Christmas in Paris

If your son is studying abroad and living in Paris, how else can the family be together for the holidays? The sacrifices we make for our children! Sarah and I arrived this morning, and considering the global winter weather, widespread reports of airline delays, departing Salt Lake in a snowstorm, landing in Cincinnati in a snowstorm, it was surprising we were only about an hour late arriving in Paris. After fumbling our way through Charles de Gaulle airport and out to our shuttle, we arrived at Matt's place. We were greeted by 2 sleepy young men who had stayed out way too late last night. Matt's room mate at Ft. Lewis is also here for Christmas, so they have been out doing Paris partying. They were as tired as we were jet lagged, so after a quick trip to the market for cheese, baguettes, and, well, toilet paper(I don't think Matt was too concerned about preparing for our arrival LOL), we all took a nap and then headed off to the Christmas market at the Champs-Élysées... Sadly it was raining, not snowing, but it was beautiful and festive none the less. Adorable little shops unlike anything I've seen in the states, cheeses, dried fruit, piles of chocolate, bakeries and mulled wine sellers(yum!).

I'm a little too jet lagged to want to write much so I'll let my pictures speak. Not my best photographic effort as it was hard to take the time to get the perfect shots and mess with camera settings in the rain while trying not to lose the kids and not make Matt too embarrassed that his mom was (gasp) playing tourist!

After all these years.

My first Christmas in Utah was spent in Ogden, about an hour north of where I live now. I really enjoyed the downtown Christmas display, a Christmas village of tiny cottages with windows exposing the cute Christmas scenes within; busy elves and jolly Santa's, sugar plums and teddy bears. I'm such a sap for the cute Christmas things that remind me of my childhood, like the ice skating animated puppets at the Oakbrook mall in Chicago, and the fabulous Santa's workshop in the downtown Shillitos department store in Cincinnati, so Ogden's Christmas village was just my thing, a perfect but of Christmas magic.

Well, 25 Christmas have come and gone since then, and I often expressed interest in seeing the Ogden display again. I'd suggest that heading up there would be a perfect birthday present for me, or that it would be fun for the kids, but somehow in all these years it never happened. We were always too busy or the weather was bad, or nobody wanted to take the hour drive.

When my sister(a fellow sap) said she was coming out for my birthday I knew I had the perfect partner in crime for such an excursion. So finally after 25 years, I experienced those magical lights and displays again, and they were as goodg or better than I remembered. It kind of made me sad that I never took my kids there when they were young, as they would sure have liked it! This big kid sure did!

The Princess Diaries

December is a month of festivities, and I get an extra one, as it is my birthday month. A big one this year, turning the big 5-0.
The Saturday prior to my big day was the December birthday celebration with my singles group, two of us turned 50 and the other gal arranged a party prior to dancing with the group during which we were both gifted with tiaras. I'm not at all bothered by turning 50, to be honest, my 40 sucked. (Marital hell and a divorce) So I was happy to don my tiara and dance my way into my 50's!

I had actually planned to let the event slide by unnoticed but a few weeks before my big day my sister called and asked "What are you doing for your birthday", and I answered "it's Wednesday, so pottery class", and she said "How about I come and spend it with you? You should't have to spend you 50th alone,"... so wow, my birthday quickly went from non-event to "Princess Week".

On my birthday I wore my tiara to the coffee shop, where I was gifted my morning beverage, and also to work for a short time before heading to the airport to pick up Donna.. I wore it to the credit union and up to and into the hot springs, and to dinner at Roosters and wandering the Ogden Christmas village. I was digging the princess gig!

My princess day turned to princess week...When I found my sis was coming I wanted to do something special and arranged a spa night for us on Thursday. We had massages and facials and a lovely dinner out. And if those princess activities weren't enough, my sister came with a surprise. When my cousins heard she was flying out here, they decided to do something nice for us and arranged a Friday night stay for us at a swanky Deer Valley hotel(in-room fireplace and all), where we had a lovely dinner and played in the outdoor hot tub and pool in falling snow. Saturday we checked out the galleries and shops on Park City's main street, and then had a dinner party and merriment with my friends. Sunday, after running Donna to the airport, I went skiing with two girlfriends, one who actually had free passes for us that day.

