Rusty here.  Christmas Eve skiing went so smoothly this year! The secret is preparing ahead. I had gotten out the ski stuff a few days prior and made sure everything fit. Tara made sure everyone had coats and gloves. We got up and were off to A-basin. It was an easy drive with 0 traffic. Probably helped because it was Christmas Eve. Probably helped because there wasn’t really any new snow so people weren’t in a big hurry to get up to the slopes. We got a front row parking spot. And it was free – another nice little perk. Getting passes was easy and we were on the chair lift in no time. It’s a fast short quad lift. You are at the top in probably 3 minutes. Then you can ski down in like 5 minutes, greens and blues. Perfect for kids, it was a great place. Then we went to the top. The great thing about A basin is that it’s so high in elevation. IT feels like you are already starting on the top of everything and then we you go to the very top it’s something like 13,000 feet. It feels very alpine and out there. The kids were great skiers. We got Halle new (rental) skies this year and that really seemed to help. The run from the top was everyone’s favorite. We skied it like 5 times then it was time for lunch. We could ski to the car. Eat lunch on a picnic table outside, turkey bacon sandwiches and fruit and pecan shortbread bars. The kids were really great and really great to each other. I think they were all excited about Christmas and this made things go well, they really were treating each other kindly.  We skied a bit more while Blake took a nap in the car (another nice thing about having the car so close) and then it was time for Fries up on the top. We got massive waffle fries so big we couldn’t even finish them all. A few more runs and we were done. Ski right to the car. Head home. Halle really wanted to stop for a gatorade so I pulled off and we all got a gatorade. Easy drive home. Everybody again was so kind to each other and excited for Christmas. We ate a simple dinner of Take and Bake pizza and leftovers and then exchanged sibling gifts and watched Muppets Christmas carol. Then we let the kids stay up in Halle’s room and all play Minecraft while we got Christmas ready. It felt good to feel like an equal part of the equation. We set it up and went to bed while the kids were still playing.

Tara and I woke up at 630 Christmas morning. The kids still weren’t due to get up till 7 so we got some Christmas snuggles.  Then the kids were breaking in and ready to go downstairs. We finished setting up and strung some lights around the presents and it was time. They seemed very happy by the time they got downstairs. Blake opened his AIRSOFT gun and was over the moon excited about the combo pistol and rifle set. Josh opened his extra controllers for his switch and new Mario Kart game and was surprised about that. And Halle opened up a new car stereo for the sequoia.

Then we opened presents from grandparents. Lots of great cute things. Dash hated his Llama pajamas, but he looked so darn cute!

And then we ate Christmas breakfast of trader joes croissants and Acai bowls. After that we headed to Denver to serve lunch in the long term shelter for families and others in the program. We donned hair nets and served lunch to probably 100 people at the shelter. Some kids and women which was new from the previous experience. Makes you really feel blessed. Came home and I set to work getting ready for the stocking hunt.  The only problem was that I left a clue on the porch of Ruby and she found it and thought it was for her from Halle! Poor things that is so sad. But the kids had a great time I think. The stocking presents were great. My favorite was a bank that was a marble maze you had to solve to open it. Tara had solved each one prior and placed a $5 bill inside so they had to solve the maze to get their $5 bill. I thought that was so clever. We relaxed (I was actually really sore from skiing) and then we watched the Santa clause movie and then the kids got to stay up again while we went to sleep.