And Finally Snow (Is this enough Lisa?)

Over the holiday we were blessed with a trip to Angel Fire, New Mexico to visit Smith's side of the family. We were also blessed with more snow than most of us had seen in quite some time. It was amazing to me how after 3 days of almost continuous snow we could still stare out the window in awe and say "wow, it's still snowing."

Thanks to Nana's provisioning, we were snowed in, but not without food. We ate a lot of chili and Bourbon balls. (and I'm not mentioning the pozole, the sugar cookies, the rum raisin cheesecake, the turkey, the beer dip, the ranch dressing & sour cream dips that just went so well with the potato chips she "accidentally" bought. I'm sure I'm forgetting something there... oh yeah, some vegetables.)

And while all that snow is picturesque and lovely and just so holiday-wonderful, it sucks when it's snowing so much that it's too deep to go sledding or snow-shoeing. And there is so much snow in the driveway that the snow plow guy who usually clears the drive? replies that it would take a backhoe to clear it. So that means you can't get down the driveway to go skiing in the most perfect powder. Sigh. And then it's time to go home and to get out, you have to dig out the car (AND that driveway.)



Let me go back to the driveway for a minute. Now, Nana and Papa live in the mountains, about 9,000 feet of elevation. From the road, their driveway is a hairpin turn, followed by a sharp incline and another sharp turn to park. In winter, it is wise to go down to the end of their street, turn around in the cul de sac so you can have a straight shot up the hill. Turning around also allows one to get a running start up the hill. Try this in a wimpy rental car and perhaps you will understand why I usually GET OUT AND WALK up the hill when Smith guns the engine to see if he can make it up the hill. (And this from the girl who used to love to ride roller coasters.)






















Here is the picture of Thom, making a path to the car... The picture of course does not do justice to what it was actually like to walk in snow that deep or the hurdle of shoveling it. We did manage to shovel enough snow to get the cars out.