White Christmas

Being a missionary means that I usually get to be in the U.S. for Christmas once every 4 or 5 years.  In 2012, me and my 5 kids enjoyed a 10-day magical Colorado Christmas in Estes Park.  This Christmas, with 4 additional family members (3 spouses and a grand-baby), we planned ahead for another amazing holiday in Colorado.  This time, we rented a much larger house in Silverthorne, Colorado, just minutes from Breckenridge and Vail.

The magic continued with a winter wonderland of deep snow, colorful lights, family fellowship, delicious foods, and lots of fun.  The house, at 9,600 feet elevation, was located at the end of a long uphill road that backed up to the White River National Forest facing the 12,777 foot Buffalo Mountain just outside our back door.  Two feet of snow had already fallen.  The view from our front balcony was awesome, the entire mountain valley covered with blankets of white. In the far distance were the ski slopes of Keystone Mountain.

On our first day we spent an hour snow tubing down the slopes of nearby Frisco.  In the evening we enjoyed the Christmas lights of Vail Village and downtown Breckenridge.  Snowfall the following days kept us inside the house where we spent lots of time preparing meals, playing games, and telling stories.  Each evening ended with a family worship time.

Early in the week, Philip (Martha’s husband) and Daniel (Hannah’s husband) got the idea of making a sledding trail on the giant mountainside behind our house.  With shovels and grit, they dug a 300 foot long, 3 foot wide, and one-foot deep snow-trail.  Each of us took turns on a toboggan sled that hurled us down the trail at swift speeds, often crashing in the soft powdered snow.  Enormous fun!  Even our neighbors discovered the joy of sledding down the hill surrounded by the panoramic beauty of the Colorado mountains.

I know that the coming year, as with any year, will bring both highs and lows.  There will be blessings and victories, along with disappointments and trials.  But oh, how privileged we are to have had the opportunity to carve out a 10-day slice of time and enjoy a family fun white Christmas on the slopes of Colorado.  The memories will follow us for a lifetime.