mastel's moku: Trogstad Christmas

Every year, we always designate the last weekend in January as Trogstad Christmas. This gives everyone time to settle down from the actual holidays, and not feel so rushed and busy with other things going on. We have been doing this for at least six years now, always going up to a resort in Northern Minnesota. On my dad's side of the family, I have two uncles, two boy cousins who are around 17 years old, a grandma (who brings her sister with her everywhere.. which I love), and both of my uncle's girlfriends. So needless to say, it's a small family gathering when we do get together (and surprisingly, we haven't had every person show up to be together for at least 3 years now).

We drive up Saturday morning (Friday evening if we can make it work), unpack our bags, either do outdoor activities or swim in the pool .. if there is one, eat a big dinner, play a card game that my Uncle Doug always comes up with and brings the gifts for, and then play some other games, have a Nerf gun war until we get yelled at, hit the sack, eat breakfast, then head home. It's an incredibly quick weekend, and I wish so badly we could make it longer. But it makes the weekend that much more memorable, as we are trying to pack as many conversations and activities into those two days as possible.

This year, instead of having a Nerf gun war, we exhausted ourselves with the iphone app game, "Heads Up." It was hilarious and lasted over an hour. There was no pool at this new resort we were trying out, so instead of swimming, we hauled up four snowmobiles and went trail riding for a few hours. I have grown up snowmobile-riding, but have never gone actual trail-riding. It was a blast! Being deep down in the woods, with no one else around you, is so beautiful and peaceful. That is, until one of your snowmobiles decides it wants to turn off on us. Luckily, Uncle Doug is a superhero and got it running long enough to make the trek back to our cabin site. I wish I could have taken pictures of how beautiful the trees and snow were. Now that I know how gorgeous it is, I'll have to bring a camera next time. But I did manage to snap some other photos of the short-lasted weekend...