End of Year Activities: Christmas!

On Christmas Eve day Mr X and I packed our things and headed to Winter Park for some snowboarding. The crowds thinned out in the afternoon and we had a really nice time.

We reserved a night in a studio at the base of the mountain so that we could enjoy the festivities that evening and then hit the slopes again first thing in the morning, on Christmas Day.

We snowboarded until the mountain closed and then we headed to our room to get cleaned up and warm up a bit before heading back out for the holiday show. In the photo above, Mr X and I were meandering towards the excitement, just enjoying the festive scenery.

Mr X decided to have a go out on the ice skating rink, minus the skates, for fun.

One of the many brightly lit Christmas trees at the base of the mountain.

At the bottom of one of the main runs the crowds were gathered around an enormous bonfire, singing and dancing to the Christmas music blasting through the loudspeakers. 

When the appointed hour arrived the mountain staff came traversing down the face of the run with red flares in each hand and not long after the fireworks show began.

I tried to embed a video of the event but I'm not sure it will work for all of you. If it doesn't the two photos above will have to suffice. If it does work for you, you may want to fast forward to about halfway through - that's when the fireworks start. There's music too so feel free to turn your sound on.

Once the show was over Mr X and I hopped on a gondola for a 'top-o-the-mountain' feast.

 The gondola rides (up & down) were pretty chilly.

The beautiful lodge at which dinner was served.

 There is lots of great woodworking in the lodge.

I took photos of our food with my iPhone but they really don't make the food look great. So you'll just have to be content with my word that the food was really good and I left incredibly full.

Mr X and I keeping warm by the giant fire while waiting for our gondola ride back down.

We did this all last year and had such a great time that we were delighted to be able to do it again this year. If any of you have the opportunity to do something similar where you live (or if you want to come do this here), you should!