The young kids are the ones who appear to enjoy the Christmas season the best. So, it is always good to go visit them. It looks like Christmas in the movies in New England this year. As two of my kids live in New England, it is a great place to go for Christmas.

The weather outside can be frightful. I am retired and in no rush to get stuck on the road. I can’t make the drive in one day, so we break up our travel into two days driving. My kids can drive for 15 hours, I cannot. We were hoping to get farther on day one, but had to stop earlier in Pennsylvania due to ice storms. Fortunately, we did not have any issues on the drive up or back. New England had snow when we arrived; it looked like a holiday greeting card. It snowed during our visit and we still had snow on the ground as we left.

We did not get outside too much during our visit as it was cold and snowy. What to do with an active 4-year old in cold wintery weather? Besides playing with all of the new Christmas toys, we also spent an afternoon at Fun City. It was an energy burning place; Grandma and Grandpa were tired out at the end of the hours spent jumping at Fun City.

It is good to see our New England kids at one time. We enjoy getting together and playing.

We also took some time for ourselves to walk together and talk. We enjoyed the Boyden Park again, even with the snow and cold.

The Roger Williams Zoo in Providence has a spectacular light display in December and early January. We enjoyed viewing the lights while walking around the cold, snowy New England zoo. Unlike our last trip, our grandson made it into the zoo and enjoyed the lights. I liked the lights as well as some hot chocolate; it was cold.

On the way home from New England, we stopped and hiked in the Promised Land State Park. It is good for us to get up and stretch our legs. We think they had a half foot of snow on the ground and snow was falling as we hiked. The highway was clear, but the side streets were not as good.

Other Fun:

My daughter put out a New Year’s Day (2026) running challenge. It snowed and was snowing when I ran my 5k. I went to the local track to avoid cars. I am glad I went for a run, so, thank you for the challenge.

We saw the oil truck at more than one house when out walking. This is a true New England picture: stone walls, snow and an oil truck filling up your tank.

We kicked off December going to the theater. The musical was based on the movie Holiday Inn. It was an enjoyable night out with good singing, and we got into the holiday spirit.

I ran the Jingle Bell fun run in Northern Kentucky. It is always an exciting kind of event, with all the buildup prior to the run. What other race do you put bells on your shoes? I got to meet up with several running friends from the Tri-State Running group who were running this event.

Here in Northern Kentucky, we are not known for our cold weather. We did get 10 inches of snow in December (2025). Like most years, the snow comes and then it is quickly gone and we can walk without leaving footprints again.

Antother Trip in December

We took a trip to Santa Claus, Indiana. The Post Office in Santa Claus has a special Santa Claus postmark for the mail; it was fun for us to mail cards from this location.

We also saw the finished mural that had been in progress on our last visit in Santa Claus, Indiana.

Of course the real reason to take the drive was to visit family. We first visited my wife’s  parents and then I was able to drive down to see my mom before she turns 97 in January.

See you on the road. No biking this trip.