Well, here’s the post that I’ve been meaning to write for a while: Christmas at home. My last Christmas at home, to be precise: my parents are retiring and moving away from Yellowstone, and they’ll have the house packed up and moved before I get back from Spain. It was REALLY STRANGE to not be able to tell anyone the real reason I bought a 2nd transatlantic plane ticket just to be home for Christmas… but now that they’ve officially announced it, I can finally say something. They have been planning this for a long time: they even applied for the Peace Corps! They were nominated for a couple’s position, and they’ve gone through all the medical checks, and they’re just waiting for confirmation. During all the traveling I do, it’s always comforting to know that my home is still waiting for me… now that they’re moving, that “home” is switching from Mammoth Hot Springs, WY, to Bozeman, MT, which isn’t too far, but if they go into the Peace Corps for 27 months, I don’t know how I’m going to define “home.” I feel like I’ll go through reverse empty-nest syndrome: I have to accept that my parents need to leave the nest, too, and have adventures of their own.
Anyways, I spent a wonderful 2.5 weeks at home, and although it was weird to feel like I had to say goodbye to every last bit of the house, I still had a good time. I went downhill skiing a couple times, snowboarding once, and cross-country skiing to several new places. I spent some wonderful quality time with my mom, dad, and brother. We were actually together for a whole month—they came to Spain to visit me on Dec. 14, we all flew back to Bozeman together before Christmas, and I flew back to Spain on Jan. 14! I haven’t spent so much time with them since the summer of 2008, which was the last full summer I spent at home. It was a great month!
During the break I also hung out with old friends from high school. Gardiner kids have gone far! Kathryn drives ambulances through New York City while she’s studying medicine at Columbia, Lindsay is getting her Master’s in something having to do with pediatrics, Josh is married and his wife is having a baby, Daniel is working in China doing skateboarding ministries, David just finished up four years in the Air Force and he owns his own plane, Mary just spent four months in Denmark and is studying architecture at Smith, Steph is working with some of the coolest photographers and their self-published books in Washington, D.C., Tanya just got back from three months full of boxing, capoeira, and caipirinha in Brazil, Mariah is getting her degree in social work while she’s working full-time at a mental health action organization…I’ve got some pretty cool friends! :)
Another really fun part of the break was judging at Gardiner’s home Speech and Drama tournament. (PS, Gardiner just placed 1st at the Montana Class C State tournament in both the Speech and the Drama competitions! Woo-hoo!) I love Speech and Drama. I loved Speech and Drama. It was a wonderful part of my four years in high school, and it was nice to re-live some of that at Gardiner’s home meet. It was GREAT being back in the high school, because instead of being the quivering, nervous contestant trying to convince some unknown judge that I really could act, I got to be judge—I had the power! Muah-ha-ha-haaaa… Towards the end of the day, I was getting pretty tired and it was becoming harder and harder to find nice things to say about the really bad pieces. I got to judge Classical Duo for finals, which was awesome because I had been in Classical Duo, and the whole time I was praying “Please let there be no Importance of Being Earnest… Please no…” and of course, there was. The Importance of Being Earnest is a fabulous play, and I always enjoy watching it when the actors are good. Unfortunately, in the world of high school Speech and Drama, when there are two girls who are friends who want to act together but don’t know what else to do, they usually pick Humorous Duo or Classical Duo. Classical Duo is considered to be easier, so sometimes the actors are really, really bad. There were three pairs of Gardiner girls in Classical Duo, and I was very impressed by each of their originality, acting, and enthusiasm—so, I’m not trying to be disparaging to all S&D actors in general, but there are some bad eggs in there. And the really bad actors tend to choose exceptionally over-done pieces, like Gwendolen and Cecily’s tea scene. (Another scene that’s usually beaten up-side the head by the actors is Pride and Prejudice’s Lady Catherine de Bourg’s sweeping down upon Elizabeth and demanding that she not marry Mr. Darcy.) In any case, this Gwendolen and Cecily pair met my rather low expectations, and the long list of rather negative (ahem, I mean, “constructively critical”) comments ended with, “You shouldn’t use your parasol as a weapon.”
After the 2.5 weeks at home, I spent a few days visiting my Dad’s family in the Seattle area. I got to spend the night with my great-aunt and visit with my 2nd cousin, which was a treat because I hardly ever get to see them, and then I was with my grandparents for two short days. My grandpa’s not doing very well, so it was really, really hard to leave in the end. G&G, I love you both a lot!
Apart from hanging out with my family, the best part of those 2.5 weeks at home was the skiing. Last Christmas, I was home for 14 days, and I was playing in the snow (skiing, snowboarding, sledding, or ice skating) 10 out of those 14 days. This Christmas, my record wasn’t quite as good, but I went skiing & snowboarding at least nine times. One day when my dad and I went to Bridger Bowl together, I was on my snowboard and he was patiently waiting for me on his skis, it was about 10 below and icily sunny. The sky was blue-blue-blue and the wind was whipping ice crystals into the air, so the entire sky sparkled. At one point, two intense sun dogs appeared, and then they grew until there was a whole halo around the sun—almost a double halo at one point—and at a 90-degree angle straight up from the second halo, there was an upside-down rainbow. I felt like I was in some sci-fi drawing of outer space—you know the ones where there are loops and loops of rainbows around every planet? It was heavenly. Check out the pictures on facebook. On cross-country skis, I went to several places I’d never been before: Snow Pass, Jardine, Mill Creek, the Chittenden Loop… all fabulous winter excursion spots in and around Yellowstone, and I waited until my very last Christmas to check them out!
It’s weird knowing that I’m not going to be able to put “Yellowstone National Park” on my address any more, or that this was the last Christmas where I could practically ski out my back door into the most wonderful spot on Earth, but it’s not like Yellowstone’s going anywhere (unless the supervolcano blows, and then it's not like we'll be around to mourn for it, anyways). I can always go back. My parents are only moving to Bozeman, after all, so we can always make a day trip or even an overnight trip back to the park—but we’ll be doing it as visitors, not residents. Yellowstone will always be a special place for me, and I miss my house already, but I spent a wonderful 19 years calling Yellowstone home, and I guess it’s time to give someone else a turn. Besides, I’ve sort-of sold my soul: I’ve been working in Grand Teton National Park (aka, “Yellowstone’s South District”), and I’m starting to like it just an eensy weensy bit better than Yellowstone :)
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