Our Holiday Break Summary

It's always sad to see the holiday season end, but it's nice to get back to a usual routine too.  Taking down Christmas decorations can sometimes be depressing, but I always enjoy the clean simplicity of the house once all the decor is gone too.  I also enjoy getting back to my regular diet and exercise problem.  It's nice to take a two week break from it but, boy, do I start to feel it.  My gut health isn't the same, and I have to start popping those tums again not long after the festivities begin.  Now, only a few days after I returned to my regular diet, I feel much better.

I also enjoy being back to a regular blogging schedule.  I miss you guys when I'm away! People who don't blog don't really understand, but we in the blogging world are a small, tight knit community.  Most of us have known each other for years and watched our kids grow up.  We've traveled together, laughed together, and sometimes cried together all through a computer screen.  As someone who is alone for twelve hours everyday, I really need my "blogging buds" so I have some connection to the outside world.

So "Welcome Back"!  I missed you!  And now for a little update our our two week holiday break.

This Christmas we had my daughter, son-in-law, and four grandchildren at our home for two full weeks.  Other than when we all quarantined together during Covid (and then we only had two grandchildren), this was the longest duration we've ever spent together .  To say things got a little crazy at times would be an understatement, but we had a lot of fun too!  

Originally, my daughter was only supposed to spend 5 days with us, but Atticus arrived with the flu and then it subsequently went through the entire family making them too ill to travel.  I was the only person out of nine people who did not get sick, which is pretty amazing since I was the caretaker of everyone and I had the most exposure.  I attribute it to drinking a daily cup of Cuppa Mushroom Coffee, as that's the only thing I did differently from the rest of the family.

For a while there, we were wondering if everyone would be well enough to celebrate Christmas at all.  We were supposed to have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations, but people weren't feeling well enough on Christmas Eve to do anything.  So we didn't go to church, or have a special meal and we just had a normal dinner and watched a Christmas movie.

By Christmas Day, the virus had run through most members of the family and they felt well enough to open gifts, though some of them just cozied up the couch and watched while I was the one who was up and down picking up all the wrapping paper and tossing it in the garbage, distributing gifts, finding batteries for all the toys, oh, and making a Christmas Lunch all at the same time.  I was exhausted to say the least. 

It was Alethea's first toy-less Christmas.  She has gotten too old for toys and wanted things like clothes and decor for her room, but then she had nothing to play with after Christmas like the boys did.  I suspected this would be a problem, and I was right.  It led to a few tears and squabbles after Christmas opening, but in the end, she ended up playing with a lot of her brother's new toys.

The grandchildren made their mother a few handmade gifts that were really sweet.

Grandpa read the Christmas Story from the Bible like he always does.  It is one of our traditions.  And Alethea always acts it with our homemade toilet paper nativity scene. 

Another one of our traditions is to make Christmas Cookies.  I think I had to tell them to wash their hands at least a dozen times during the process to keep the flu germs from spreading.  They would make a cookie, decorate it, eat one, and then try to go back to decorating and I was like "No, you touched your mouth, so now you have to go and wash your hands" 😀

My son-in-law and I took the oldest two grandkids to see the new "David" movie.  Elisha was supposed to go with us, but he was too sick.  We felt bad leaving him behind, but after seeing the movie, I think it was too advanced for him anyway.  I enjoyed the movie, but I honestly think they could have done a better job gearing it towards young children.  I really love the "Young David" shorts on the Angel Network and I wish more of the movie was like that.  Once you get past the David and Goliath scene, I'm not sure young kids really understand the rest of the story.

I bought my grandkids a lot of science kits because their mom says they have so many toys already and she just wanted them to have some "once and done" toys.  We spent hours everyday doing science experiments.  Some experiments were a lot of fun, and others were a pain because of missing parts to the  kits or difficulty understanding instructions.  But it was a good thing I bought the kits, because then Alethea had something to play with.

I was so impressed with my kittens this Christmas, especially Milo.  In the past, they would just run and hide for a week when the grandkids came over;  this visit they actually engaged with them.  Milo even joined us at playtime. 

The Sunday after Christmas only my husband, son, Alethea and I were well enough to go to church.  It was so funny when Alethea and I discovered we were wearing the same outfit...so unplanned!  Great minds think alike I guess. 

By New Years, everyone was feeling pretty well and joyous again, except Grandpa.  Ugh! Now it was his turn, and when Grandpa gets sick, the whole world knows it.  He doesn't think he behaves ridiculously when he is sick;  he thinks he just gets "quiet", but to the rest of us, it's like having a sick toddler in the house. 😆

I decided to have a great New Years in spite of Grandpa being ill, so I brought out the special Christmas Dinnerware and even though we only had pork chops for dinner I made it extra special.  

