Happy New Year!

We spent New Year's eve at the Dam Cabin this year. A few days ago we invited son Andrew, his wife Erin, and their friends to experience the Dam Lake experience. This time it was son Tyler and his friends.

The drive up on Tuesday was long, slow, and wintery. What takes two hours on a good day took us over three hours. The roads were slippery and at times visibility was down to a few feet in the blowing, blizzardly conditions. But we made it in one piece, and by the time we got to Mille Lacs the skies were starting to clear.

Peter and Andrea came up with us. Eric, Ben, and Juice were going to drive up later. Because of the weather they decided to postpone coming up until Wednesday.

When we first arrived we found Dan the Builder working on the fireplace. It's not finished yet, but he did get it started, so we had a cozy hearth for our celebration.

He also reported that a plumber had been out and had snaked out the kitchen drain. Denise the Realtor and her husband brought out a new toilet for the downstairs bathroom. The old one keeps leaking. It's a nice new commode, but by Wednesday night that one was leaking too! I hope we aren't destined to have water issues forever! Things could definitely be worse. We had hot water this time. We could use the kitchen sink and the dishwasher -- which we used constantly. How many plates and cups and glasses can six teenagers go through in two days? A lot!

One thing the kids thought they might try is shoveling off a rink on the lake and playing broomball. When both Peter and Tyler realized they'd forgotten their boots at home that plan was put on hold! Peter did bring his skates, so he went out and tried to shovel off part of the ice. We watched from the warm confines of the cabin as he walked out, lifted a shovel of snow, and came right back to shore and started taking his skates off.

I went out to investigate. It looks like there's about a foot of snow on the ice, but when you start walking out you realize that there's about six inches of snow on top of six inches of water! I knew that snow was a good insulator, but you'd think that there wouldn't be that much water what with all of the freezing temperatures we've had. Oh well, so much for skating or cross-country skiing on the lake this year.

The evening was pretty mellow. We ate chili and the kids actually played one game with the old fogies. Then they retired to the basement to watch movies.

On Wednesday we drove into Aitkin and met the rest of the party. When we got back to the cabin the kids spent some time getting acclimated. Tyler and Eric had a Jenga rematch -- when we brought the staircase up in November Eric and been crowned the Dam Lake Jenga Champion. I think Tyler wanted revenge and got it. When I asked him if he was the new Jenga Champion now, Tyler replied in typical sixteen-year-old verbosity, "We're tied." I guess that means there are more games to be played in the future.


While they were engaged in that immortal struggle Peter and Andrea made a gingerbread house.

Then everyone descended the spiral into party land and we didn't see much of them again.

Dar and I decided to go skiing in the woods. Our gear is so old the leather and rubber on our boots is disintegrating. I don't think we've been cross-country skiing since before we were married, so that puts the origins of our gear back into the dark ages of the seventies!

I don't think I got ten feet into the woods when a huge tree grabbed me and threw me to the ground. I swear it attacked me without provocation -- or else I have absolutely no balance anymore. Anyway, I do know it's a lot harder to get up now than it used to be!

We really enjoyed hiking through the woods, but we didn't last very long. It was really cold out there and our fingers got cold, so we headed back. I think we'll definitely make that one of our winter cabin activities. Now we have to start looking for some new/used boots with three pin bindings. I wonder if there are any of those antiques still around?

New Year's Eve was pretty quiet. We watched movies on Dar's computer in front of the fireplace. The kids had their party downstairs. Every once in a while we'd make some excuse to go down to check on them. It looked like they were behaving. Early in the evening, after the sun had set, they took all of the old cardboard and newspapers we've been collecting and built a big bonfire out in the firepit. It was short-lived, but it was a nice fire while it lasted. They tried to keep it going with some scrap lumber from Dan's construction, but it was too cold, and I don't think they had enough incentive.

At one point in the evening Peter said to Andrea, "You know, we can't watch the ball drop this year." Andrea's face fell about a foot. "What do you mean?" "There's no TV up here." She looked dazed and confused. I don't think it had ever occurred to her that there were places on the planet that had no TV or cell phone coverage. Ah, you have to love those crazy digital natives!

At midnight we descended the stairs to wish everyone a Happy New Year. Since everyone's watch was different they had already started to celebrate. The bottles of non-alcoholic Catawba juice were opened and the revelry had begun! It was interesting. They were all in a circle so engaged in their sphere of influence that I don't think they even knew we were there. I kissed Dar and we went back upstairs. They did turn the music down a little by the time we went to bed, so we didn't hear them dancing until four.



We finally got everyone awake on New Year's Day by about one o'clock. It took a while to clean up party central and the fire pit, but we eventually got on the road and home before dark. All-in-all I'd say it was a pretty successful event. Peter did forget his skates up there and has to figure out how to get them home before his next hockey game, and, last night as I was going to bed, Tyler said, "Thanks for letting my friends come up to the cabin."


2008 was a pretty good year with lots of changes and surprises. We're looking forward to 2009 and more adventures at the Dam Cabin!