A belated Merry Christmas!

Mike and I decided about... oh... 2 or 3 weeks before Christmas to spend Christmas at my Moms house, rather than traveling up the day after. It would have been nice if we made that decision about... oh... maybe before Thanksgiving so some gifts could have been shipped directly to Maine rather than to our house than back to UPS and up to Maine... I am VERY happy to report that whine is my ONLY (rather small) complaint about the holidays. We left on Tuesday after Mike got home from work to skip up between storms. We arrived at 3:30 am to the very beginnings of snow. Happily the kids went RIGHT back to sleep and so did we - waking up at 8:30am to a beautiful snowfall. Perfect. The kids snuck some snow tubing in on Grandma & Grandpas AWESOME tubing lawn... if you get going fast enough you can whip right out into the bay! They also dug an igloo from the mountain of snow that came off their bedroom deck.

The kids woke up early Christmas morning and zipped downstairs to discover that Santa's Elves really did read the note we left in the clock that said we'd be at Grandma & Grandpa's house in Maine for Christmas. They zoomed back upstairs to wake up G&G and Dylan sat on the stairs singing jingle bells waiting for them to come out of their bedroom. It couldn't have been more Hallmark. ;o) It seemed like we opened presents all day long. My brother and Jeanette came in around 11, stayed for a little bit, then back for dinner after spending some time at her Moms house. All 5 dogs did fairly well together!
It was a wonderful Christmas, and even better that it was spent with family.

The rest of the week flew by doing this and that. The weather was up and down (warm, rainy, freezing cold, snow showers). We took a trip into Bangor to shop. We walked in the state park on a sunny but cold day (no small feat given that they close for the winter and don't plow - it was tough walking in some spots!). We took walks along the bay

and found moose tracks - literally right in their back yard! Moose are so darned elusive - this one must have come through at night.
We also found (but did not trudge back to the house for the camera) bear prints from a bear that ambled from the barn down the lawn to the bay and back. Diesel FREAKED out one night - most likely picked up the scent of the bear. It's the only thing that really freaks him out at home, I guess Maine bear smell just like NJ bear. ;o)

We also took a ride out to Gleasons Cove on the day before we left. We braved 15 degree tems and wicked winds to walk along the rocky beach. We all had red, wind-stung cheeks when we got back in the truck! We did have one very curious find - at LEAST 6 dead lobsters washed up near the seaweed. We found claws still banded and with meat inside, so the locals did not have a lobster fest on the beach and toss the shells. Very thought provoking.

We told the kids how we made uncle Fred and aunt Jeanette's wedding cake and Grandma painted it. We picked up fondant and let the kids paint their own cake...

We also used Dylan's fondue pot to fondue marshmallows... Yumm!
We sailed back to NJ on New Years day - we left a balmy 0 degree Maine at 7am and arrived back home at 5:30 pm with an hour stop at Cabelas. I will tell you the drive time on our truck said it was JUST under 10 hours. I will also tell you that it's 602 miles door to door. :o) Go Mikey go!!!
With all that was bad in the Herbst house last year, we still had some great times. Merry Christmas, Happy ALWAYS...