A Fun and Fabulous Day

Christmas Day was full of family fun, mostly food, drink and lots of chat.  Monday was even more fun as we left the house and headed out to our favorite spot with Neena, her DH Dongeek and Smith's brother and sister-in-law. It was raining in the lower areas of the canyon, but it turned to light snow as we went up in elevation.  As we usually do after breakfast, we headed up to Brighton to view the peaks and see how many skiers were on the mountain. It was a treacherous drive as the road was snow packed with ice underneath and very slippery.  It was 4x4 only weather and many cars were unprepared.  The snow was flying, no peaks in sight, and the skiers were in abundance! 

After breakfast Neena and Don headed off on their Eastern Utah, Northern Arizona road trip (check her blog next week for fabulous pictures), while the rest of us filled the day with a visit to Miss Emilie's (we finally found her home long enough to gift the socks) and a walk around downtown SLC. It was warm and cloudy but dry in the valley, quite different from the morning in the canyon. 

Towards the end of the day we made our way to the downtown plaza to await the lighting of the Chanukah Menorah. Rabbi Zipple had rented the ice arena for everyone to enjoy a little skating time before the ceremony. I haven't been on skates since the age of eight but, Karla and I gave it the ol' college try. Smith and his brother were too chicken shit busy to come out and join us. After only 20 minutes I could at least keep my balance but, dare not let go of the railing.  It would have only taken me about 10 more hours to find my 'ice legs' and make it around the rink.  The lighting took place inside a warm and cozy space with the lights outside shining through the windows.  It was a very nice way to end our day.

New Year is coming and a long for day weekend that I hope will be full of knitting!  Where did I leave my knitting project?

Comments

[Carole]

Looks like a fun day. Love the ice skating pictures!

[Cara]

Oh my god! That picture of you is PRICELESS! I love it! And I love Rabbi Zipple, lonely soul he must be, lighting the Menorah in Salt Lake City! There's a story in there somewhere. Thank you for sharing.

[Norma]

Fabulous, fabulous. Those chicken-shit men. Hee. I love to skate, but sadly have not gotten off my butt to do it (rink time is very hard to find around here, and the lake is just a little bit too far from my home to make it worthwhile going - and good ice on the lake is rare unless you maintain it yourself) for several years. I used to go to a run-down, ramshackle rink about 10 miles north of here, but it was SOOO run-down and ramshackle, I stopped going. I miss skating.

[Kim]

Wow......you managed to squeeze a lot of fun stuff into one day! You were brave to put those skates on after all thos years....LOL!

[Scout]

What a loverly day! Now wait....I'm e-mailing you to ask you something.....

[Kathleen]

Sounds like a wonderful way to spend the holidays! Love the skating pic!

[marie in texas]

wonderful .... not for me though as i dislike cold the way a cat dislikes water
...hello to Rabbi Zipple; that's a nice photo

[Liz]

Sounds like a fantastic day all around. I haven't been on iceskates in years so I may have been a little chickenshit, too. ;)

[Jenna]

Although unsteady, your ice skating adventure looks fun. I also have not tried it since I was a kid but I was motivated to after seeing the lovely rink at the National Gallery of Art here in downtown DC.

My guess is that menorah is the only one being lit in Utah but maybe I'm wrong!

[Brenda]

Glad you had a great Christmas. Sounds like yesterday was a great day too, skating sounds like a fun thing to do. The first time I put skates on after many, many years, it took me a while to let go of the board.

[PumpkinMama]

Sounds like much fun. Love the shot of your teetering on your skates - just terrific!

[Stephanie]

The weather was so nice here it didn't really seem like Christmas - it isn't normal for it to be 50 degrees in Wyoming on Christmas! The ice skating pictures are great and it sounds like you had a wonderful time.

[Imbrium]

You're so cute on the ice skates! I went ice skating for the first (and last) time a few years ago, and I spent the entire time clinging to the two friends who took me. I'm glad you had fun!

[Chelle]

Ice skating, I haven't been skating in years, but that sounds like a really FUN way to exercise. Thanks for reminding me of it. Hope your New Year is wonderful. I enjoy you and your blog so much. Chelle

[Mary]

Yay for ice skating at the (itty bitty) Gallivan Center! That was one of my old high school haunts (all of my best friends either worked there or spent all their time there), and I was just there last week! You look pretty stable in that first picture; I'm sure you did better than you let on.

Happy Chanukah!

[claudia]

That is a GREAT picture of the Skating Queen.

[Ann]

I live in Australia, rural Victoria to be exact, enjoy reading your blog on a regular basis, am an avid knitter and am finally moved to comment.

As I sit here it is heading up to 36C, the gum trees are grey and lanky, the ground parched (this has been a drought area for many years now) and the garden struggles in the heat. I look at your pic of the snow, ice and mountains, and marvel at the contrast and the world's diversity.

Happy New Year, wishing you many happy hours of knitting and looking forward to the pleasure of reading about it!

Ann from Oz

[Snow]

Looks like you've had a fabulous Christmas, Margene. I'm glad to hear it. What's the New Year's knitting project?