One of the perks of having family scattered across the country is that sometimes you get to pick a random place in the middle to meet for holidays. This year, our “central” Thanksgiving location happened to be Breckenridge, Colorado. It has been really fun to watch Alex’s family get into skiing more and more each year, so our Thanksgiving trip to the mountains seemed rather fitting for us all.
Since Colorado is reasonably close to Seattle, Alex and I opted to drive there so that we could bring Jackson with us. The drive was long but beautiful and we arrived to the house we rented late Tuesday afternoon. The house was awesome – a perfect open floor plan, more than enough bedrooms and bathrooms for the six of us, a big kitchen, and most importantly, a hot tub. We quickly settled in and acquainted ourselves with the surroundings that evening.
The rest of the clan wasn’t scheduled to arrive until Wednesday afternoon, which gave us ample time to cruise around the neighborhood with Jackson, brave the crowds at the grocery store and get some food prepared for everyone to have when they arrived.
Once we were all together the clock started ticking and time raced by. We enjoyed cooking our Thanksgiving meal together on Thursday. Once we popped the turkey in the oven we took a quick trip to downtown Breckenridge to walk through the village.
Our dinner menu included a turkey, of course, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, rolls, pumpkin pie and special wine that we acquired with Alex’s parents last summer in Yakima, Washington. Although the timing of the meal was a bit off since the turkey was cooking at lightning speed, everything turned out great.
Friday morning we were up and at ’em bright and early so that Donna, Stan, Alina and Alberto could make it to their ski lesson by 8:00. They were taking a lesson from the instructor, Rick Parks, who taught Alex how to ski back in 2007. I will forever be thankful for Rick for providing the foundation for Alex to learn how to ski, as well as for Alex’s parents for affording the opportunity for Alex. While everyone else was at their lesson, Alex and I headed for the slopes to have our first day on skis, too. The groomers were great and just what we needed to get our ski legs back under us!
Once the lifts closed we met Rick and the rest of the family at Breckenridge Brewery for an apres ski drink and some great conversation before heading back to the house to eat leftover Thanksgiving.
Our last full day in Colorado was a busy one! We had a long day of skiing followed by some hot tub action and concluded with a very nice dinner out at Briar Rose in Breckenridge. The skiing was great – we got a chance to ski with Donna and Stan and watch their vast improvements continue to unfold throughout the day. It is so fun to watch people improve at something. I sure have enjoyed watching Alex continue to excel at skiing since he was a beginner and now is an extreme skier, 6 years later. Unfortunately, Alberto was having some foot troubles with his boots, so we didn’t get a chance to ski with him or Alina on Saturday.
It was hard to believe how quickly the trip went by. It always goes fast, but this trip in particular really seemed to fly by. Maybe next time we’re in the mountains we can stay awake a little later and spend more time together.
