I grew up in California where it snows in the lowlands about once every 10 years and then it leaves at best a dusting of snow on the ground. I was always fascinated by the Christmas cards we would get every year. Pictures of homes covered with snow or maybe a horse drawn sleigh with people bundled up in traditional wear going through a forest covered with snow. I was especially fascinated by the cards that glistened with sparkles all over the snow. But to my knowledge they were as much of a fairy tale as Cinderella. I remember my parents taking us to the snow once. It was probably in response to constant begging to go on a snow outing. (Both of my parents grew up in Utah, loved the California sunshine and had no desire to go to the snow.) We had no snow clothes so mom saved plastic bread bags and took them with us. These would go over our tennis shoes to be boots and over our sock covered hands to be the waterproof portion of our gloves. They were suppose to stay secure with rubber bands. She made some hot chocolate in a thermos and also some hot chili for our lunch and we drove into the mountains. It was not snowing at the time. The roads were clear and the patches of snow we played in was muddy, icy, and not at all like the Christmas card. Cold, and wet, we were ready to leave in a very short time.
The Christmas card snow remained a fairy tale until my freshman year at BYU. I remember the first time I saw snow fall. I remember being fascinated at how it could stick to the tiniest branch or the wire of the fence and much to my surprise and delight it did in fact sparkle. I remember going to class and running so that I could slide on the sidewalk. It was delightful, and I actually had gloves and boots instead of plastic bread bags. Sure I had to listen to other students sarcastically muttering, "You can always tell a kid from California." But I didn't care because it was real snow. I learned to ski a couple of years later.
Our family has spent many delightful winters swooshing down the slopes listening to the sound of the snow under our skis and/or snowboards. We have played, fought snowball fights, ridden snowmobiles, and made snow sculptures. We still have hot chocolate, but now I enjoy it with my grandchildren. We have had two recent adventures. In December we had Afton, Greg, Ethan, Aidan, Oliver, Christian, Liz, Natalie and Ashley at the cabin. In February we had Coleman, Tanisha, Jason, Nick, Trevor, Ryan, and Erik at the cabin. Since the Winter Olympics had just begun during our second trip, we held the Gardner winter Olympics in the beautiful San Juan Mountains of Colorado.
Whenever Erik fell he would yell, "I'm O.K. I'm O.K."
This is the little known Olympic "bumper sled" event.
Aidan and the icicles.
Ethan with Oliver in his "Ralphy" (The Christmas Story) suit.
I could never do this blog without the constant help of Afton.
