Christmas on the slopes!

so i thought we were going to maine when mom announced that she was planning a top secret christmas suprise this year. it made perfect sense: marc hasn't even met my aunt valerie, uncle scott and cousins, heather and cody. nor has he visited the Fraser Farm yet. and we have lots of winter memories from christmases spent in Maine: digging tunnels in huge snow banks, tobogganing down the big hill behind scott and val's house. bundling up all cozy and playing in the snow until you had icicles growing off your nose. then running inside to a mug of hot cocoa. the crackling fires every night and let's not forget: the tradition of opening one present each day for the week before christmas!

well, we only have 3 days together with ethan and caroline so mom searched around for some fun winter activities in the chicago-indiana-michigan area. we had our family christmas tree last night and our last present involved instructions to be ready for a 7:30 departure this morning...good thing for mom that she decided to inform us of some of the adventures we'd be embarking upon this weekend: skiing(basic, easy slopes), ice skating, horse and buggy rides, swimming and hot tubbing...i think getting up at 7:00AM will be worth it.

we ended up driving through a bit of rain and having a mild day so we were happy to wait to hit the slopes till tomorrow. instead, we leisurely enjoyed our private suites, complete with whirlpools for 2; swam in the indoor waterpark, hot tubbed outdoors and napped between activites. it's been a day filled with good family fun. lots of hoots and hollers riding down the water slides in intertubes together and moseying along the lazy river. i haven't been to an amusement park or water park for years and i feel like a kid again. it's so refreshing. and alas, it's time to get out of the p.j.'s again and head to town for dinner. too bad i can't go to dinner in my pajamas. they're slowly becoming my favorite outfit :)