Getting Ready for Ski Season!
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! I realize that reference is often meant in relation to Christmas, and for me and Kevin, well, you would only be partially right! We live for many wonderful times of the year, but there really is nothing like hitting the slopes. Many years ago, we used to pick up the kids from school and bring up our trailer after work on Friday afternoons to ski all weekend long to head home Sunday evening. Just about every weekend from the end of December to the start of April, as a family we prioritized our ski season as a way to build tradition together. Not only did we have a profound love for the community and the mountain, but it sure as heck beat standing on the sidelines at the kids soccer games in the rain! As we can vouch for, a family that skis together has fun together!
Things have changed now, and change is good! The kids no longer have school and can drive their own cars from their own homes up to the mountain, meanwhile Kevin and I basically live there from December until April, making the most of the ski season. Kevin gets our trailer winterized and prepared for a relentless season of cold and snow, and we make the campsite and the ski hill our winter home for a healthy chunk of the year. As for the kids? Well they come visit us up here, where we still get to relive those beautiful traditions.
Well it is December. And while we aren’t living at the mountain full time yet, the stages have begun! As a part of getting ready for this fabulous adventure, we need to bring our trailer up to the ski hill in preparation for the season. We always try to do this before Christmas so that way the hiccups are all dealt with beforehand, and when those festivities are all said and done, we have our winter paradise awaiting us! This is always a busy day, usually coupled with a bit of stress and Murphy’s Law always prevails in one way or another. By the time we get the trailer up to the mountain, get it set, warm and habitable, we are tired and hungry and sometimes even a bit grumpy.
So, we left this morning. Everything was packed and we were ready to go on time! What a miracle!
We tried to leave a bit earlier than usual in order to take advantage of the daylight hours. Knowing that this is a bit more stressful than a normal day for Kevin, and that we are trying to do the Dating Advent calendar, I tried to think of something really special for the evening when we finally settle, as the day will be quite busy. I know that once we arrive there will be snow on the ground which puts us in a real Christmas’y mood, Lovely the dog will be bounding around in the snow (I wonder what the cat will do?), the lights will go up, and when its dark by 4 O’clock, the plan is that we will be set!
And as usual, my planning for special events usually centers around food and drink. Good food and good drink! Also, our sense of smell triggers memories, good and bad. For this occasion I was clearly trying to conjure up good memories, so, I packed one of our favorite meals (roasted lamb, a common meal for us for a special occasion) to be ready to go into the oven once we get there. This was a very purposeful food choice because I can accomplish two things with this idea - first, turning on the oven in the trailer once we are set will help warm up the inside more quickly; and second, once that lamb, rosemary and garlic start cooking, the beautiful smells that accompany such a dish will no doubt bring back some memories of other great date nights. That and a delicious bottle of red wine will for sure set us up for being in a relaxing mood, happy that we are together, and on the other end of such a busy and important day. Wish me luck!
Don’t ever think that you cannot repeat ideas from other great date nights. They are never the same, but like “muscle memory”, date night food, music, good wine and conversation will remind us of times gone by where we felt just so wonderful to be together!
