For the first time ever as a family, we took a ski trip during the kids’ winter break. We wanted a white Christmas! Yes, it snows in Austin but nothing sticks for very long and you never see drifts or accumulation. Crossing Northwest Texas is a pretty dry eight or so hours with very little “wow” moments (except for the wind farms) looking out the window. Once we crossed into New Mexico, however, we soon started seeing hills and eventually, far off in the distance, little snow capped mountains. Soon after we began to wind through those mountains with “Christmas trees” all around us and little icy streams next to and winding under the road.

Temperatures dropped and we began to see snow drifts, deer and bunnies. We were all transfixed. It was magical. Our house was nestled perfectly up in the mountain so that no matter where you looked out, you were greeted with a great expansive view of the mountains surrounding us. Sunrise and sunsets were spectacular and honestly unreal.

We spent a full three days living in a white Christmas wonderland just before coming home to Texas for Christmas day.

Our kids had been begging us for a white Christmas and while we are never sure if that will happen in Austin (it usually doesn’t), we decided to take matters into our own hand and go to the snow. Memories were made and most of us loved skiing and snowboarding. I particularly relished just sitting and watching the snow sparkle and listening to the quiet through the trees.