My Cabin: Christmas at the Cabin

Story & photos by Alyce D’Amato Licari After my mother lost her battle with breast cancer in 2010, our family was determined to have a memorable Christmas together in 2011. As luck would have it, my husband and I had recently fulfilled a lifelong dream by purchasing a cabin on a lake in northern Wisconsin. Although our family had spent summer weeks at a friend's place in the same region, spending Christmas at our own getaway would be a new experience. My husband and I wanted to create the perfect, wintry wonderland at our cabin, so we decorated the place both inside and out. My sister and her partner, who flew in from San Rafael, Calif., arrived on December 22 to ice luminaries lining the driveway, a picture-perfect holiday porch and a warm, cozy cabin with Christmas music playing and hot toddies waiting for them by the fire. It was an almost perfect start to our Christmas together. We were only missing the snow and, of course, Mom. That first night, we stayed up until 3 a.m., laughing, drinking, raiding the wine cellar, playing games (a required cabin activity) and enjoying each other’s company. Even Dad stayed up until 1 a.m. Although flurries were in the forecast, we snuggled into our warm little beds without a snowflake in sight. The next day we began making preparations for our Christmas Eve dinner. While my sister and I were making Christmas cookies from Mom's handwritten recipes, a light snow began to fall. Our perfect cabin Christmas was as complete as it was going to get. We had each other and although Mom was not with us physically, her spirit was surrounding us. We even suspected that she might have had something to do with the snowfall. After all, Mom had a way of moving mountains to make her girls happy. On the following day, Christmas Eve, we all created a holiday meal of traditional dishes and family favorites. After dinner, I passed around a basket containing ornaments handmade by Mom. Each one of us placed one on the tree. Since Dad never misses a Green Bay Packers game, my sister and I had agreed that visiting legendary Lambeau Field on Christmas Day would be an ideal way to create a completely new and different Christmas memory. So, when we exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve, everyone received a Packers scarf for game day. We went to bed while visions of Packers players danced in our heads. Dad even wore his Packers robe to breakfast. We left early to make the 1-hour drive to Green Bay, and then spent 5 hours before kickoff taking in the history and energy of Lambeau Field. The game was exciting, the win was satisfying and the experience was, as they say, priceless. By the time we returned to the cabin, it was after midnight. We were tired but not ready for our family Christmas to end. We stayed up late enjoying each other’s company. At breakfast the next morning, we recapped our holiday activities and congratulated ourselves on successfully creating a Christmas worth remembering. The game brought much-needed excitement into our holiday, and our time at the cabin brought us peace, comfort and the most important gift of all & time together with family.