Happy New Year!

(subset of group: from left: Christie, Trixie, Melanie, Philip, Tim, Steven, Alex, Cam)

We just returned from our Mont Tremblant ski vacation/reunion in Quebec, Canada. There were 27 of us all together! Other than the cold/flu that was going around the gruop, we had a great time (I weasled out somehow, Cam's still recovering, and Reagan got a mostly minor cold).
Reagan and Jarred (my 3rd cousin, but feels like a 1st) were hilarious together. He's 6 1/2, 5 yrs older than Reagan and she was getting the biggest kick out of copying him. When they all came over to our condo one night, Reagan saw Jarred down on the landing taking his boots and coat off. She's calling "Deh-wed" at the top of her lungs whiles he's going as fast as he can calling, "I'm coming, Reagan!" It was too cute. Here's a couple pics of them.

Another hit was "Baby Wo" (cousin Faire). She's adorable and bright-eyed, especially with her cute stunned look - which probably sums up how she felt most of the time with all these crazy people around. Reagan was so sweet and gentle (with some reminders). She would give Faire toys to play with, wanted her to sit on her lap (attempted this herself at one point), would pat her on the back, and generally get excited whenever she saw her. The first night, we arrived late and Baby Wo was already asleep. Reagan goes, "Baby wo wate up" (Baby Faire, wake up!) We got her excited to see Faire, so that was our fault. The next morning, Reagan was all about sharing Faire's teething ring saying, "Rea-run dis ide" (Reagan this side).

Aunt Bee and Uncle Danny were favorites too since they would sing on request non-stop, even if it was the same song 10 billion times. At least I know all the words to her favorite duckie song now.

Reagan thought the snow was pretty cool, but would have nothing of her little skis (she might have tried these if Grandpa Martin hadn't started off by showing her how they flew down a little hill by themselves. He wasn't there when she adamantly refused to sled down a hill the previous day). Those activities got a firm "no" no matter how fun and great we tried to make them seem.

Her first snowman at our hotel in Vermont en route ...

Moving away from the Reagan-centric view of the vacation, most of us skied 2 days and the weather was better than I imagined ... above zero the whole time! Cam only 1 day since he was so sick the first ski day that he slept til 2 and went back to bed at 8:30. Between my Mom, Aunt Trixie, Aunt Fran, and Step-Grandma Shirley, we had 4 cooked meals for the entire crowd that were delicious! We watched the Sound of Music one night and had a fun New Year's celebration playing a memory game called Things In A Box* (really hard, but fun and entertaining with a big crowd).

*Each person writes an answer to a question and tosses it in a bag/box. A designated emcee for that round reads them off 2 times. Everyone else has to try to guess who wrote which answer, taking turns around the cirle, and if someone figures out what you wrote, you're out until the next round. Even when you get "outed" before the round starts (by correcting the person reading the answers when they read yours incorrectly ... yeah, that's me ... hi), it's still entertaining to sit and listen to everyone play. Sample questions: What would you never want to do on a first date, What are dogs really saying when they bark, etc

Out pours the German chocolate and Gummi Bears from Augie's suitcase on the first night. :-)