Not a cruise ship but a pt cruise-er on holiday

Holidays do not need to be extravagant or cost a ton of money for them to be memorable. Many people (such as my husband and I)can’t afford to go all out on the holidays. Two Christmases ago, during the great Minnesota blizzard, we took our last 40 dollars and loaded up my tiny PT Cruiser to head up to his family’s Christmas celebration at the lake. We left on Christmas Eve, directly after having dinner with my parents and started what normally would be a two hour drive. Through the blankets of snow, we could barely see 30 feet in front of us. We drove at a snail’s pace to Ceder Lake.

The drive took us roughly five hours to complete, and once we got to the cabin, realized we had beat the entire family to the lake.(Who where all waiting for the snow to stop before they would leave their homes. Our tiny car was stuck going up the steep incline of the driveway and we had to push it up the hill. Once inside we were hungry, cold and wet. My husband (then fiancé) built a small fire in the fire place and I went searching for some sort of meal to make out of the leftovers in the fridge. I found some frozen beef, egg noodles, cream of mushroom soup and some different cheeses.

I whipped together a cheesy beef stroganoff type dish and we sat around the fire place having our late night dinner, and drying out from our adventures in the snow.

As the night went on, our boredom kicked in. We decided to decorate the cabin, for the others to see in the morning. I found some markers and crayons that one of my husband’s nephews had left behind and started to cut out snowflakes and made paper chains to string about the cabin. My husband found a few strings of Christmas lights in back of the basement and strung them up on a fern plant. By the time midnight hit, we where knee deep in kindergarten level Christmas crafts. We got to enjoy each other’s company and had an amazing time. We sat and sang and laughed the entire night through. His family arrived to a big surprise the next morning and where delighted to see our creations. We now have beef stroganoff every Christmas Eve and make paper snowflakes for our windows. It cost us very little money(mainly the tank of gas to get up there) and it created a family tradition that I foresee us doing for years to come.