Christmas in Colorado
Thursday, December 26th, 2002 09:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthHave had a lovely Christmas ....
Christmas Eve:
Up early to look at pretty sunrise: followed by a trip to the local mall. Shopping on Christmas Eve? Oh yes. Borders Café almost empty (and gingerbread latte didn't make me ill): generally busy but nothing like as crowded as the British equivalent - though, to be fair, I'm comparing London shopping with the regional equivalent of, er, Stockport.
Back: lunch: a stroll up the mountain behind House of Host. "You can tell when you get to the top," explained Hostess helpfully; "it starts going down again." I must say that Good King Wenceslas had it easy. Back in days of yoreTM, poor men gathering winter fuel didn't use chainsaws ... not conducive to Yuletide peace on earth.
But glorious sunshine and temperatures hovering around freezing (the air here is so dry that the snow here evaporates, so the morning's thaw simply dematerialised some of the cover - no unsightly slush).
Christmas Eve, and off to dinner at The Fort, 'Fine Food and Drink from the Early West'. It's a splendid place, though the menu is rather minimalist in terms of vegetarian options. Luckily I'm not a real veggie, so had splendid cheese-thing followed by smoked duck, all washed down with plenty of authentic Early West frozen prickly pear margaritas. Hostess's wild boar (not b-o-r-e) was reportedly excellent. Host's salmon was piscine.
Home under a starry, starry sky to sleep the sleep of themargarita'd just.
Christmas Day:
Another bright, sunny day with snow on the ground. How I yearn for grey skies and gloom*. I had my present early, due to the need to load it with most of Host's music collection. Many happy hours have been spent in variations of the following exchange...
Host: What is this shit you're playing?
Guest: Just a random something from your collection.
In fact, the random function delivers true chaos: three Lou Reed songs in the first 15 of 3000 tracks, randomly accessed. Or, more usually, 'Nostalgia' by the Chameleons.
We had a walk around Evergreen Lake, all iced over and replete with skaters playing ice hockey, ice-fishermen drilling holes, and people writing (polite) messages in the snow. Was reminded of the car-on-the-ice setup in Neil Gaiman's American Gods: apparently they only open the lake for skating when there's at least seven inches of ice, and I don't think I've ever encountered thick, enduring ice like that in a natural setting. (Apart from at Echo Lake the other day - but that was far more wild and desolate and Antarctican).
Then Hostess and I headed for Evergreen Mountain for some more walking. Snowy, sunny woods: a broad meadow, free of snow, with light so strong you could drink it up: oh, and views. A fit of Robert Frost (see caption) sent me into a suitably maudlin state, but I believe this is a seasonal tradition.
An excellent dinner and then off to the theatre. We saw Mamma Mia in Denver: I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but it was very well done and great fun. Avoided the clichéd romantic 'plot' that I expected in favour of a thoroughly up-to-date tale of girls on top, paternity issues and Helen of Troy's necklace. And good songs (no, I didn't sing along).
Off to visit other Denver friends for the last three days of my holiday - updates may be sparse. Then back to glorious Britain and my wonderful life. (This is irony, which they don't have here).
*Only joking.
Christmas Eve:
Up early to look at pretty sunrise: followed by a trip to the local mall. Shopping on Christmas Eve? Oh yes. Borders Café almost empty (and gingerbread latte didn't make me ill): generally busy but nothing like as crowded as the British equivalent - though, to be fair, I'm comparing London shopping with the regional equivalent of, er, Stockport.
Back: lunch: a stroll up the mountain behind House of Host. "You can tell when you get to the top," explained Hostess helpfully; "it starts going down again." I must say that Good King Wenceslas had it easy. Back in days of yoreTM, poor men gathering winter fuel didn't use chainsaws ... not conducive to Yuletide peace on earth.
But glorious sunshine and temperatures hovering around freezing (the air here is so dry that the snow here evaporates, so the morning's thaw simply dematerialised some of the cover - no unsightly slush).
Christmas Eve, and off to dinner at The Fort, 'Fine Food and Drink from the Early West'. It's a splendid place, though the menu is rather minimalist in terms of vegetarian options. Luckily I'm not a real veggie, so had splendid cheese-thing followed by smoked duck, all washed down with plenty of authentic Early West frozen prickly pear margaritas. Hostess's wild boar (not b-o-r-e) was reportedly excellent. Host's salmon was piscine.
Home under a starry, starry sky to sleep the sleep of the
Christmas Day:
Another bright, sunny day with snow on the ground. How I yearn for grey skies and gloom*. I had my present early, due to the need to load it with most of Host's music collection. Many happy hours have been spent in variations of the following exchange...
Host: What is this shit you're playing?
Guest: Just a random something from your collection.
In fact, the random function delivers true chaos: three Lou Reed songs in the first 15 of 3000 tracks, randomly accessed. Or, more usually, 'Nostalgia' by the Chameleons.
We had a walk around Evergreen Lake, all iced over and replete with skaters playing ice hockey, ice-fishermen drilling holes, and people writing (polite) messages in the snow. Was reminded of the car-on-the-ice setup in Neil Gaiman's American Gods: apparently they only open the lake for skating when there's at least seven inches of ice, and I don't think I've ever encountered thick, enduring ice like that in a natural setting. (Apart from at Echo Lake the other day - but that was far more wild and desolate and Antarctican).
Then Hostess and I headed for Evergreen Mountain for some more walking. Snowy, sunny woods: a broad meadow, free of snow, with light so strong you could drink it up: oh, and views. A fit of Robert Frost (see caption) sent me into a suitably maudlin state, but I believe this is a seasonal tradition.
An excellent dinner and then off to the theatre. We saw Mamma Mia in Denver: I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but it was very well done and great fun. Avoided the clichéd romantic 'plot' that I expected in favour of a thoroughly up-to-date tale of girls on top, paternity issues and Helen of Troy's necklace. And good songs (no, I didn't sing along).
Off to visit other Denver friends for the last three days of my holiday - updates may be sparse. Then back to glorious Britain and my wonderful life. (This is irony, which they don't have here).
*Only joking.
