A weekend unplugged

For the past so many years, we’ve had a tradition of going away with friends over New Years.  However, with kids and life, things tend to change and our New Years trip has evolved into a “winter weekend”.   For years, our destination was a small cabin in Front Royal, but as our families expanded, we outgrew the small space.  This year, our group was smaller —  only two families, aka “only” 4 adults, 5 kids, and 3 dogs.  When we realized we could fit, we returned to our old stand-by, the “Orrisons” cabin.

I love that the cabin is only and hour and half away, yet it feels like a world away.  It is super rustic — no phone, no internet, not even cell service.  There is electricity and hot water (absence of those would be a dealbreaker), but the only heat comes from a woodburning stove.

We were the first to arrive Friday evening and it was approximately 20 degrees, inside and out.  It took a while to get things operational and warmed up, but once we did, we had a great time.

Much of the adult time was spent eating and tag team napping.   And playing lots of games.   Mike is not a big game player, so I love time with friends when I can get my game on — although he was a great sport and participated quite a bit.   The popular choices this weekend were:   SET, Banagrams (aka Speed Scrabble), and a new addition, Spot It.

The kids’ favorite activity was to go crazy up in the loft.   There were old mattresses, perfect for jumping on and rough housing.

There was also reading and snuggling in front of the fire.

Saturday morning, we woke to snow!  Sadly, it was a little underwhelming and no good for sledding.   Also it was COLD!

In the afternoon, we visited the farm down the hill.  A lovely Mennonite (?) family lives there and they are the caretakers for the cabin.  The kids enjoyed seeing goats and cows.

Little Mazie didn’t get much crawl around time — it’s a bit scary having a 500º stove within reach.  So her momma had the bright idea to give her a bath while we worked on dinner.

Plans had been discussed to do some father-son camping outside.  But when the temps dropped to teens, accompanied by fierce biting wind, the tent camping moved indoors.

It was a great weekend – lots of games, silliness and fellowship with some of our favorite people.