Happiest Place on Earth

It's easy to be thankful in our happiest place on Earth. As I type this, I'm sitting in front of a roaring fireplace, staring outside the window at the frozen lake and National Geographic-type entertainment before me (this morning alone, we've seen a black squirrel scurrying, bald eagle soaring, white trumpeter swans swimming, a massive flock of geese circling and a brown mouse nibbling).

Andi and I drove up to the cabin Friday morning to enjoy our Thanksgiving weekend away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Classic couple miscommunication: I automatically assumed my husband would be working Friday after Thanksgiving because he rarely takes a vacation day. I planned to pipe the holiday tunes loudly and decorate our house for Christmas. I was surprised (and glad!) to learn Andi reserved the day just for our family of three so we jumped at the chance to spend an extra day in the woods. (SAHM perk: I can decorate for the holidays any day this week, no big deal).

The cabin is beautiful in the winter. We came up here a few times last year, but I don't remember it being so peaceful and charming blanketed in untouched white snow powder.

Andi, Tory and I lounged around the house all day Friday and Saturday morning, entertaining ourselves with just about every game we could imagine. (Tory and I stacked coozies on the kitchen table bench for what seemed like forever). Tory helped me cook in the kitchen and organize the cabinets.

Sitting on the countertop, helping Mom in the kitchen is Tory's new favorite place to be.
The space between the cabin cupboards is the perfect height for her.

Life slows down here in the most magical way. It's the best recipe for relaxation and quality time for our family.

Andi's sister Lindsay and their cousin Laura and her family came to visit us at the cabin on Saturday afternoon. Lindsay is going on a trip to Vegas next week, so we all thought it'd be a fun learning experience to teach her to gamble at the Turtle Lake Casino about 10 miles away. Laura brought poker chips and her craps table and we all sat in the living room and played for hours on Saturday evening. After Tory went to bed, Laura's girls staying at the cabin to babysit Tory while the rest of us when to the casino. Andi and I rocked our matching Pipe Lake jackets for a night on the town.

Playing slots after we loss our butts at the Craps table

We stopped for a few drinks at the bars around the cabin. We warned everyone in the car on the drive over to keep their drinks simple. We're in Wisconsin middle-of-nowhere and they mostly sell can beer and cheese curds. What does Laura do when we arrive at the first place? Order a hot toddy. The bartender almost laughed her out of there. "Make it a whiskey/water with lemon and honey," she said and that he would do for her.

Rarely do we hit the bars when we're at the cabin.

Rarely do we stay up past 9:00pm anymore.

Saturday night was so much fun to cut loose and be crazy with our family. I learned to play roll the die like a high-stakes gambler and we sang karaoke like we didn't have a care in the world. A perfect weekend at the cabin.