Christmas for the Hearty Northerners

On Sunday after church, I changed all of the kids into warm clothes and drove over to Holz Farm for their Old Fashioned Christmas Celebration. Have I mentioned how much I love this little gem of a place not 5 minutes from my front door? All of the days events were FREE - my favorite thing of all! It snowed the entire time we were there - at one point turning into a hard hail-like snow, making the grounds just beautiful.

The first thing we saw as we walked up to the farm was a reindeer! The kids were so impressed to see a live reindeer who seemed completely indifferent to the cold and snow.


Inside the barn - Santa! Both Sophie and Max took turns sitting with Santa in the old fashioned sleigh, but Calvin was far too scared and hid behind and hid behind a pillar peeking out at Santa when he was not looking.



I'd like to point out that Calvin dresses himself these days. He insisted on the uber-cool sunglasses. Snow-glare, you know.


We took a sleigh ride - without the sleigh. It was actually pulled by an old tractor. We sat on bales of hay and rang our bells while enjoying the view of the farm.


After the winter hay ride (only in Minnesota), we made smores at the bonfire. Yes, smores in 10 degree weather. The marshmallows tended to freeze as soon as you pulled them off the stick but the kids did not seem to care!


Here is the nice gentleman who tried to help Calvin warm his hands over the fire. By this point he was freezing, but he wanted to eat his smore and the gloves were making that tricky!


Inside the farmhouse, the kids warmed up with hot apple cider and sugar cookies. We sat and listened to Christmas carols being played on an old fashioned organ while Max and Sophie read Christmas stories and Calvin made an ornament out of pine cones and bells.


Fun, fun, free, fun!