Our Twelve Day Christmas Journey: Day Two

On our second day of Christmas we continue to settle.  After devouring our “favorite” Polish Kielbasa from Gabe’s in Maple City,  we lick our satisfied chops, hop into the mobile crate, and find our way to our God Daughter Ashley  and Co.’s home  (Brent Avery & Kylee).christmas-set-up-004

Hugs and kisses and giggles begin.  We enjoy their beautiful tree and Christmas cheer; their daughters’ stealing the stage; us enjoying every precious moment.
Back into the crate, we journey to Mom & Dad’s Lake home on Lime Lake.  They no longer live here  but have kept it in the family to make it available to us for gatherings.  Kip and I are hosting our family Christmas this year and tonight LSD (Lin-Sher-Dave) and spouses along with Mom and Dad join together to begin the preparations: decorating.christmas-set-up-010christmas-set-up-012

more hugs giggles, laughter, Papa John’s, food and cheer.  christmas-set-up-014As we scurry about, wonderful sniffs of Mom and Dad’s dinner preparations begin to fill the air.  christmas-set-up-020 They are hosting dinner on this eve before the eve, before the eve,  before the eve of Christmas…yum
12.21.14 Lake Michigan

Our Twelve Day Christmas Journey: A Tradition-

On our first day of Christmas, we gather our way too much stuff to pack into the mobile family cratechristmas-2014-342

I always wonder what the dogs (girlz) think as we all pile into this moving dog crate at one location, coming out hours later in another.  Is it magic?  christmas-day-1-0201 As we pull out of our Quarton Lake drive, Kip announces that the rear end of the crate is dragging.
We turn our sights north in search of snow, Santa, family, friends, giggles, hugs, kisses, wine, laughter, food; and of course presents.  I was a real good girl this year.  I can’t say that every year.  Kip may think otherwise.  We begin to see sightings of snow near Cadillac, so different from a year ago as that travel was slow and tedious due to the magnitude of snow and wind.
We begin to view familiar sightings as the mobile crate makes its way to where we will be for the next seven days.

christmas-day-1-015Five hours later we arrives at our destination.  Now we begin the challenge of getting all of our precious cargo up two flights of stairs to our little bird’s nest in the sky.  We are  in the heart of Leelanau.  Twenty trips later we are done. The crate  is empty.  All of our holiday treasures now unpacked.  The stockings are hung  on the mantle with care.  Our little Christmas tree shining with its “buck” headgear.buck-003 only in Leelanau.  We are home.s-thksgchrist2010-038

12.20.14 Lake Michigan