Lori

We go out to a tree farm in early December each year and cut down our Yule tree....then, we have dinner at a little restaurant/ice cream shop in a small college town on the way home. After a few days, we put up the tree and the rest of our Yule decorations. Before Christmas, we escape to a very rural cabin in the woods for the week taking our Yule gifts with us to be opened on the winter solstice. The cabin has a tiny kitchen, several bedrooms and a living room with fireplace....there is no television but we bring a stereo for music. We even leave the computer at home <G>! We hike and play games and read and talk and enjoy the fact that we have left the hectic Christmas frenzy of others far behind. On Christmas day, we drive into a nearby village to have dinner at the local Chinese restaurant which is open because, like us, they don't celebrate Christmas.

This tradition began for us when we got together years ago because my dh grew up jewish and I was raised catholic...we didn't want to celebrate both holidays and we didn't want to struggle about which far-away extended family we travelled to visit at a time of year that we didn't want to be travelling during anyway. Now, his family goes to the Carribean for the winter and mine visits us in January and we have a true holiday from stress.

Lori

A. Yates

This sounds so wonderful! I want to go too!! :)
I think I've never heard anything so wonderful as this.
Where are you?
Ann

Lori wrote:

> We go out to a tree farm in early December each year and cut down our
> Yule tree....then, we have dinner at a little restaurant/ice cream
> shop in a small college town on the way home. After a few days, we put
> up the tree and the rest of our Yule decorations. Before Christmas, we
> escape to a very rural cabin in the woods for the week taking our Yule
> gifts with us to be opened on the winter solstice. The cabin has a
> tiny kitchen, several bedrooms and a living room with
> fireplace....there is no television but we bring a stereo for music.
> We even leave the computer at home <G>! We hike and play games and
> read and talk and enjoy the fact that we have left the hectic
> Christmas frenzy of others far behind. On Christmas day, we drive into
> a nearby village to have dinner at the local Chinese restaurant which
> is open because, like us, they don't celebrate Christmas. This
> tradition began for us when we got together years ago because my dh
> grew up jewish and I was raised catholic...we didn't want to celebrate
> both holidays and we didn't want to struggle about which far-away
> extended family we travelled to visit at a time of year that we didn't
> want to be travelling during anyway. Now, his family goes to the
> Carribean for the winter and mine visits us in January and we have a
> true holiday from stress. Lori

Lori

>This sounds so wonderful! I want to go too!! :)
>I think I've never heard anything so wonderful as this.
>Where are you?

Thanks, Ann..it is a terrfic way to spend the holidays, IMO. We are located
in central Ohio but are only an hour or so away from some excellent forested
hilly country.

Lori
>