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| On the road to Big Bear |
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| Michelle and Mustachio |
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| What a thrill to play under the big lights. |
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| Can you say, "the Beast of the East"? |
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| Gabrielle trying on borrowed ski clothes |
So we borrowed ski pants, got our boots, gloves and snow hats together and packed for a three day trip to Big Bear.
By the time the 4 o'clock game was over and we finished our post-game celebration at Starbucks, it was 9 PM. Big Bear is about 2 1/2 hours from Carson, so we weren't too worried about our drive up until we heard Big Bear was in white-out conditions. We decided to head to the bottom of the hill, on the side with the less treacherous route (hwy 38), to stop at Walmart for chains and to check out the conditions. Worst case scenario we could stay the night in a hotel and head up in the morning. Well, we got the chains (cables, actually), and decided to try to make it since the sky was clear, at least at the bottom of the hill. My daughter Michelle's boyfriend and our honorary son, Anthony, was brilliant with the navigation, thanks to his can-do attitude and his prowess on his I-phone. After about 15 minutes of traveling up the hill, we were stopped at a "mandatory chains" checkpoint. Anthony and I (mostly Anthony), got the cables on the tires pretty quickly, with only minor adjustments, and we were off again. (My husband Dave is not mechanical at all, for those who were wondering why he wasn't involved in the cable placement! But he is awesome at calculating distances, figuring out exactly what time we'll reach our destinations, to the minute, and at driving our brood whilst everyone else sleeps! Amongst other things.) What would have taken 30 minutes, in good conditions, took just over an hour because we kept it under 30 mph because the road was so icy.
What an enchanted wonderland route 38 is at midnight. We were practically the only ones on the road and the area had gotten a beautiful covering of snow, just that day, so everything was freshly covered in sparkling snow. It really looked like the Christmas village I put up for Christmas, but better, with all the pine trees heavy with snow, and all the rooftops, hills and valleys blanketed in a crystallized white frosting. It actually sparkled. As we were going up, the mercury was going down and quickly! We went from the low 50's down to the high teens. Burrrr! Thanks to Dave, Anthony and his I-phone, we found our cabin, Little Bear Lodge, pretty easily. 
Outside the cabin, it was really dark and everything was covered in snow, so it was nearly impossible to make out paths to the door and parking spaces, but we somehow found our way in. We were a little worried, because from the outside, the cabin looked cute, but tiny. You know how it is when you make reservations online, based on the pictures they provide. What looks really spacious in a photo often looks minute in person. We walked into a good-sized living room, covered in old, knotty pine with a fabulous original stone fireplace! I loved it! I was so happy to have found a place where the owners knew how to decorate with real antique country pieces, without going "country duck", if you know what I mean. For me, it was very aesthetically pleasing. I later found out from the owners, that the cabin had been built in 1937 and had been in their family a long time. These people had a clue in how to keep the vintage feel of the cabin, while also having somewhat modern amenities. There were 3 nice bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a big loft. One thing I really loved was that the big flat-screened tv was in the loft, so downstairs in the living room, we were able to enjoy the lovely fire in the fireplace and Christmas music playing on our portable Bose, without the constant distraction of the tv, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
After we got our stuff out of the car and into the cabin, we started to realize how bitterly cold the cabin was. We quickly found the thermostat but were unable to get it to turn on. We thought, no problem, we'll just make a fire. Wrong. There was no firewood and at 2 AM, I don't think any stores would be open to buy some. To make matters worse, the smoke alarm/ carbon monoxide detector was going off and a voice was talking sporadically, but we couldn't figure out what it was saying or where it was coming from.tv remote) and we decided to take our chances and go to sleep. Luckily, we had brought our own down comforters, so we all had warm beds. Well almost all of us. Dave, Lizzie and I didn't have a down blanket, but we had each other and body heat.
Fortunately, we are somewhat used to a cold house at night. We almost never turn on our heater at home, preferring cold nights with lots of blankets. My parents never ran the heater when I was a kid, either, and I remember many a cold morning breathing frost in my bedroom. No joke. And now, many of my friends complain about how cold our house is. I just tell them to remember their sweaters, next time. We have lots of fires and good circulation. It also gives us Southern Californians the chance to wear our wintry sweaters and scarves!!
As you probably guessed, none of us perished in the night and we woke up to giant, wet, snowflakes, silently falling all around. Breathtakingly, beautiful and incredibly cozy (once we got a fire started). As soon as the stores opened, Dave got us a bunch of firewood and got a fire going. Then, we got ahold of the rental agency who promptly came out and replaced the thermostat, so we had heat, glorious heat! Warmth never felt so good. I made a giant breakfast of bacon, sausage, fried potatoes and scrambled eggs, and we pretended to be stranded in our cabin.
Nobody skied on our first day. It was a pretty big storm and we just wanted to enjoy the cabin and get deep into the Christmas spirit. When the snow let up, Dave and Lizzie made a perfect snowman and the kids sledded around the cabin. Gammy, Gampy and my niece, Emma, made it to the cabin in the afternoon and we were all so excited to actually be in the snow before Christmas and to have the time together.
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| Emma and Goobs |
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| Michelle and Anthony hit the slopes |
We stayed for a total of 4 nights, the last night on the house for our night with no heater. Dave and the kids snowboarded, skied, and sledded a few times and my mom, Natalie and I went tiquing (antiquing) in Fawn Skin, (about 10 miles away), where I found a light-up Santa in a sleigh to add to my collection. (It also gave the cabin a little extra Christmas ambiance!) I'm proud to report I cooked every meal, we never ate out once and I loved every minute of it. We played games, watched a few movies, drank lots of hot cocoa and coffee, got our Christmas cards ready to be mailed, enjoyed Gampy's funny sense of humor, Gabrielle's inspired dancing and each others company. We left the morning of our oldest daughter, Natalie's 20th birthday, and headed home so we could be there in time to make 7 o'clock dinner reservations at my good friends new restaurant, Cielito, to celebrate. It's a rough life. |
| Natty G |
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| Some b-day bling |
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| Natalie's 20th Birthday @ our new favorite restaurant, Cielito. |
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