Family Christmas

On this cold, snowy day, the Smith family are headed off to an old family cabin. The daughter, Kim, and the son, Daniel, were not happy about it. The cabin is located out in the middle of nowhere and has no internet or cable television. After a year of constant arguing between the kids, Jamie, the mom, and Bill, the dad, decided the cabin would be a great idea.

"I don't get why I had to come? Amy's family said I could spend the holidays with them," Kim says while texting on her phone.

"I have already told you that we will always spend the holidays together," Jamie says as Bill turns off the main road and onto a rough dirt road.

"We could've done that at home," Daniel says, playing away on his handheld game system.

"We all need to unplug for a while and spend some time together as a family," Bill says.

"What the heck? I just lost the signal. I was talking to Amy," Kim says, looking out the window for the first time and noticing where they were.

"Amy will just have to wait until we leave on New Year's Eve," Bill says, parking in front of a spacious cabin.

As the kids get out of the car, Bill quickly takes Kim's phone and Daniel's game system.

"Hey," both kids say at the same time.

"As I said, we are unplugging until we leave," Bill says, locking the devices into the car. The kids grumble as they follow their parents into the cabin.

"There isn't even a television," Kim says in disgust.

"What are we supposed to do all day?" Daniel asks, looking through the cabinets sitting by the fireplace.

"We play board games and talk to each other. We can also make cookies like we used to," Jamie says, unpacking the bags of groceries they brought with them.

"This is going to be hell," Daniel says, flopping down onto the couch in front of the fireplace.

"I'm picking out my room," Kim says, grabbing her bags and taking off up the stairs of the cabin to where the rooms are located.

That evening, both kids used the excuse of unpacking and tired from the long ride to hide away in their rooms.

The next morning, Jamie and Bill are determined to spend time as a family, so they bring up playing some games after breakfast. This led to a big argument as the kids wanted nothing to do with their parents, still mad they were forced to go to the cabin.

Bill ends up banning them from going to their rooms before deciding to go for a walk to calm down. As he is walking, he goes by the pond located near the cabin and sees it is completely frozen over.

"I wonder if we still have those in the closet," Bill says to himself as he heads back to the cabin. He gets there to find Jamie trying to talk the kids into a board game but getting ignored. He motions for Jamie to follow him and heads to a closet located at the back of the cabin.

"I've tried and tried, but they won't talk to me or play anything," Jamie says as they near the closet.

"Well, I have an idea that might just appeal to them," Bill says, opening the closet and digging through the boxes in the bottom of the closet. Bill finds the box he wants and pulls it out. He then opens it up to show Jamie what is inside.

"That just might work," Jamie says, smiling at Bill. They quickly grab the items out of the box before walking back to where the kids are still sitting.

"How about we take a walk down to the pond?" Bill says, getting the kids' attention.

"Are those skates?" Kim asks, getting up and taking a pair from Jamie.

"I saw the lake while I was walking, and it was completely frozen over. How about we spend the day skating?" Bill says, getting a smile from both the kids. They all quickly bundle up and head to the pond.

The whole day was spent on the pond, and many of the days after were also spent on the pond. By the time they went home on New Year's Eve, the family was laughing and talking, a lot closer than they were before.