Not A Creature Was Stirring...

Other than a rather large male, plopped in his usual chair listening to the whirrrrrrrrr of his case fans...

[bends his ring finger back and forth gingerly, realizes it doesn't hurt, and flexes]

Teehee, looks like it won't be a problem for the snowboard trip. Now for the skiing story...

Got up there at the crack of dawn, after downing my usual Deluxe Big Breakfast that I tend to snag at McDonalds before big events that require waking up early... Hooking into all the gear for the first time was quite complicated, and once you have these six foot extensions of your legs on its quite cumbersome at first... I must say I'm proud that for the entire day I managed to never eat shit off the lift, unlike just about everyone else there... Apparently snowboarders have the most difficulty, I had quite a grand old time watching two of them faceplant about four feet off the lift, finally stand up laughing at themselves, and getting their legs taken out from under them by the next pair diving forward... :) The challenge for the skiers was to dodge the pileups at the top of the lifts that kept occurring... Strangely enough it was about a 10 to 1 snowboard to skier ratio, which suggests that the former is the easier sport, especially given some of the people who were managing to make it down the hill...

Spent the first few hours on the usual beginner hill, getting the whole turning stopping etc deal down, then went on to some lower intermediate hills, which were quite a lot of fun. The main problem I faced throughout the day was the worry that I was going to get run over by the high speed snowboarders that were blasting through the lower hills from the advanced ones at any given moment... Many a time I either caused one of them to swerve out and crashed, or did it myself.. My one major mistake was trying to get on the express lift too fast and knocking over the two people in front of me who were waiting for it... Got me a stern talking to from the guy up top, he apparently didn't realize I was a first timer and thought I was "bullying" them... So yeah anyway the view from up top was pretty amazing, was crystal clear out towards Victorville and Vegas, could see for hundreds of miles. Mountain High is only about a 90 min drive from my house, which means larger crowds, but is more convenient for a random weekend excursion.

At any rate, the top crash of the day was when I was on the hardest skill level slope I ended up trying, got going way too fast, caught an edge, skidded out, flew about four feet through the air at about a two foot height, slammed into the slope, and managed for some reason to keep both my skis on, even though they were pointing at opposite diagonals, which did in my groin pretty well... Its unknown which crash ended up spraining my finger, or whether it happened later in the day or something, just started giving me a lot of pain that night. Strangely enough I didn't end up feeling the usual soreness or pain the next day, I was feeling bouncy as ever. I'm sure snowboarding will do in the knees/ass a bit more than skiing did. I'm hoping it'll be easier, less appendages going in different directions... Not to say I suck royally at skiing, I think I did pretty well for a first day. :) My dad performs very well for a man of his age, and managed to show off a couple times going off various jumps and screaming down steep inclines, he enjoys proving he's better than me in anything he can, a rarity given he's getting old, and I'm not quite through my prime just yet... :P I did manage to avoid finding a tree with my name on it, and my dad managed to run over about five times the snowboarders that I did. ;)

Had a "family dinner" tonight for Chistmas Eve, which consists of barbs being thrown in random directions and memories from previous christmas's being brought up and laughed about... The usual high level of terrible jokes was available from the mother and father, while the sister and brother did their best to keep up with me... (head grows to obscene levels and explodes). Anyway, always entertaining when all five Wilson's are at a table together.

I actually managed to get out and snag everyone a gift this year, even though some are of the funny variety... :)

Hm, past 1, I suppose I should be getting to bed so I can be awake for the usual trumpet in the parents ear awakening around 6am... There's been a tradition in this house for ages that the parents try to keep us from getting out to the living room to see what Santa brought, using all manners of techniques of blocking the hallway and/or threats... I'll be sure to detail some of the better ones tomorrow. ;)

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy Holidays. May the spirit of giving help all of those in need.