Cabin time

Over the winter break we headed up to a small cabin in the woods with my old college roommate and her crazy family.  Into one little space we crammed 4 adults, 5 boys aged 10 to 15, and one brave little sister.  I do believe good times were had by all.  There was a nearby lodge where Theo fell in love with the game of billiards, and I had the pleasure of sneaking out a ping-pong victory over a strapping young man.  When not in the lodge, we were either playing games in our cabin, or out in the frigid woods.  It was cold.  But that didn't stop us from tubing, broomballing, xc skiing, and bushwhacking through the woods.  I think Theo's highlight was our walk down to the river.  We started on a dirt road, quickly branched off on to a snowy trail, and then blindly followed Theo straight into the pathless woods.  We trusted our sense of direction (ok, with occasional peeks at Monte's iphone- the sky was flat gray and it was the type of weather that shakes up your senses) and plowed our way through some lovely woods- over downed logs, through brambles, and across bogs.  It was maybe 8 degrees, but in the woods not a breath of a breeze was stirring and the quiet was oddly warming.  After perhaps an hour we came out to the trusty Namekagon.  It was a stretch we have canoed down on numerous summer days, but seemed unrecognizable in the winter light.  We somehow got all 10 of us completely silent for several minutes.  It was a lovely way to re-center after the rush and gloss of the holiday season.