Thanksgiving . . .

Normally, I go to my niece's house for Thanksgiving.  She lives in Santa Fe.  But this year, we had kind of a falling out a few months ago.  Not exactly a falling out . . . but, I don't know what I would call it.  A weird set of circumstances at best.  It got me to thinking, though.  Several years ago when I first moved to Durango, I emailed my niece and asked her if I could come to Thanksgiving dinner at her house.  She said of course, and that she would have invited me if she had known I would be willing to make the four hour drive.  All well and good.

So, the following year, I waited for her to invite me.  And waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  Getting on to two or three weeks before Thanksgiving, I finally relented and wrote to her asking once again if I could come for Thanksgiving.

Ditto for two more years.  This year, it finally dawned on me.  I was that comical person, Crazy Aunt Jerri.  "Oh, yeah, Crazy Aunt Jerri is coming to Thanksgiving again this year."  The un-falling out or whatever the heck it was finally woke me up to the reality of this.  I was done.  No more would I invite myself somewhere that I didn't fee welcome.

Whenever I went to my niece for Thanksgiving, I would stay with a good friend who also lives in Santa Fe.  So, this year, I told her that I was going to stay home and make my own turkey.  Next thing I knew, my friend's mother was coming down to Santa Fe for Thanksgiving and I was invited!  A formal invitation!  With well over a month before Thanksgiving!  OMG, do such things actually exist in this world?!!!  Not Crazy Aunt Jerri who has to invite herself?  OMG OMG OMG!!!!

Time passed.  The days leading up to Thanksgiving grew fewer and fewer.  The Friday before Thanksgiving, yes, less than a week, I get an email from my niece.  "You are welcome to come to Thanksgiving if you are making the trek to Santa Fe."  Oh, how nice is that?  Crazy Aunt Jerri finally gets an official invitation.  Aren't dysfunctional families just the best!?!?  Sorry, but I've already made plans.  I hoped she realized that I WOULD be in Santa Fe for Thanksgiving.  But . . . it doesn't matter.

I will write to my niece, probably after the new year, to try to find out exactly what happened between us.  But, my guess is that it happened long ago and I was too blind to see it.  I wanted to believe that I had some vestige of family left.  Now that I've taken off my rose-colored glasses, I see that I was just deluding myself.  It doesn't matter, though.  Aren't good friends family, too?  More so, really.  It's not that you're stuck with them . . . you actually get to choose them.

So . . . I had a GREAT Thanksgiving!  Some neighbors and friends were also invited.  We got to tell the story of how our mothers had met.  My friend and I were threatened with being suspended from high school for some minor infraction . . . going off campus at lunch or something similar.  We refused, and the vice principal said she would need to see our mothers.  So, we all went to breakfast together before being confronted by said vice principal.  We didn't want our mothers meeting at that kind of negative event!  And thus began our forty-five year friendship.  This is as close as you can get to family without being blood related!  So, it was a great dinner, with great people, and I even got apple pie and chocolate ice cream!  What could possibly be better than that?!!?  It was awesome.

Now, back to the present again . . .   Moki and I went snowshoeing today.  We parked in the usual spot, and then took our normal "everyday" hiking trail, which is now covered in snow with a nice path made by snowshoers gone before us.  We got less than ten minutes in when I felt tired already.  I think I was still zapped from yesterday.  Anyway, we made our way happily back and I came home with just enough energy left to fix dinner!

My Christmas lights are blinking, my clock is singing Christmas carols, and my fake woodstove is burning.  Ain't life grand?!!

Once again I wish you Happy Holidays.

Castle Rock hike and more

These posts are not necessarily in chronological order . . .  for one reason or other.  And, as is often the case, I am behind the times.  This hike took place several months ago in the fall.

This is Castle Rock from the parking area.  We went to the top.

Bob drove me and Moki out to Castle Rock.  We parked and found a corral of horses on the path to the hike.  That was good right there!  You can see Castle Rock from the highway when you're driving by.  Up.  Far up.  So, it was an all uphill hike.  Bob had said that most of it was mellow except for the last quarter mile.  After we had hiked up and up and more up, he said, "I didn't remember it this steep before."  Yeah, well, famous last words!

We finally made it to the "last quarter mile" and it did get really steep then.  Bob suggested that I leash Moki so he wouldn't go off the edge.  I did as I was told.  (That's a first!!)  But, although there was a HUGE dropoff, we weren't that close, so I unleashed him.  Farther up the trail, when the dropoff was a lot closer, I turned around to see Moki "scooching" toward the edge.  He had his belly pressed to the ground and was scooching up to look over the edge.  It was the cutest thing I had ever seen.  So, he was aware enough of the danger to watch himself . . . that was cool.

View of "Needles" from around the top.

We got to the top and stopped and had a snack.  The views up here were spectacular.   Wow.  Then, we wound our way back down the trail, first taking a slight detour to avoid the steep area.  The hike, although a little on the tough side, was really awesome.

That brings us to today!  It's now December 21st (and the poleshift didn't happen like I hoped), and I met Bob at our regular hiking spot to go snowshoeing.  Well, I was snowshoeing and he was skiing.  And since he was skiing, I had to really push to keep up with him.  He said I didn't have to, but what's the use of going together if we can't talk.  So, I pushed.  I didn't want to go that way since it was my first day on snowshoes this season, but Bob said that the other way had too many rocks for his skis.  So, I relented.

View from the top of Castle Rock.  You can see the road kind of
centered and Electra Lake on the left.  The colors are awesome!

After the first big snow, the gate closes and we have to park farther away from the beginning of the hike.  Nine tenths of a mile farther to be exact.  So, by the time we got to the trail head, I was already tired.  I whined, Bob made fun of me, and we went on . . . uphill.  After about five minutes, I knew I was done.  Bob was ahead of me, so I called to him and said to wait for me at the top of the hill.  From my perspective, the top of the hill looked about ten feet from where he was.  But, he disappeared off what looked like the top, and I trudged on.  After several more places that looked like they were the top of the hill, it finally arrived.  I dragged myself up to Bob, told him I was done, and proceeded to fall down into the snow, exhausted.  It took several minutes to get the energy to get myself up . . . the cold snow seeping into my clothes helped get me up!  Then, as we were still talking and he was chiding me for being such a wimp (remember that he is 78 years old!), I had to lean against a tree because I didn't have the energy to just stand there.

He went on and I returned, barely, to the car.  I was so done . . . I was exhausted.  I knew it would be too much for me and I was right.  Or . . . did my "knowing" it would be too much make it so?  We'll never know!

Happy Holidays, everyone.  Love from me and Moki.