I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas...

So we finally made it up the mountain on Tuesday night! We were greeted by three feet of snow in the driveway which fortunately we were expecting. Scouter parked in the street and forged a path through the wild, with the kids and I following in his footsteps. For the first time ever. HA! Then Taz, Scouter and I shoveled dug a path to the front door. We also dug a little alcove for the car at the very front of the driveway. The most challenging part was the five foot ice burm at the top of the driveway, where scrapers had pushed snow and ice from the road off to the side.

I'm pretending it was exercise.

The next day, we hit the slopes for the first time all season. Conditions were perfect! Mid-30s, not too crowded, and fresh powder. We headed over to the intermediate slopes and did a slow warm up run. Well, Rainbow and I did a slow warm up run. Scouter and Taz blasted down the mountain like bats out of hell, just like they did all season last year.

At the end of the day, Scouter parked the kids and took me over to the expert slopes as I had never been. The top of the slope was challenging. I was already nervous, and then when I saw Scouter fall in front of me, I wiped out too. But I settled down, took my time, and did okay on the rest of the run.

We had a great day on the mountain and returned to do it again the following day. Christmas Eve was even lighter and we mostly skied right onto the lifts.

Late morning, Taz and Scouter headed over to the expert slopes for awhile while Rainbow and I mainly hung out. We did a few runs but she wasn't that into it. Her highlight was seeing Santa on the slopes, especially when he gave her handfuls of candy. He was actually a pretty good skier. Who knew?

Later, Scouter traded with me and I hit the expert slopes with Taz. The slope that had scared me the day before seemed cool this time around. Taz even talked me into trying a double black diamond - and we had a blast.

That night, we made cookies for Santa and tracked his progress online. For possibly the first time evah, the kids begged to go to bed. They finally settled down around 10:00.

Unlike last year when Taz was up and wild before the sun was anywhere near the horizon, this year Scouter and I were awake and waiting for them. They finally got up around 7:40 a.m., ran downstairs, and attacked their presents. Rainbow said she'd heard Santa walking around downstairs during the night as well as Rudolph crunching on a carrot.

I've gotta say, that jolly old elf didn't pay a whole lot of attention to good or bad behavior again this year because Taz got a LOT of undeserved gifts.

Their favorite and mine is the new gen 5 iPod Nano. That thing is sweet. I can't wait for them to upgrade in another year so I can inherit one. They also got a Wii Fit which I'm pretty interested in trying.

Scouter surprised me with a Kindle which I had never even considered. It looks cool. I gave him a digital weather station because if Scouter could take a re-do on career choices, he would totally be a weather man.

We went up to Scouter's parents' house in Northern Va that afternoon and celebrated with the whole crazy crew. It was a ton of fun especially since I had a bottle of wine all to myself.

I asked my dad if there had ever been a white Christmas in my lifetime and he said the last one he remembers was either the year before I was born or when I was an infant. Pretty amazing.

All in all, another great Christmas in the books.
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