[sigh] i just got out of a nice, steaming hot tub in the middle of a blistering winter here in Breckenridge, CO...ooooo....my muscles are sooo sore. my family arrived here late Saturday night, where I met up with Ben and hung out with his relatives over in Vail. On Sunday, I attempted my 2nd day ever at snowboarding--over in Keystone with Ben...and boy, was it hard. I wiped out so hard and bruised myself everywhere. I hurt myself in places that I never hurt myself while skiing...including banging my head on the ground several times and getting the wind knocked out of my chest. My brother and I stumbled back down to our lil' cabin at Park Place so exhausted. I woke up so sore on Christmas day that I could not fathom the idea of touching the hard, packed snow on the slopes again....so we just sat around, watching TV, reading my Harry Potter, part II book..and eventually walking out onto the streets of Breckenridge. Such a cute little town...my family then ate our Xmas dinner at a restaurant called Whale's Tail.

Then Aaron and I woke up today to brave the slopes once again..this time at Breckenridge. argh. i am sooo slow at learning. every time i fell down, it hurt ten time as much as it did on Sunday because I fell down on the same bruises. I've given up hope of being a snowboarder. no, that's not really true. but DAMN, it's freakin' hard. It took me forever to go down this one green slope..while my brother was catching on and went up and down 6 times. All I know is that I'm not going to snowboard anymore out here--I'd rather reserve that for when I'm out at Snolquamie. I mean, I'm in Colorado!!! And I'm missing out on some of the great slopes and views because I'm trying to learn to snowboard...when I could just be cruisin' down blues skiing. So while I'm not going to give up on my snowboarding, I'm postponing it for a location where the view isn't that magnificent and awe-inspiring. While I'm here, I'm going back to the skis....

Well, I hope everyone's having a wonderful holiday season! It's really nice to be out here and not worry about work for one week (though I'm feeling strangely good and confident about it at this time).