I had all this fun New Year's Eve Decor and Props from 2020 and thought we could have fun doing a photo shoot. I had my son bring out all his special lighting from his YouTube days and we had a blast posing for pictures.  The grandkids loved the balloons and all the fun props.

Alethea and I changed the "2020" prop to "2026" with some black card stock and silver glitter.  One nice thing about being a crafter, is you always know how to fix things and you have plenty of craft supplies on hand. 😀

It was quite the noisy New Years at our house as they were running around blowing their party horns.  I loved how excited they were.  They even changed their clothes without me even having to ask because they were so excited.  It was one of the happiest New Year's Eve of my life, in spite of hubbie's illness.  I posted this cute video on Instagram about our New Year's Eve.

On New Year's Day my son had to attend a wedding, but the rest of us went to Eau Claire's newest kid's attraction:  4 Treasures Adventure Park.  Wow! Do I wish I had something like this when my kids were little.  What a fabulous and affordable place to take small children to, especially in the middle of winter, to blow off some energy and engage in creative play.

They had a special section called the Ninja Warrior Course where kids can "test their strength, agility, and determination".  Atticus was thrilled he could run up and climb up to the top of this curved wall.

Elisha loved balancing on the rope and tire swings.

They had multiple slides at the park, the kids really loved this gentle Donut Slide.

My most photogenic grandchild is Atticus.  I can always get a good, creative pose from him without even asking.  

There is a special area set aside just for 0-3 years old.  All the older kids were bummed they couldn't go inside this area as they had a ball pit and merry-go-round, but I totally understand and agree that the little ones need their own safe space from the big kids.  

Elisha sure loved standing inside this giant sea creature's mouth.  And if you haven't caught it already, the theme for the entire park was the ocean.

Daddy took baby Lazarus inside the big kid's play area.  He loved looking down at us and waving "hi". 

Mom meanwhile had to take Baby Lazarus down the slide multiple times because he enjoyed it so much.  If you're wondering why I didn't join in on the fun it's because I didn't wear socks, so I was just supervisor/photographer for the day.  I had no idea adults could play too, so I did not put socks on inside my boots.  But if I ever go back, you betcha I'm gonna play too!

And finally, they do not allow you to bring your own food and drink inside but they do have a concession stand that is very reasonably priced.  We got this jumbo pretzel for only $7 and it was the best pretzel I ever had in my life.  I want to go back just to get another pretzel 😁. They also have cappuccinos for $3.00 and plenty of healthy snacks too like string cheese and applesauce.

 I hope you enjoyed my Holiday Break Summary.  Things don't always go as planned, but we made the best of it and still had good times and made lots of memories.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!

A Day at the Eagle River Cranberry Festival

Hello, hello, welcome back to all my faithful readers and hopefully new ones for 2026.  I hope you all had great Christmas and New Year's celebrations.  Ours was a mixed bag of both good and trying times as the flu came into our home right before Christmas.  It started with the second oldest grandchild the day he arrived, and spread through the entire family for two weeks.  Everyone got sick except me;   I have no idea why I was spared other than my daily "Cuppa" of mushroom coffee.  But enough Christmas Vacation talk, I will share more on that on Sunday's Lifestyle Post along with lots of photos and videos.

Today I want to resume my regular blogging schedule starting with a return to covering all of our fall trips.  I know it must seem silly to post fall travel trips in the middle of winter, but that's the way my schedule works, so if you see any place that might interest you for next fall, just "Pin" it for next year.

Wisconsin leads the nation in cranberry production.  It is our state's largest fruit industry and we grow about 60% of the nation's cranberries.  Most of the cranberry farms are located in central or northern Wisconsin, where I live.  I have the pleasure of driving past cranberry marsh's quite often, but I have never seen one in operation ( when they flood the fields and all the cranberries rise to the top producing a sea of red.)  So this was the year I decided it was finally time to take a cranberry marsh tour...or so I thought.

Even though there are cranberry marshes and cranberry festivals much closer to our home, with the Warren's Cranberry Festival being the largest and most famous, we decided to have a weekend adventure and drive up to the tippy top of Wisconsin and go to the Eagle River Cranberry Festival.   We had never visited Eagle River before and we wanted to check it out.  I'm so glad we did because it is such a cute town and they have a great bike trail we hope to ride someday.  Anyway, back to the cranberry festival.

