This holiday season has certainly been one for the books.
It’s no secret that Christmas is my favorite season of the year, but this year, we chose to do Christmas in an entirely different way. Thomas and I always go overboard trying to outdo the other with the best presents and stocking stuffers, which is so silly, but it’s just what we do. Ever since our last vacation to the Dominican Republic this summer, we continued to throw around the idea of a trip instead of present for Christmas. I really didn’t think the idea would come to fruition, but just two months before our desired date, we booked a Christmas vacation! This is so unheard of for Thomas and I, we are major planners, and our vacations are usually booked at least 4 months in advance! Nonetheless, we booked skis, lift passes, a cute condo, and some fun adventures and we were off to beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado!
Without one present bought, we set off for Colorado exactly two weeks before Christmas. We chose to drive, which made things much more interesting, but more on that later!
The drive out of Dallas was ROUGH. Storms from Dallas to Kansas made for some scary road conditions, but Thomas got us there without an issue!
We rolled in to Frisco, Colorado that afternoon and our bodies were NOT happy about the intense altitude changes. After a quick stop at Starbucks for some warm drinks to help soothe our throats, we were in Breck within minutes!
As always, we stayed in a beautiful AirBnB with spectacular views of Downtown Breckenridge. I could not have asked for a better place to stay! We were within walking distance of Main St. AND the bus stop that took us to the mountains, what else could we need in a ski town?
Thomas and I grabbed our ski gear the night before we hit the slops. I was SO excited to have ski boots in my favorite color!
We really thought we were over packing with tons and tons of layers, but when we arrived on the mountain the first day, it was 0 degrees. I had 7 layers on the first day, and was still a little chilly! The first time Thomas took me Skiing for my “Birthday of a Lifetime” trip, it was in the 40’s and 50’s, so these temps were quite different!
By the afternoon on our first day, it had turned from bright and cheery to snowy and dark, which was A-Okay with me! I had certainly never seen such intense snowfall, and I was so in love with its beauty!
So many of the trees has giant ornaments on them! I was so enamored with the charm of this little city!
I’d be lying if I said I loved crepes, I really actually used to hate crepes, but before our arrival, Thomas found a little crepe place on Main St. that has amazing reviews! The only downside? There’s no indoor seating! Which means you can either sit outside in the -14 degree weather or take it while you walk. Regardless, these crepes were a game changer for me. I can now proudly say I am a crepe lover!
Our second day on the slopes was EVEN COLDER than the first. We were certainly not used to negative temps, but we embraced them with lots and lots of layers and facemarks and made the best of it!
As a fun change up from shredding it on the slopes, we decided to shred it up with snowmobiles one day!
I had never been on a snowmobile before, Texas doesn’t get much snow, duh, which made this experience so much more fun! We rode them alllllllllll the way up to the Continental Divide at Georgia Pass, where it was -33 degrees. If you didn’t know, iPhones don’t really work at those temps, so I was unable to get any pictures from the top!
From the time we got there until the time we left, we had almost TWO feet of snow! I had never seen so much snow in my entire life!
This was easily the best vacation Thomas and I have been on! We were able to experience so many new things and see SO much snow! I don’t think there is any present that he could have put under the tree that would have topped this trip! I’d rather have experiences over “stuff” any day!
Now for the real reason we drove instead of flying…. When Thomas and I first started dating, Thomas was going to school in a small town in Kansas, which meant once our first summer of dating was over, we would transition in to a long distance relationship…We took the picture on the left in August of 2012, after only dating for a few months, and having no idea what was to come in our relationship. After a stop at our favorite local market in this tiny town, we knew we just had to recreate the picture from our first trip!
This trip proved to be so much more than I could have ever imagined, but it certainly threw me off on Christmas shopping and everything else holiday related! Sometimes, it’s just best to go with the flow and not worry about everything else, and that’s exactly what my motto has been this holiday season!
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and is prepping for an awesome New Year!
