Double the Christmas

Cory and I had a fantastic first Christmas together ... and to make it even better we got double the Christmas ... a full 48 hours.

Let me explain ... I was supposed to work at ski school on Christmas Day, so we bumped up all our holiday celebrations up by 24 hours ...

We celebrated Christmas eve on Dec. 23 by making a fantastic Indian pastry filled with potatoes, veggies and delicious spices (see photo #1 below).

On our first Christmas Day (Dec. 24) we opened up gifts, made eggs benedict, climbed Oliver Peak for a backcountry ski, and returned home to perfectly marinated, perfectly grilled elk steaks.

On real Christmas morning, I woke up early, drove to ski school, learned the big east coast snow storms with all their aviation hang-ups meant substantially less kids than anticipated and got sent home. It was a gorgeous bluebird day, and Cory and I headed to Teton Canyon to skate ski. We had such a good time that after finishing Teton Canyon's eight miles of groomed trails, we headed to the Alta Loop for an additional half hour of skate skiing. Some folks refer to this twofer as the "Altathon," named because both tracks are in the town of Alta. I'm now totally hooked on skate skiing ... all it took was finally experiencing the sport in the right conditions (see a few posts below).

Cory and I spent our second Christmas dinner with his friends ... enjoying a Thanksgiving type spread ... my third of the holiday season, since my friend hosted a Thanksgiving dinner on Halloween as well.

Cory got me a backcountry ski pack with an Avalung for Christmas ... one I've had my eye on for quite a while ... what a guy!