Winter Solstice Weekend

Ideally I would have published this post before Christmas, or at least before the end of 2025. I was not able to get it together, as the last two weeks of the year were super busy with activities related to the holidays, entertaining and visiting family, and getting ready for our winter in Arizona.

In the summer of 2020 we had a tornado come by our side of the lake, where we live in West Central Minnesota. It was pretty traumatic. I wrote a blog post about it that you can read here. A lot of trees came down at our family cabin, all along the east side of the lake, and in our yard. After all the cleanup there was a massive pile of logs and brush at the cabin property. That December our son and daughter-in-law were here for a weekend visit, which happened to coincide with the Winter Solstice. We were inspired to have a celebration that included burning the giant brush pile. It was the biggest bon fire of our lives.

Skipping ahead to this year, we invited a group of close family to our house for the Winter Solstice weekend of 2025, to spend “hygge” time together and celebrate the shortest day of the year Scandinavian style. Hygge is a Norwegian and Danish word that describes “a cozy, contented mood evoked by comfort and conviviality” (according to Wikipedia).

Usually we do not have any company over the holidays, so we do not get out many Christmas decorations. We have a skinny tree that belonged to my parents. I have changed out many of the decorations to include some of my own favorites, including hand knit Christmas balls. At the end of the season this tree gets carried, as is, down to the furnace room in the basement, where it sits until the following season when we carry it back upstairs.

Our son James and daughter-in-law Kelsey arrived with their two young children, Blair and Nora, on Friday evening. After enduring a lot of crying and unplanned stops, they arrived for a late easy dinner of frozen pizza.

The next morning we opened a few Christmas gifts early. It did not make sense to bring gifts that Wayne and I had for each other down to the Twin Cities for the actual holiday. And we decided to have Blair and Nora open their gifts at our house, rather than on Christmas Day when there would be many more from other people at their house. Wayne got a pair of socks that I cranked on my circular sock machine, using the Schachenmayr Arne and Carlos self striping yarn he picked out for himself last Christmas, and some of his favorite white chocolate. I ordered some expensive yarn online for a sweater that I gave him to wrap without looking at it.

The rest of the guests arrived early in the afternoon on Saturday, including our daughter Britta, my sister and her husband Betsy and Ron, our niece and her husband Em and Cooper, and our nephew Dan. There were also three dog visitors. After everyone was settled in, the first group activity of the weekend was frosting Christmas cookies I had baked earlier.

Blair gave the frosted cookies an A+.

The cookies were very festive, but I am not sure how I feel about eating the bright colored dyes. FYI, food dye can also be used to dye yarn.

The rest of the photos are grouped by subject, and are not necessarily in chronological order. Nora got passed around a lot, which was a nice break for James and Kelsey. Nora admired Em’s tattoo of the family cabin on her arm.

Wayne relaxed in his new fishing theme lounge pants.

We had spent quite a bit of time getting the house ready for guests, but of course it was chaos as soon as everyone was in the house, and the grand children started playing with old and new toys.

In addition to a lot of lounging, a puzzle was completed and many card games were played over the weekend.

Despite cold temperatures, a group of people went for a walk. It was a little slippery but otherwise the fresh air felt good.

The adult kids had agreed to be in charge of the dinners Saturday and Sunday evening. That was a huge treat for me. I was happy to buy all the food and ingredients ahead of time. James made homemade Swedish meatballs and sauce from scratch for one meal, with mashed potatoes and green beans. Dan and Cooper served as sous chefs, and the other young people helped get the table set. It would have been a lot easier to buy the Swedish meatballs at Ikea, but everyone raved about James’s version.

For the second dinner, Em made Bolognese, with help from the other young folks. I had never had that version of pasta and sauce before, but can report it was very delicious. I did not get a photo. Later we were watching an episode of Landman with Billy Bob Thornton. His ex wife is back and has made Bolognese for dinner. There are several guests at the table who keep calling it spaghetti, which contributes to her being upset. I got a kick out of that since I knew it was a lot of work to make, and we had just recently had the same meal.

We celebrated Ron’s birthday. He did not turn seven years old. Add a zero to that.

James took Blair outside and down the backyard towards the lake, after Kelsey got her bundled up in her snowsuit. In the photo below she is holding a cooler pack that she sometimes requests for an “owie”, whether she actually has one or not.

You can just barely see a couple of ice fishing shacks on the lake in front of our house.

On Sunday afternoon Wayne got set up for the Solstice celebration in the driveway. He brought a table outside for cookies and drinks, got a fire going in the metal fire pit, and lit ice lanterns. The extreme cold temperatures we had the previous week were not good for being outside, but were excellent for ice lantern production.

Everyone got bundled up for time outside. Nora got to ride around on a plastic sled. The hill on the lake side of our house has been used for sliding in past years, but there were no takers this weekend. Blair will have nothing to do with sliding, and was even very unhappy seeing James on a sled.

The bonfire did not compare to the enormous version 2020, but at least one could stand close to it!

Betsy, Britta and I all wore hand knit headwear. I made the red bandana/cowl for Betsy, Britta knitted her own hood (the photo does not show it very well), and I knitted my headband.

James had to work on Monday. They left after dinner on Sunday, hoping the return trip would involve less crying and more sleeping. Everyone else left on Monday. That gave us a couple of days to clean up, prepare for the short trip to the Twin Cities for Christmas, and start to get ready for towing the RV to Arizona for our three month stay there. We hope to do another Solstice weekend in 2026 with Wayne’s family.

Disclaimer: Some of the photos were taken by Wayne.