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30 December, 2007
Merry Christmas!

This post is way overdue but after all the insanity and rushrushrush of the holidays, I needed a few days of doing absolutely nothing. This gorgeous little house was all ours for a few days we spent together as a family up in Hot Springs, Virginia. It’s called the Boxwood cottage and it’s one of the properties you can rent at the King’s Victorian Inn.

I highly recommend staying there if you ever want a mountain getaway. The prices are extremely reasonable, especially if you have a large group or several couples traveling together. It’s in a great location near several great ski resorts as well.

  

The cottage was comfortable, clean and fully equipped. The owners were awesome as well and basically left us alone the whole time. I loved it, way better than staying in a hotel. It was also decorated for Christmas and we even got a light dusting of snow which made everything look awesome.

We played a ton of Apples to Apples. I love that game!

  

Friday morning we got up and went up the road a bit to check out the Homestead Resort. It’s an absolutely HUGE hotel and resort that was built in 1766. It has the most gorgeous decor and grounds I’ve ever seen at a hotel. I loved it.

  

We explored around for a while, took a little hike in the woods and picked up some information about other local stops.

  

They had a gingerbread village complete with frosting snow, working streetlights and an ice rink.

  

Good times!

Dusting of snow on the putting green and an Iwo Jima reinactment photo shoot. Ha.

  

Allison & my brother Noah. And my sister Grace & Andrew.

They had a HUGE, real Christmas tree in the lobby of the hotel. It was so awesome! After we got back to the cottage, we headed over to the Jefferson Pools. It was a really unique experience, bathing in the warm bubbling natural springs. I recommend it!
 

Saturday morning we got up bright and early and headed up to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia. My brother goes snowboarding there quite frequently and showed everyone the ropes.

  

Everyone went skiing and snowboarding except Jimmy, Grace, my mom, Dave and myself. We hit up the snow tubes instead.

Pros.

  

This was so fun! You got pulled up the hill on this moving line. Then you headed down by yourself or hooked to a few other people. It was fast and furious. Just a hint, never ride with my sister Grace. She flipped my tube, ran OVER me with hers and got snow down my pants. Good times!

  

Jimmy built a snowmanbabe. I’m a little jealous of her girlish figure. Just after this, I dropped my camera in a puddle of icy snow water and it died. Sniffle. It was such an awesome trip though. Sunday morning my family headed home and Jimmy and I went up to Roanoke to spend a great Christmas with his family. Then we came back and had Christmas dinner with my family. Whew!

I got so spoiled too. Jimmy bought me a color laser printer which I am so stoked about. My mom got me a serger (!) which I can’t wait to use (I need to get some thread and learn to thread the dang thing). My dad gave me a ton of kitchen gear including a chef’s knife, a mandoline slicer, salad spinner, oil mister, microplane grater, etc. I also got some great bike gear, awesome stocking stuffers, a lil bit of money, a few gift cards. I dunno who told santa I was good this year but THANKS! I hope everyone else had a great holiday!

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