Holiday Trip

Oh my beloved blog!! It’s been so long! We’ve been traveling since December 5 and we’re now on Martha’s Vineyard without internet! I did just happen upon a rogue signal, so here I am!
We went on a walk at Felix Neck Sanctuary today–I love that word, “sanctuary.” It seems if you find a place called “sanctuary,” it would bring peace. It seems nothing bad could happen to you there—you’d be safe.
Henry and Annabelle spent the day running on the paths through the trees, picking up pine cones and twigs, climbing on fallen tree trunks, their noses red and their cheeks rosy from the cold… just perfect. There’s no snow on the ground here, and the temperature is in the 40’s, so it’s not bad, but still cold for those of us accustomed to New Orleans weather.
Annabelle has taken to wearing my long silky nightgowns–they drag on the floor behind her. She especially likes my cheetah print one with the feathers. She put it on today with my high heels and said, “I’m going to a party darlin.” She pronounces “darlin” like a country western singer. She said Henry couldn’t come because he didn’t smell good, but that I could since I smelled like flowers. I protested that Henry smells like an angel, so in the end, he was invited to her party. The party involved somersaults over the pillows and a lot of jumping on the bed. The perfect party activities if you ask me!
Our trip began in Springville, Utah at my parent’s house. They’re amazingly fun for 70-year- olds, and they keep us laughing. We kidnapped my dad nearly every day and made him hang out with us. He has such a quick and funny mind, when he gets on a roll with his observations, we sometimes end up rolling on the floor in laughter–literally.
My little sister, Marlise, has 6 kids–four of her own and two she adopted last year from Haiti. Zoe and Watson are 2 and 3, perfect for playing with Henry and Annabelle. There are so many cousins up there it’s a steady stream of visitors coming over to play.
Then, we went up to Snowbird and George joined us. I forgot how much I love to ski! My girlfriend from New Orleans, Sally, came to Snowbird at the same time with her daughter. She also loves to ski and says her style is “bat out of hell,” which is a pretty good description of my skiing as well. Sally ended up having, what she called a “snake-bit trip.” First the airline lost her luggage. Then she thought Snowbird was in Park City so she ended up on the wrong mountain. After a several hundred dollar cab ride to get to the right mountain, she arrived and immediately broke her knee skiing! Snake-bit indeed!!
Then, we went to San Francisco and stayed at the super deluxe Four Seasons. It seems I may be starting a love affair with the Four Seasons! (George loves them too so it’s not officially cheating). Their hotels are the lap of luxury and super family friendly! They had tiny white robes for Henry and Annabelle and little slippers and so many luxurious touches for us and the kids. The best part of SF was meeting up with two of my best friends, Zar and Tanya. Our days together at school in Paris in 1990 and backpacking around Europe and Greece bonded us for life. Neither of them have kids yet and they delighted in playing with Annabelle and Henry.
I’ve never seen Henry take to someone as fast as Zar who played with him on the stairs (“down-down” as he calls them) and Tanya had Annabelle were screaming and laughing while pretending the stroller was in the Indy 500.
The biggest mishap of the trip was the next travel day. We all got up at 4 to go to the damn airport to leave for New Hampshire, a stressful plane trip with two little ones, and dragged all our stuff into the airport, only to find we were at the wrong airport! Someone didn’t realize we had arrived at Oakland airport and were leaving out of SF airport! (OK, that someone was me. Completely lame, and I take full responsibility, but it could have been worse! I’m not sure how, but it could have been… somehow..) George got on the phone and got us the last three seats on a completely different airline, and $1,000.00 later, we were on several different planes to NH. Henry vomited on me first thing, so I smelled especially good the whole day, and then my suitcase didn’t make it, so I spent the entire next day in George’s pajamas.
Aside from this, the kids did great (better than the grown-ups) and it wasn’t a bad trip. 
New Hampshire was a winter wonderland with about four feet of snow, and we made cookies for Santa and played and lounged before our big road trip the following day to the Balsams in northern NH. The Balsams is an old-school Grand Hotel. Very quaint with sleigh-rides and formal dress for cocktail hour and dinner, followed by dancing and a band. The drive was spectacular with picturesque New England farmhouses with tiny candles in the windows and the moon hanging nearly full and low–just beautiful. The Balsams was a bit of roughing it after the Four Seasons. We had ordered a Christmas tree and were expecting it to be a six-footer, but, to my great amusement, it was a 12-inch bush, not even shaped like a tree. The “heirloom ornament” included in our stay was almost bigger than the whole tree! The Balsams looked like they hadn’t painted since 1863, but other than that, the service was impeccable, and once I got used to it, I loved it. Their skiing is all baby hills so I tried out some trick skis–those tiny skis about the size of ice skates–to challenge myself. I think I may have a future in the senior citizen olympics between trick skiing and ice skating…(Think arabesques, pirouettes, and leaps, all why flying down the hill).
This trip has been long and I’ll never do this much traveling again at once with the little ones, but we have cherished the adventure. 
I’m sitting here looking at the fairies we made today, the sticks we collected today, and watching my rosy-cheeked cherubs sleep, and thinking how incredibly lucky I am. All my christmas wishes warm and sleepy in my big cozy bed.