Mommathon

We got a really good deal on a two-night stay at Skamania Lodge and since it’s not too terribly far from where we live we decided to take a little mini-vacation right before Christmas. It was SO beautiful there and the place was so festive and beautifully decorated for Christmas.

We took a beautiful hike through the woods and around a lake. We also crossed over a creek. It was a beautiful, sunny day with just a hint of chill in the air. There were some remains of a recent snowfall still on the ground.

This is when everyone still had their jackets on and no one had fallen and gotten totally wet and muddy.

We did our own little photo shoot…

This was the view from our room.

Life’s rough…

We also got to play a lot of Ping Pong, Apples to Apples, Wii and Uno in the lodge’s game room. I think one of my favorite things about the lodge is their huge fireplace. There was a giant Christmas tree in the room with the fireplace and each night they had musicians performing. They also had storytime each night with one of Santa’s elves and children would show up in their jammies to listen…the boys are a little too old for that, but those little ones sure were cute.

Pit stop at Multnomah Falls on the way home.

Mudwoman by Joyce Carol Oates-I think this is probably one of the strangest stories I have ever read. A very successful and educated woman can’t escape her past. Her mother threw her in a mud pit to drown as a young girl. She’s found by a local and raised by a loving Quaker family who names her after their dead daughter. (See, I told you, weird.) She ends up having a mental breakdown and losing what she’d worked so hard for.

Happens Every Day by Isabel Gillies-I really liked this story. It’s a memoir of a marriage and how the marriage falls apart. Even though it sounds like a sad book it really does end up having a happy ending.

11/22/63 by Stephen King-This is SUCH a good book! I highly, highly, highly recommend it. This is not a creepy Stephen King story, but a long and interesting piece of historical fiction where the main character goes back in the time try and stop the assassination of JFK.

As much as I don’t like dragging all of the Christmas stuff out of our storage area, I do love watching the boys go through all of their old ornaments. Some they made in preschool, some they made at home and some are gifts from family. They love to sort through them. The boys also receive a new nutcracker each year to put on the mantle. They want to pick it out this year though, so we still need to do that.

Colm’s box of ornaments

Liam’s box of ornaments

The boys had a Christmas violin concert last weekend. They both did a great job. Colm only got to play one song though (he could have played two had he actually tried to learn the other song) so I have no video of Colm because his song was the last song and I was on post-concert snack duty and the song he played was the last song that was played by that time I was already getting the snacks set up.