We finished our holidays with snow and ice

The cherubs had a long break from school, are just returning to classes today...so we decided to use the last few days of their freedom for a final blast of fun before returning to the grind. We headed to our condo in New Hampshire for some of our favorite activities. There was swimming in the rec center, movies in town, and lots of hot chocolate and winter sports. Best of all, no major drama or problems with any of our kids. Our boy did well in spite of the lack of structure that often triggers his PTSD and bipolar disorder...he spent hours in the pool which is a great stress reducer for him. Our youngest enjoyed the pool and some sledding but he was most excited about the new WiFi access that has been installed in our condo building that lets him play his favorite on-line games without leaving the condo. (Woohoo! Access to the worldwide web without a walk to the rec center! To be honest, I haven't totally decided if this is an improvement or not...I've always liked the reduced screen exposure when we're on vacation...but my youngest was ecstatic.) Anyway, the weekend was a nice opportunity for everyone to do what they enjoyed most. As for me, I had fun trying out the camera in my new Samsung Galaxy SIII phone. Here are some pics I snapped to record our outdoor antics!

There was ice skating...

and ice kung fu...

followed by ice dancing.

The weather was perfect for skating...

and snow angels...

and a snowshoe hike for Mom and Dad.

My monkey made faces...

and wrote me a message in the snow.

We went night snow tubing at the local ski resort...

and warmed up at the fire pit afterwards.

One of the kids and I took a walk and stopped to write our names...

then we played snow scrabble! 

What a perfect end to our Christmas break! Sunny days in our favorite winter playground, fluffy snow that we didn't have to shovel, lots of time to simply enjoy it instead. We're back home now and settling into our regular routine once more...but the memories of the fun we had with our kids will keep me energized for a while to come.