So I really had a week fit for a princess and I feel so blessed by my family and friends. Special thanks to Carolyn for gifting me the tiara!!! I think my 50's are off to a really good start!!!
Picking up Donna at the airport.
Soaking at Crystal Hot Springs
Dinner at Roosters Brewpub
Ogden Utah's Christmas Village
The Chateaux at Silver Lake
Donna, soaking at the Chateaux
A little winter swim!
Wandering Park City

Fail!!

After geting up this morning and shoveling another 5 inches of snow I headed off to work. Upon getting to my favorite parking lot this is what I found. See that huge pile of snow? See that yellow parking lot stripe? See that that stripe is the last stripe on the right?.... Yup, that means they left that huge pile of snow right in the middle of the road! FAIL!!!!

Of course parking being as tight as it is at the "U" when I left work I found cars parked on either side of the pile, essentially adding 2 new spaces to the parking lot. I wonder how the parking nazi's handled that one. Tickets? No tickets? Hmmmmmm.

And another huge fail. My daughter called this morning to let me know she arrived safetly in Arcata. She arrived, but her luggage did not. After the flight nobody on her plane's luggage was found at the baggage carousel. Apparently the baggage handlers forgot to load the entire plane's worth of luggage before departing from Sacramento yesterday... Epic Fail!!!!!
Not my street, but the pretty tree lined street that leads out of my neighborhood.
Yeah, just a wee bit of snow in the front yard this morning!

Let it Snow!

Thanksgiving week ended the way it began... snowy!
Sarah wanted snow while she was home, and she got it on both ends of her trip. I had to shovel the driveway before leaving to take her to the airport this morning, and the snow kept falling all day. After shoveling again tonight I decided it was a great time to walk the dog... I just love walking on a snowy night and so does Daisy. As we headed out onto the street, Daisy's friend Miley ran over to greet us, so I invited her along for the walk.

So the two happy dogs and I wandered the snow covered streets down to park, where I was able to let them off lead so they could really enjoy themselves. Turns out I'm not the only one who enjoys getting out in a snowstorm, the park was pretty busy for a dark snowy night, the dogs got to have a romp with a few new dog friends. I really enjoy watching the dogs play in the snow, they are just like joyful, happy children. I wonder what it is about snow that makes a dog so happy? You would think that from an evolutionary biology perspective snow would be a sign of hardship to a dog, I can't imagine winter is an easy time for an animal in the wild, yet many domestic dogs seem to really love the snow. It certainly brings out the puppy in my 10 year old dog.

My Daisy is the black dog, Miley is her yellow younger twin!

Wishes...

Sarah came home from school yesterday... no small task, since she lives in the middle of nowhere in far northern California. Something about picturing my sweet daughter and "Donner Party" in the same thought made me think that flying was the safest bet to get her home. Unfortunately, I should have planned more than a month ahead for Thanksgiving travel, as her itinerary was terrible. A 7PM flight out of Arcata, only to spend the night in the Sacramento airport waiting for her 8AM flight to Salt Lake. All for the bargain price of $671. Her return flight is 12 hours as well. (It's a 15 hour drive) I guess she will learn to like the Sacramento airport.

The good thing is that she is here!! Apparently flying out of Arcata in sketchy at best. The rainy and foggy coastal weather causes many flight delays and cancellations. Her flight ended up being delayed a few hours, no big deal with a 9 hour layover. The flight was so bumpy she actually said prayers... and she is not religious. Unfortunately, some of her friends flights were canceled, with a 2 day wait until the next available flight. So as I said, I'm glad she arrived!

She must be lucky in more ways than one. Her one hope for Thanksgiving break was that it would snow when she was home. Judging from the foot of snow we received last night, I think she was granted her wish!!!
How do you like the gift the snowplow left for me? Positioned strategically right behind my car. I guess he didn't think shoveling the foot of snow would be workout enough for me. so I was tasked with glacier removal as well!

More from my last adventure.

