First Day of Skiing

Bode and Ashley headed up to the mountain estate for the weekend.  Breckenridge opened a few weeks ago, but not all the lifts were open, and there was the Dew Tour going on, making it very crowded.  Bode did ski school for the day, and he said he learned parallel turns vice doing just a wedge.  I'm sure it'll take him some time to master it, but he's really progressing nicely.  Here's Bode's ski-school picture.

Ashley went to the Dew-Tour snow-boarding competition, saw some pretty cool tricks in the pipe, and even saw Shaun White do his first run.  Very cool.  We will likely do some more skiing over the Christmas Break--only three more work/school days this week and then it's party time.

We received an early Christmas present in the mail.  At first glance, I thought it was simply a standard "form-card" from the school.  However, after closer examination, we saw it was actually a personal note from Miss Maiatico, the principal.  The card is shown below.

I must say we are extremely proud of Bode--who knew we had raised such a polite and thoughtful young man :-)  He must be learning such good manners from all the video games, TV, and youtube videos that he watches...

T'is the season of Christmas cards.  I must say I'm a bit disappointed in the effort many people put into their cards.  There are those that pick out a very thoughtful card (i.e. words written by someone else), sign their names, and mail it.  Fairly generic if you ask me, especially if this is our only communication for the year.  Take the five minutes and write something personal--give me some type of update on your life.  To me, this is the bottom-tier of holiday cards.  Usually these come with a typed label on the envelope--these people have turned Christmas cards into a fast mass production, and try to be as expedient as possible.  Quite the holiday spirit.  There are also cards that are pictures, usually collaged together and printed.  I like these, because at least it is some type of personal update about what's going on, albeit minus any type of narrative.  While I like these cards, some people choose to only put pictures of their kids on the cards and exclude themselves from the message.  What's up with that?  And many people just send the collage--no personal note, no handwritten anything.  Again, a card like this seems expedient--the collage of photos did take some time to put together, but once that is done, it's off to the printers, slapping a stamp on the envelope, and you are done.  And yes, I know it is very "non-holiday Spirited" of me to take jabs at people's lack of effort on their cards, especially since we all have friends that we've sent cards to for years while never receiving anything from them.  Yes, I know there is no obligation to send a card if you've received one.  I guess I've just been hoping for updates from friends, only to be somewhat disappointed when I receive their cards.  Maybe I should just have some eggnog and cheer up :-)  Freezing cold here today--Bode had a snow-day because of all the snow.  Hopefully he goes tomorrow.  Pleasant day to all.