Getting Ready for CHRISTMAS!!!!!

In anticipation of Santa Claus' visit on Christmas Eve, the girls did a little skiing on a bluebird day.

The girls at High Camp, Sabrina was visualizing her gold medal run...

Feel "The Force" Luke... (that's Lake Tahoe in the background)

Watch out ski bunnies, here comes the new school!

And a little preview of Christmas morning, to be continued...

A special sledding day...

We got to go sledding yesterday with the Mikulaks who are up in Soda Springs for Christmas. We shoveled some tracks right out front of their place...

...ultimately took a little rest to recharge the batteries...

...ate a big lunch while Andy dried maybe 5 loads of snow clothes, then ventured out to another (apparently very popular) hill in Truckee before dinner.
 

The always determined Jilli decided it was time to make a snowman...

...she and Amy rolled the bottom from about 100 yards away, but by the end I think everyone (but me) contributed to the completion of the masterpiece!

Andy, Melis, Hannah and Nick.

Good times with great friends!

Trimming the Christmas Tree

As promised, here are a couple of shots of decorating the tree. As you can imagine, for the most part the ornaments are concentrated between 5-8 feet high as this was the sweet spot for the girls on the ladder...high enough to feel accomplished/pushing the limit, but not so high as to be too scary!

Hello El Nino!

Well, just as we were wondering what kind of ski season it would be with the light/moderate el nino conditions expected (though effects not necessarily strong in this part of the Sierras)...we woke up this morning to about a foot of fresh, light, powdery snow! The girl's school was closed so we went outside to play (and shovel the drive as we are expecting snow for the next week). Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and we can take advantage of a stellar ski season.
Sabrina was hysterical, she just kept repeating, "It's so deep." I guess it is more apparent when you're inseam is 15 inches.

 

Looking forward to more fun in the snow with the family!

...and near perfect execution of the classic snow angel!

Amy is coming home early so we can decorate the Christmas tree tonight (hint: I had to begin stringing the lights while standing on the second floor at the top of the stairs because the ladder wasn't tall enough!)...also, here's our new visitor, Eye Nicholas, watching and reporting to Santa whether the girls are behaving naughty or nice.

 

Circa 1984

Amazingly enough, my Bridgestone MB-1 is still up and running. This bike has seen some of the best mountain biking trails from coast to coast. It is certainly a classic (to me) from early in the mountain biking technological and style development and fairly unique compared to some of the S-company productions. It was a departure from the state of the art at the time because it was one of the first to recognize (incorrectly for the most part) that the new mountain biking craze had something to contribute to the then even more obscure cyclocross sector...and hence this bike originally came with drops. The picture barely resembles the original bike as everything except the frame and rims have been changed to aftermarket parts throughout the years; including a Ritchey ultralight Force stem back when they made them as long as 169mm (to accommodate my height) which results in massive deflection at the end of the bars, Cooks Bros cranks (after spinning one during a race in Canaan) and BB, Tange fork (not a choice for replacement after an unfortunate run in with a tree), cantilever brakes (probably 3 full sets of upgrades installed through the years) with rear brace to replace center pulls, flat bars with 90s style bar ends (which I still ride on my "new" '04 Fisher Mt. Tam hard tail), flight seat, several sets of clipless pedals, many times over all of the "disposable" parts like chains/chainrings/clusters/cables/derailleurs/etc and the most recent (perhaps 5 years ago) addition of 1.25" slicks for my commuter/road bike conversion. This bike is truly part of me, as are all of my riding partners over the years. Most memorable is how this bike provided the only solace for me following a startling move back east that put me off balance and completely out of my element with no friends. And of Bob, the best riding partner, rock and roll show companion and most generous friend a person could ever ask for. I may just own this bike forever...but hopefully will upgrade someday to full suspension for my primary mount for off-road adventures. For those of you that have spent significant time in the saddle on acoustic motorbikes, you know how I feel about this bike after more than 25 years of service.