Skiing

 Well, Covid has very quickly turned us into an entire family of skiers/snowboarders.  That's because I was the last holdout and since there isn't much else to do, skiing it is.  It is certainly a social outlet in addition to being good exercise, so I've managed to look past the risk of bodily injury.

Coco is learning this year and she's already amazing at it.  It clicked right away for her and now she has easily surpassed me in terms of hill difficulty.  I'm going to try to keep up with her but my preference for conversation at the bottom of the hill far outweighs my need for speed.  

The most exhausting part of skiing is the process of getting to the top of the mountain..

1. Wake the whole fam up early (to which they are not happy)
2. make sure no one is missing a portion of their snow gear (something is always missing)
3. pack the car (always a process in an of itself)
4. swing through drive through for a hot cup of caffeine (necessary)
5. park the car and begin putting on boosa (takes 45 minutes)
6. swing by the locker and put on rest of gear (kids swap my nice gear for their kid gear)
7. Aaaaaaaaaaand finally get on the chair lift and ride to the top (already exhausted at 8:30 am)

So up on the mountain, Luke enjoys the terrain parks where he can practice is tricks, Adrienne enjoys doing as many runs as possible, Matt enjoys jumping the "slow" signs and freaking out the other parents, and Coco enjoys the chair lift and mastering new hills. As I said above, I enjoy the socialization.  We also cannot forget the kids' love of the waffle house and the lodge cafeteria.  Also a notable mention, Matt's love of stopping at the Other Half Brewery on the way home.  

We will be at it all winter, which here in NY means through April.  

The Holiday Season of 2020

 With COVID raging as anticipated, we proceeded with a slightly altered season of holiday festivities this year.  While there were no traditional holiday parties, everyone adjusted and everything turned out fine.  We still got really cute holiday school crafts out of first grade!  We kicked it all off by spending Thanksgiving in Canandaigua with G-ma and G-pa this year.  We followed tradition and went to Corning the next day to get our Christmas tree.  And then, for the next 3 weeks, we did A LOT of online shopping.  We all agreed that we didn't quite feel the usual holiday spirit partially because we didn't go into any stores or restaurants with lots of holiday decor.  

Moving on to Christmas, we spent Christmas Eve Day in Canandaigua exchanging gifts and eating ravioli.  We proceeded to Corning for the evening and Christmas morning where we again, indulged in eating and gifting.  In a new twist to our holiday plans, we left from Corning to drive to Florida.  

Out trip to the sunshine state was the result of Luke being invited to play on his club lacrosse team's national team.  We chose to drive as a way to stay as safe as possible from Covid.  We split the drive down there over 2.5 days and quite honestly, it wasn't bad!  The kids used their devices and slept most of the way.  We enjoyed 10 days in the sun doing mostly outdoor activities.  We went to lacrosse games, played mini golf, swam in the pool, played on the playground, played Top Golf, went to Disney World (a 12 hour day that clocked 10 miles of walking),  and watched more lacrosse games.  Luke's team won their first tournament and only lost one game of the 2nd tournament.  We didn't see any gators but we did see a psychotic wild turkey that tormented the traffic (multiple days) on the street to our hotel.

We had a wonderful time but I will admit that spending 10 days away is a long time...and feels even longer in1 hotel room with 5 people.  We missed our kitties, our own beds, and even skiing.  We mad the trek back in 2 days and that was about as much as we could take.

We're so glad we made the trip and we're also happy to be home.  The kids have been enjoying the discovery of their Christmas presents for a 2nd time.  One of these days we'll get fully unpacked and the laundry will get caught up...