This year we added a new tradition to how we celebrate Christmas. For years my dad had dreamed about building a lake house on Beaver Lake and at the beginning of 2012 he finally found the perfect piece of land. Just as we set off on our adventures in February of this year, my family broke ground on their new home. After nine months of careful construction, the dacha (how we say weekend home in Russian) was complete. This year we ate Christmas dinner with this view:
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| The epic view from the dacha |
Christmas day there was promise of snow in the forecast and we were really hoping to watch snow fall over the lake, but alas no such luck. While other parts of Arkansas got over 10 inches of fluff, we were stuck with freezing gusts of wind. But once we got the fireplace going, we all but forgot about the cold and instead enjoyed each other's company (and the presents!).
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| The Christmas tree, where Santa deposited our gifts |
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| Dad and Skyler pondering dad's new Christmas gift- a smoker |
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Sky sat down to read instructions for the new smoker...
they were the biggest instructions I'd ever seen |
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| My family and I on Christmas day |
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| Anya made Sammy wear the Santa hat too |
Just before dinner we opened our presents! Grandma Pattie got Chloe and Sammy new toys and treats, and they quickly got to work on them.
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| Chloe enjoying her new treat |
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| Sammy taking a nap after chewing on his new toy |
For dinner we made a full feast of meat in dad's new smoker accompanied with mashed potatoes, green beans, homemade Tiramisu, all kinds of appetizers and salads and some Citrus Sangria (I made using
a recipe I found on a fellow blogger's site).
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| The Citrus Sangria, very yummy! |
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| Our meat feast! |
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| My plate, num!! |
After dinner we all fell into a stupor and everyone scattered about the house to find a place to nap. My dad, Skyler and Chloe cozied up in the living room in front of the fire.
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| Dad, Skyler and Chloe enjoying the warm fire |
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| Eventually Sam got jealous and jumped into Sky's lap as well |
And that is how we spent our Christmas this year. I wonder where we will be this time next year?
Happy Christmas!
M.
Hello! Nice to meet you and thanks for stopping by our blog at OneRoadataTime! I love your story and I "love" road trips. We've driven the northern route all the way across the U.S. and we drove Route 66 from Chicago to California. I highly encourage you to drive Route 66, it is so much fun and you learn so much! Do you have a Facebook page? I look forward to following!
ReplyDeleteHi Patti! Thank YOU for you visiting. Your story about moving to Oregon and opening up your own B&B sounds amazing,and had me totally captivated on your blog! I'm looking forward to reading more.
DeleteWe drove a small portion of Route 66 between Tulsa Oklahoma and Oklahoma City. We will have to try out the rest of the route. Thanks for the suggestion!
Happy New Year!
Maria