Winter Getaway Packing

The nice thing about packing in a pandemic is that you know you aren't going to see anyone or go anywhere that requires dressing up! The forecast called for cold temperatures so we made sure we had lots of warm layers and comfortable clothes since we knew we'd be doing a lot of outdoor adventuring. We had laundry in the house and it was helpful for washing clothes mid-week for clothes, but was even handier for throwing wet snow gear into the dryer almost every night.

I typically give the kids a packing list about a week before we leave on a trip. I write it on a post-it note and stick it to the wall in the hallway outside of their bedrooms. They usually take a first stab at packing, and then I edit a day or two before we leave. They each pack their own suitcase, and we used a reusable grocery bag for each person's winter gear, which was super helpful for keeping it sorted both while we were packing and while we were away.

And of course, the sourdough starter, two fresh loaves of bread, and my birthday flowers made the trip - precious cargo in the front seat!

Here's what we brought:

Boys:

• 2 PJs
• 5 underwear, 3 wool socks, 2 regular socks
• 3 long underwear sets
• 5 pants
• 5 shirts
• 3 sweatshirts
• Sneakers

Girls:

• Same, with 2 fleece leggings in place of 1 long underwear and 1 pants

Adults:

• Same as kids, with 2 pairs of jeans and a few Zoom-appropriate tops

Winter Gear:

• Hiking boots (Mom and Dad), Uggs (Mom)
• Snow boots (all)
• Snow pants - we wore these almost every day for hikes and snow play
• Gloves/mittens - 2 or 3 pairs each
• Hats - 2 each
• Balaclavas - great for warmth and built-in masks
• Masks
• Hand/toe warmers
• Boot dryer - best purchase of the winter!
• Sunglasses
• Flashlights - fun (and helpful!) on late afternoon hikes
• Hiking backpack - we have a lightweight drawstring backpack that we use
• Water bottles
• Sleds
• We had planned to bring snowshoes, but there wasn't enough snow on the ground so we left them home

In hindsight, our packing list was pretty accurate.

• We never wore our sneakers because we basically lived in boots.
• We wore our snow pants almost every day to keep us warm, even on all of our hikes. I am confident that I wore my snow pants more in this one week than cumulatively over the past 5 years! 
• We Amazon Prime'd two extra pairs of kid mittens to the house because we found we were using multiple pairs a day and couldn't keep up with drying them! 
• We could have cut down the pants/shirts/sweatshirts by one, but were glad to have the variety.
• We lost one mitten and one balaclava somewhere in the house over the course of the week. Ce la vie...