a white Christmas were answered in depth, to the tune of more than two feet!
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| Winter wonderland |
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| Our cousins' trusty quad--thank you, cousins!! |
But first, Tia and Sasha were given an early Christmas
present by Aunt Simone: a week in Hawaii
at the beginning of December. Poor
babies, they have such a hard life. It
was definitely a welcome respite from the Sierra cold.
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| Glad to be out of the cold for a little while--thank you Aunt Simone! |
The first Christmas-y stop after picking them back up from
the airport was Oma Heide’s house, where we made our traditional German
Christmas cookies for two whole days.
They were delicious.
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| Heidesand, Klosterkipfel, Zimtsterne, and Butter-S: All delicious! |
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| Just look at those perfect Ss!!! |
Next, we needed a tree.
Lucky for us, my cousins had been planting Christmas trees for the past
40 years in hopes of starting a never-materialized tree farm. We had our pick, and chose a beauty!
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| The most beautiful tree we've had, ever. |
Then the weather started calling for snow again, so Suzi and
Ethan got Dana to book us a couple rooms at their timeshare at Heavenly Valley
Ski Resort. My stepdad Rich joined us,
and we had four great days of skiing before heading back to GRK.
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| Thank you Aunt Suzi, for arrnging this fun trip! |
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| The boys are happy, too. |
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| Next-generation Shush-boomers |
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| Overlooking Nevada's beautiful Carson Valley |
We decided to stay at GRK for Christmas, despite my cousin
Dana’s tempting offer of celebrating in her gorgeous riverfront estate along
with all our Kingsbury cousins. We’d
never celebrated Christmas at the cabin, even after nearly 50 years of building
it, and so it seemed about time. We drove
in just in time for the big snowfall to start.
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| A snowy walk to the Granite Dome |
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| Puppy love: Blue loves GRK, too! |
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| The jeep gets a snow mustache |
And it snowed…and snowed…and snowed. Big fat flakes that made you want to pull on
your snowsuit and toboggan careening down the hill, or make a snow angel, or
smack your sister with a powdery snowball.
The cabin was warm and cozy, the fire crackled, and Christmas was in the
air along with the smell of gingerbread.
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| Our beautiful Chirstmas tree, all lit up |
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| Flipper the snow cat explores the deck |
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| Oh the weather outside was FRIGHTFUL! |
To accommodate us all, Todd, Tia, and Sasha worked together
to build a long-desired loft. This is
all part of the official school curriculum of Rico Education. The girls learned a lot!
Click here to see Tia build the loft!
Suzi, Ethan, Todd, Tia, Griffin, Sasha, Ado, and I all spent
four winter wonderland days together, comfortably crowded together in the
living room (the only room in the cabin we can heat!) and playing in the snow cross-country
skiing, sledding, snowball fighting, and taking in the frosty beauty. All too soon, Suz and Ethan and company had
to return to civilization.
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| Sasha post-snowball fight |
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| Tia cross-sountry skis to Dead Lake |
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| Christmas princess |
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| A wholesome Christmas morning family activity: Playing Texas Hold 'Em Poker |
Then came the rains, along with all our 45 cousins and
friends, for New Year’s. The rain packed
down the snow and scotched cross-country skiing, created slush lakes, and made
a mess of good snowmobiling. Dana’s son
Trenton drove his snowmobile across Dead Lake, hit a soft spot, and promptly
sunk his machine, creating a big make-work rescue project. Luckily it had
stopped raining by then, and we had those 45 people in the valley to help! Our friends Blaise and Emily joined us for
New Year’s; we hadn’t seen them in four years, so it was a happy long-awaited
reunion.
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| Love my friend Emily!! |
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| Pulling the snowmobile from Dead Lake |
Cousin Royce brought humungous fireworks from Reno, which we
split between the Granite Dome and the meadow.
At 9:30 pm on New Year’s Even, everyone headed up to Granite Dome to
light the big fire we’d assembled. The
sparks swirling into the star-studded heavens complemented the boom and splash
of the firework show, creating an impossibly beautiful multi-sensory spectacle:
heat and frost, silence and shockwave, dark night and bright light, icy air and
smoky wood.
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| The building of the New Year's bonfire |
Click here to see the bonfire and fireworks!
Then we all headed down to the Kingsbury cabin at 11,
dancing until midnight, when Royce and friends put on a second fireworks show
to ring in the new year. Despite 45 people
in the cabin, there was room to dance and talk and laugh and sing. What a way to welcome 2017!
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| Welcome 2017!! |
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| Frontier family |
New Year’s Day brought more snow, to the delight of the
snowmobiling crowd. Most of us parked
our cars at the top of GRK’s dirt road, but inexplicably, not Blaise. That engendered another round of make-work
project helping his Ford Explorer slip and slide up the icy, snowy road to the
paved (and, thankfully, plowed) road.
Moving at approximately 2 miles per hour on the hidden black ice, they
drove off with one intact chain, the other having broken off next to the
cabin. It took them two hours to get 20
miles! But we loved having them and
their boys Drake and Roan; we’re positive they’ll return next time supplied
with chains.
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| Hanging out at Granite Dome before the next big snow |
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| More and more and more snow |
And then the snow REALLY started. Two feet…four feet….six feet….seven feet and
counting! El Niño has really shown us
something, and the Pineapple Express pattern of rain/snow/rain/snow leaves wild
and wacky crevasses on the otherwise gentle road between our cabin and cousin
Grethers’ cabin (wherein lies our only internet access!). All too soon we leave for our planned escape
from the snow to head to the Caribbean as promised to the girls. The only problem: I’m not ready to leave this
snow-laden wonderland!
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| Bundling up for the cold |
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| Our only way in and out of the cabin |
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| Deeper and deeper |
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| Packing out |