While out adventuring with my relatives we discovered a cool place I'd never seen before; Cascade Springs. While driving the Alpine Loop my uncle spied the sign to Cascade Springs and asked "Where does that go?" and my answer was "I have no idea, I've never been down that road" so we decided to investigate. The road headed down a long hill out of the forested mountain into a valley of barren Utah scrub land. About 7 miles and a 1500 foot descent into the valley we came to the Cascade Springs parking lot. A short walk through the woods and there we were, looking at the most amazing spring. This was not a trickling little spring like others I know of in the Wasatch, this spring gushed water, creating an lush green oasis in the middle of dry range land. It was quite an amazing site, a little googling an I discovered that 7 million gallons of water pour out of the ground at this spot, a real oasis in the desert!

The last of fall...

I had a nice treat a week ago. My Aunt Adele and Uncle Edward, who live in Indiana, decided to take a big western road trip. After touring the southwest and a few of Utah's national parks they came and spent a weekend with me. They had not been here before so we spent a few days touring all the local scenic areas. One day we drove the Alpine Loop, a scenic mountain drive that is best known for it's fall color display. We were a little late for changing leaves, in fact, we caught the beginning of winter, but it was still a spectacular drive.
Mt. Timpanogos 11749 ft... Many years ago I hiked to the top!



A lone stand of aspens yet to loose it's leaves... I good lesson in micro-environment I think!

Weird Happenings....

From last weekend's adventures, a lone stand of aspen that still thinks it is fall. A lesson in micro-enviroment I think!

Last night I was out late dancing with the singles group, got home and of course couldn't fall asleep. No big problem, as today is Saturday so I could sleep in this morning. And I really wanted to sleep in! But no such luck. At 8:30 AM I'm awakened by buzzing....not my alarm clock, I never heard my alarm even though I'm sure it was set and went off. I never remember to turn the darn thing off on the weekends. I then thought it was my smoke alarm, but that's not it. The smoke alarm is right over my bed and quite obvious and obvious when it alarms. I wander, confused and bleary eyed, into the hallway where I realize it's my carbon monoxide alarm that is buzzing. The CO monitor has never gone off in the more then 10 years I have owned it, so I don't even recognize the sound. I stare at it blankly, thinking there must be a reset button I can't find, all the while wondering if I'm feeling so confused because I was out late last night, and am tired, or if in reality I am fuzzy brained because I had been poisoned by noxious gas while I slept.

And then, across the room, my computer printer starts printing. Well, not really printing because a while back the darn thing decided it would only print blank pages, but making all the sounds an machinations it makes when it's going to print a page. Now I'm really confused... It it my friendly ghost again? (I will have to tell my ghost stories sometime.) I now stare blankly at it, confused. Then I realize I hear another weird noise drifting up from downstairs. I head down to investigate, and find the buzzer on my stove going off. How very weird, since my stove is an old one, with a mechanical timer, you know, the kind where you need to pull out the knob and turn the dial to set it. All so weird and in my groggy, sleep deprived state, king of freaky!!!

I am starting to wake up a little bit now, and look around the house to see if anything else weird is going on and make sure nothing is on fire or fuming somehow. Everything seems fine, so all I can figure is that something must have gone wacky with my electrical service. Out my living room window I notice my neighbors are out their yard in their robes. Maybe there is something weird going on in the 'hood thins morning? As I walk out onto my front porch their dog Miley, one of my best dog friends, runs over to greet me. I walk her back across the street and ask them about their power. Apparently theirs had just gone on and off a couple of times. So mystery solved I guess.

Momentary power outages are not terribly unusual here, but I can't say I ever remember having one mess with my electronics like that. I always try to find rational cause for the weird stuff around my house, but sometimes I can't. I suppose today I can blame the power company, but maybe I should blame my "ghost". I like to blame the ghost for the unexplained happenings at home.... as you never really know.

Talking about the weather...

The seasons sure can change fast. We went from a taste of winter on Monday to a full course meal last night. This is what I woke up to this morning. A perfect storm! Pretty snow, no need to shovel! Daisy has always loved the snow, but I think now that she's a 10 year old she actually notices that it's cold. Unless you are tossing a snowball of course!