I know it’s been a while since my last post, but the lead up to Christmas has been chaotic what with Christmas parties, shopping, and working at the Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR), Utah.  Who has time for blogs?

But, Christmas Day is over as is what we Aussies and residents of other Commonwealth countries call “Boxing Day”.  Boxing Day (and I’ve just looked it up), is “traditionally a day following Christmas when wealthy people in the United Kingdom would give a box containing a gift to their servants”.  Now hands up who knew that! And hands up who still does that!

By way of background and for those of you who have not read the introduction to my blog, I volunteer one day a week at PCMR as a Lift Line Coordinator which I prefer to call, and which Seinfeld would have called a “Lift Nazi”, but which is professionally referred to as a Maze Controller or LLC.

I was lucky enough to land this volunteer position in late January 2011 as my husband and I moved to this delightful ski resort in December 2010.  I work on a Friday and you will more than likely find me looking more like a person who directs aircraft down at First Time lift – called this, because it is normally the first time anyone has put skis on their feet. This, as you can imagine, is an interesting place to work, but more about First Time in a future post.

So, this Christmas was interesting, particularly in the gift department.  Christmas back home is, generally, when most Aussies go on their annual vacation as the kids are on school holidays for an eternity, which I think is about 9 weeks (during which time some parents go completely mad), and most of Australia closes down for a month.

This is also when eager Australian skiers fly to the US or Europe for their skiing vacation, but when most head to the beach.  And this is where, for most of my life, I would spend my Christmas holidays during which time, the most I had to don for the day was a bikini, shorts and sandals.  However, now that I am living in Park City, I get to spend the best part of the day dressing for whatever activity I may be doing for the rest of that day.

For example, if I’m working on the mountain, I have to squeeze myself into two pairs of thermal tights, thermal base layer, fleece, another jacket, hat, gloves, glove warmers, two pairs of socks, foot warmers, and boots A Christmas Story 239x300 SIDEBAR: The Perils of Living and Working in the Snow(I’m yet to find a pair that doesn’t make my toes feel like they don’t exist – suggestions anyone?), and then my uniform.  Strangely enough,the other night, my husband made me watch “Christmas Story” and I can totally relate to the little brother in that movie when his mother dressed him so he had to walk with his arms 90 degrees away from his body because he was wearing so many clothes.  In fact, the other day, I had to bend over to pick up something, and couldn’t!

Then, if I’m skiing, I get to do all of the above, except I get to experience what it’s like to nearly break my feet every time I put on my new ski boots – which once they’re on, are great!  I often recall, while sitting on the fender of my car putting on my boots, the Bill Cosby skit where he likened the pain of child birth to pulling your bottom lip over your head!

And if I’m snow-shoeing (which I have recently taken up thanks to my delightful and very energetic neighbors), I get to do most of the above, but carry a backpack too!

So, this means that this year, my Christmas gifts changed somewhat from lingerie, bikinis, sarongs, shorts and sandals, to ski boots, snowshoes, ski gloves, scarves – oh, and a foot massager for me to use at the end of a day of skiing or standing on the snow in -15F!

And what did you get for Christmas?

Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy New Year!