Skiing as Santa

A few days before Christmas I was looking to buy Isaac ski passes online and found that Brighton lets people ski for free on Christmas Eve if they dress like Santa.  So I called the family and told them we should all go skiing together.  Unfortunately only Jamie, Hannah, and Wade were game. 

We all had about 24 hours to scrounge together full Santa costumes (red coat, red pants, hat, and beard).  I ran to Walmart to buy supplies and began sewing white cuffs on all our outfits.  In a very quite period of time we were ready to go, looking completely ridiculous with my attempts to make homemade beards.

On Christmas Eve morning we dropped Aspen off at Grandma Sugar's house and headed up with mountain with Sophie for her first day of skiing.  We didn't know if she had to dress like Santa, but she wanted to fit in.  And she was the cutest little Santa you have ever seen (but she refused to wear her beard).  We had at least 3 or 4 families ask to take pictures of our family because we were all dressed as Santa.  It was really funny.

We rented Sophie the smallest skis you can imagine and took her up the bunny hill.  It was scary having her on the lift and I held on to her the whole time so she wouldn't fall off. 

Then I held her between my legs and tried to teach her how to snow plow.  She did really well, but tended to relax into my arms so I was supporting her weight. 

She went down the bunny hill three times with Isaac and I before getting tired.  So we took a little hot chocolate break and met up with Jamie, and her friend Philip, Hannah, and Wade.

Jamie and Hannah then took Sophie down the bunny hill for a few runs while Isaac and I got two regular runs in.  Then it was time to return Sophie's skis and head home. 

Christmas Eve skiing as Santa was a complete success.  The day was beautiful and not too cold.  Sophie had fun skiing and wasn't scared.  She keeps asking to "do that again sometime".  It was also a lot of fun to be dressed as Santa and to have a wonderful family bonding time.  We want to do this every year.