Vermont must be beautiful this time of year.

In addition to seeing an incredible high school musical production (which I always thought was an oxymoron), I spent some time exploring Vermont with my siblings.  Jen and Ben live in a very old home with a barn out back that is used for storing firewood and hating on.

Allyn chopped some wood out by the barn.  That's a lie.  She could barely lift the axe.  A few of the kids gave it a try, too, but it turns out we're all city folk.

 

 

All that firewood came in handy when Henry ordered me to build a fire.  Ben kept the fire going in the living room so we could all sit close to the fire and huddle around our tablets.

Just like in the days of yore.

 

Eventually that got boring, so it was time for the feats of strength.

Aron and Chance.  I can't remember who did more push ups.  Probably Chance.

 

Nicole, Lilja and I went for a walk to find the candle store. 

We walked inside and it smelled like Christmas, so we stayed.

 

Lilja in Honeylights.

We spent a lot of time driving over the rolling hills of Vermont.  It's a good thing Nicole had a large supply of peppermint gum on hand.  I'm so weak.  I couldn't believe how chill Henry was on all of our car rides.

He never said a word.  He did sing a lot, though.  That was nice.

Saturday afternoon, Ben took Nicole and me to beautiful downtown Burlington.  Things were already looking Christmas-y.  And it was flippin' freezing, so it really felt like the holidays.

We ran into a street performer juggling fire.  Oh, how I envied him!  I'll bet he wasn't cold.

Then he decided to juggle fire on a tower of chairs. 

That's when I decided he was crazy and I need not envy him.

I'm so grateful I could experience the Vermont way of doing things with my wonderful sisters and their families.

Nicole, Allyn, Jen and Melissa.  Photo by Nicole.

I'm also grateful that my husband took off work so I could keep my sanity.  When I got home, Jeff had washed and folded all the laundry, cleaned all the dishes, and made the kids clean their rooms from top to bottom.  I felt like Aunt Bea in that episode of The Andy Griffith Show where she leaves town and Andy and Opie try to convince her everything ran smoothly without her and instead of making her feel reassured, she feels like they don't need her.  (You know the one.)  Jeff assured me that I was missed and they do, indeed, need me.  I think I may need to take another vacation soon, just to be sure.