The town of Eagle River offered Cranberry Marsh Tours so I signed up for one.  They provide transportation to and from the Marsh and the bus driver gives you a lot of great history about the town of Eagle River on the way to and from the marsh, which we found very interesting.

When we got to the marsh, we didn't even have to get off the bus.  They drove us right into the marshes and explained the entire process of how the cranberries were planted, grown and harvested.  However, my dream of seeing a "sea of red" didn't come true as it was such a hot day they could not harvest the cranberries.  It was early October but it was in the 80's, which is unusually hot for Wisconsin.  If they harvested cranberries in this much heat, they would quickly spoil.  So, I can't show you a photo of a"sea of red" but I can show you a photo of a cranberry bed.  Pictured below is a cranberry field.  The red tint in the photo are the little cranberries that grow on vines close to the ground.  Now if you look to the left of the photo you will see green grass that rises about two feet above the cranberry bed, that is because they flood this bed just enough to cause the cranberries to rise to the surface where they then can easily harvest them.  Having the cranberry bed lower than then the grass keeps the water and cranberries inside when it is flooded.

Here is a far away shot of part of the cranberry farm.

After we toured the marsh on the bus, they let us get out and walk around the grounds for 45 minutes.  Here we could visit the marsh store to buy cranberry products, we could taste a lot of different things made with cranberries, and there were more educational displays like this cranberry harvesting tractor.

You could still see some cranberries caught in the chain of the tractor. 

This display showed how buoyant cranberries are.  You could put your hands inside the tank and feel how deep the water is, yet all the cranberries float on top.

The marsh we toured was the Lake Nokomis Cranberry Farm.  Pictured below is their gift shop.

There was entertainment at the farm.

I loved enjoying the fall foliage this weekend too!  It was an added blessing, in addition to the festival.

Hubby enjoyed a brief game of hoops.  I think he was the oldest "kid" there. 

After the tour, we headed to the Eagle River Cranberry Festival.  Their events were held both downtown and at their festival grounds.  We decided to check the downtown out first.

They close off Main Street for the festival, and vendors put up tents in the middle of the street.  Our first purchase was a cranberry scone...yummy.

We really enjoyed Eagle River's downtown and felt a lot of their shops were really cool and places I'd like to shop.  So many small town main streets don't have interesting stores, but this one had a woman's clothing store I really liked, and several sporting goods stores.

The town of Eagle River also has an old train depot that has been turned into a museum.

Hubby always enjoys looking at things and stories from the past. 

The train depot still had its old ticket window intact.

All around town were cute displays celebrating the cranberry festival.

Next we took the shuttle over to the fairgrounds for the actual cranberry festival.  The town offers free shuttle rides all around town during the festival.

The festival is mostly arts and crafts, food trucks, and anything else you usually see for sale at a fair.  We didn't spend much time here as we are not ones to spend money on things we can make ourselves.  I usually use these fairs to get ideas and then I go home and "diy" it.  But we did some great cheese, after all, Wisconsin has the best cheese!

The next morning we went to check out the Bearskin State Trail before we headed home.  The trail head starts right in town and is both a hiking and biking trail.  However, even though we walked part of it, and there were plenty of people walking it the morning we were there, I think it's more of a biking trail because it so long;  it is 21.5 miles and is the old railroad between Minoquoa and Tomahawk Wisconsin.

My favorite part of this trail was all the bridges (or what they call "converted railroad trestle")  going over all the lakes.  There are 16 bridges that you can cross on this trail and boy, do you get the gorgeous lake views. 

I love how the canopy of trees at the end of the bridge provide a mystical entrance to the Bear Skin Trail.

Just look at some of these stunning lake views! Wow!

We knew we couldn't hike the whole trail as it was so long, so we had to keep in mind that we'd have to walk all the way back, but I think we went over at least three bridges before we turned around.

There were so many gorgeous lake homes and neighborhoods that we walked through on this trail, which was part of the joy for me as I love to look at beautiful homes.  This little neighborhood had its own canal to dock their boats.

A lot of the trail was lined on either side with beautiful trees and sweet glimpses of the lake.

And every so often, it would open up and you would get a view like this!

We enjoyed this trail so much we plan to return in the fall and bike the entire thing.  I got an e-bike as my birthday/Christmas present this year, and I can't wait to use it!  I haven't ridden it yet as it is winter.

I hope you enjoyed my Cranberry Festival Tale.  I will be back next week with another Fall Adventure!

Have A Great Day!  Amy

Linking Up with these Fabulous Blogs HERE!