We don’t need a good reason to party at the Creek, any old reason will do. But Solstice Weekend is a huge reason to throw a party and we had a fine one Saturday night.
It started on Friday night. Angy and I went to Awesome Austin’s 6th birthday party early Friday evening. It was a fun night with a whole lot of little people and attentive parents. Nights like that make me appreciate being a grandpa, all the fun without the worry. We had a drink or two, ate some fine chili spaghetti, lit some candles (1/10th of what was on my last birthday cake), sang a popular song, and finished the night with cake and ice cream. It was fun, but time for the oldsters to launch to the Creek. We arrived at the Loveshack around 10pm.
It was a nice night, but a long week, too much cake and ice cream, and an inviting soft, horizontal rack made an early evening for Angy and me. It’s great waking up at 6am, realizing where you are, and rolling over several times till 8 or 8:30. That’s what I call a relaxing evening, something that we both earned. We went to Naptav for breakfast and returned to the Creek on a really nice day around noon.
Nick, Angy, and Snerfy ready to party
Zugs was there when we returned from the Naptav. Sner rolled in and Nick soon after. We tried to cut and gather some wood for the evening, but had failures in two chainsaws. We ended up gathering wood from other stacks, having plenty for a warm evening on the Creek.
It was early afternoon and we decided to start the 2011 Winter Solstice Party. We fired up the stove, cooked the chili, got out the snacks, and made the Creek “party ready”. After setting up, we decided to hike the trail on such a fine day. Angy had something to show us, something she found on an earlier hike. Sner, Nick, Angy, and I all hiked the trail, walking to the benches, and around the loop trail. Angy showed us her find, a Turkey, complete with wings, legs, and bones, with no meat nor head. It was a bony carcus with wings and feet. Something had a Turkey dinner just a week or so after Thanksgiving. We all tried to come up with a predator, deciding on it being coyotes or a fox. We finished the hike in time to build a nice fire and reheat the deer chili before it got dark.
Happy Thanksgiving!
By nightfall, the candles were lit, the fire was popping, the chili was made, the table was loaded with edible goodies, and our neighbors Lynaya and Bruce rolled in. It was a small party, just the seven of us, but a beautiful evening with all of us laughing around the fire, it was a great time. Bruce and Lynaya are always a good time, and when you mix Sner, Nick, and Zugford, lots of laughs are the norm. We ate deer chili, grazed on pimento cheese dip, watched Nick’s pyro-technics, and talked of a midnight hike, but no one could stay up until midnight. It was a great Solstice party on a not so wintry night. I remember some really cold and snowy Winter Solstices, this one was quite tame and pleasant.
St. Nick's bag
The sun was shining by the time I got up, and I still was the first one up. We all slept in, what a nice way to beat the stress of our real lives. We had breakfast on the Creek with lots of sunshine and warming temperatures. It was a chilly night, but by noon it was 40 degrees. Nick left soon after noon, Zugs and Sner left not long after, leaving Angy and I to sit in the sunshine watching and listening to the Creek. She did a sudoku while I listened to the Packers. At halftime, we decided to walk the trail one more time because it was such a
St. Nick in bag
beautiful day. When we returned, I packed our things while listening to the Packers lose their first game of the season. That was the only bad thing that happened on a really nice weekend. We stayed until it started getting dark and left for home.
Usually the Winter Solstice Party is more……Wintery. Cold. Snowy. This year was quite mild, a really nice evening to sit outside by the campfire. It was a small party by past standards, but quality beat quantity, I had a really nice time with some of my really close friends. Might be our best Winter Solstice Party ever.
So what’s next? Christmas!! Obviously we won’t be at the Creek this weekend, we will be enjoying the wonderful warmth of family traditions. From all of us who frequent the Creek, we wish you and your family Merry Christmas. We are blessed with loving families and Christmas is our time to get together and show our love to one another. We hope that you will enjoy the same love and closeness as we do. It is a special time for all of us, not just the Santa believers, but also the believers in love and peace. Christmas is the time when you slow down your busy life and really appreciate your family and those who make your life wonderful. That is where the “giving of presents” thing comes in. We take our friends and family for granted, they are always there as they should be, and because we are so busy, we just move on. But Christmas tells you to stop and appreciate those you love and show a token of your love and affection with a gift. A gift of love. From the heart. We at the Creek offer our gift of love to you, we love you and appreciate what you do for us and for your love and affection. Enjoy the family this weekend, but plan a weekend next year to share with us. We would love to see you.
Merry Christmas.
Two wisemen and a good woman
