Christmas 2012

Christmas Eve brought snow!  It reminded me of that old children's cartoon, "Frosty, the Snowman"... because in that story, Frosty was made from magical "Christmas snow", which allowed him to come to life.

There is something rather "magical" about Christmas snow.  It really makes it feel more Christmasy, if that makes any sense.

We spent Christmas Eve doing some last minute shopping, and stopping at the local sport store to rent our skis and snowboards for our annual Christmas Day ski trip.  It snowed all day.

We had a quiet, traditional Christmas Eve dinner with the kids.  Christmas morning was also pretty calm, since the kids are now at that age where we have to wake them up to open presents.  With breakfast and presents out of the way, we gathered in front of my computer to have a Christmas morning Skype call with Matt, who is living back in San Diego again.  It was really fun to get to talk to him.  After our visit with Matt, we bundled up and headed up to Brighton Ski Resort.

Helena and I at the beginning of our ski afternoon.

It was cold, cold, cold... but sunny!

Helena and Will next to the Explorer lift.

I spent most of the day on the Explorer lift/run.  Essentially, the bunny hill.  However, Brighton's bunny hill leaves the one at Sundance in shame!  Sundance's bunny hill is a tiny straight slope with a rope tow, while Brighton's has a lift and is actually a shortish green dot slope.  It took next to no time to ski down it, and as the afternoon wore on, the lift line for it got longer, and longer!  After a while, skiing it became a matter of maneuvering around all the learners sitting down on the slope, and the whole run became shadowy and cold as the sun sank.  My feet hurt like none other, because, although the boots felt like they fit when I rented them the night before, they were, in fact, too small and pinched my feet.  I mostly just tried to ignore it.

Will's heart didn't seem to be into skiing that day, and he disappeared to do his own thing after only a little while.  Meanwhile, Bill and Helena found a snowboarder dude Helena's same age who agreed to join her and give her tips and pointers on how to snowboard.  He didn't seem too put out about it, either.  I kept taking the Explorer lift and chatting with everyone I rode up with.  I never once met another local.  Everyone I met was from somewhere out of state.  I met a couple from Mexico, a group from Arizona, someone from Wisconsin, and someone from Oklahoma.  Helena's snowboard buddy was from Wyoming.

Later in the afternoon, Bill began trying to convince me to change over to the Majestic lift, which was in full sun.  I kept telling him I was happy where I was, but he eventually convinced me that there were easy slopes on the Majestic, and lots less people.

There were less people.  It was sunnier.

Bill and I at the top of the Majestic lift.

The thing about the Majestic is that it takes you to several different slope options.  Some green dot (easy), some blue square (moderate).  The ride up on the lift was FREEZING!  The wind at the top was whipping ice crystals into our faces as we got off the lift.  Bill started down the slope directly to the right of the lift and I tried to follow...

IT WAS TERRIFYING!  It was so much steeper than what I had just left!  I was so upset that I am afraid I was not very nice to Bill.  I steered myself to a lift support post and crashed into it in order to stop myself from careening down the mountain.  I think it is obvious by now that I am not alpine skiing material.  Maybe I'm more of a cross country ski type.  I took off the skis and walked down that first run.  It seemed like the slope got more gentle after that, so I put the skis back on and snow plowed down the rest of the mountain.  It seemed to take FOREVER because the Majestic takes you much further up the mountain.  My legs were shaky and very sore by the time I made it back to the lodge.

And, oh!, my feet HURT!  I hobbled inside and worked on getting those boots off my feet.  You know that feeling when you hit your funny bone?  My feet were screaming with that tingling sensation when I finally managed to get the boots off.

We joined the kids in the cafe for just a little bit before loading up the car and heading for home.

We found out later that the first slope directly to the right of the lift is a blue square (moderate), not a green dot (easy).  We should have gone farther to the right for the green dot run.  Harumph.  So now I feel like I have to go back and conquer that slope, this time actually sticking to the green dot course so I don't flip out.  I'll let you know if I ever manage it.

Don't let the casual pose fool you, it was frajeezing!  My hands hurt just to have them out of the gloves during the picture!

Headed back home, all tired out!