My Holidays in Utah

I am back in Philadelphia from my holiday vacation! I went to visit my immediate family, all of whom live in the Salt Lake City and Park City area of Utah, where my family moved for my dad’s job when I was a teenager, but then everyone stayed, realizing that outdoor sports were more epic and diverse in Utah than they were in Vermont (read: powder vs. ice). We are outdoor sports obsessives and enthusiasts, partaking constantly in activities including but not limited to snowboarding, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, water skiing (southern UT), wakeboarding, mountain biking, and dirt biking.

Park City and Salt Lake are lovely places to visit for the holidays. By lovely, I mean snowy, which is something that so far Philadelphia has not been. They are also cities that get excited by Christmas, and so ridge-lines of glittering, light-decorated houses nestled in snowy drifts at the foots of majestic mountains are indeed abundant.

I must confess that I was nearly – ok, equally – as excited to see my family’s dogs as I was to see my family. I can’t help it. I have dog fever. You should see me walk around in Philadelphia. I squeal at every kind of semi-large or large dog that I see. Needless to say, I practically slobbered on them as much as they slobbered on me. I enjoyed the company of 3 canines – a chocolate lab, an Alaskan malamute, and a black lab/golden retriever mix.

My mom and I had some time to make some DIY holiday decor, with inspiration from awesome Pinterest ideas (by the way, my Pinterest is here). Check out our creations!

We made some delicious vegan recipes together, including Asian-inspired rice paper wraps and pesto, and I had to take her to a new (at least since I lived there) entirely-vegan bakery called Cakewalk in Salt Lake City to impress her with what is possible in the world of vegan baking, as she is and has always been an awesome baker. She was indeed impressed.

It was a very merry family holiday. I was reminded of how magical I thought Christmas was as a kid. I was one of those who believed in Santa Claus through and through (but also unicorns and magic in general) and some of that magic has definitely stuck with me. The lights! The decorations! The snow!

And, I recovered my favorite sweatshirt from storage.

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.”  -Winnie the Pooh

Happy Almost-New Year, Everyone!

Courtney