By Gabriela Gerhart
Dear Reader, I must confess that this blog was due to start a few months ago, but due to my confusion on what to write about I’ve been very hesitant to start. I didn’t know where to begin — relationship, friendship, grandparents, recreating “the village”, new addition to family, motherhood, etc.
I feel like there’s so much to blog about! I’m extremely fortunate to have a very exciting life, great husband, and a big loving family, although half of them live in the Czech Republic where I’m from.
I decided to start with this fun story about one of my passions — snowboarding. Gary (my husband) & I went to Big Bear, California for Thanksgiving to spend the holidays in the mountains with my two stepsons. Big Bear is a semi-desert mountain area of California, about two hours from LA.
We had a great time cooking. All three of them are very good chefs, so they fight over who is cooking, which I’m very happy about because all I needed to do was “clean”; and let me tell you, when you have three creative minds in the kitchen it can really be a lot of work…the clean up I mean.
On Saturday morning we had a great surprise; about six inches of snow! So we went sledding. I haven’t done that for years! I would like to encourage anyone who has a chance to do something from their childhood to do it – you must … it’s very uplifting.
The next day we woke up and had an additional six inches of snow. How fun! So we went snowboarding. I love snowboarding! Growing up in the mountains of the Czech Republic, we were skiing every chance we got – not so much in Houston, Texas! To be honest, I was a bit … (scratch that) …quite nervous… it’s been a few years and I did have thoughts that I might not bounce as well. But we went. The boys had plenty of snowboarding gear for me. The snow was fluffy, the temperature great — so there was really no excuse… well I’m sure I could come up with something, but I didn’t. I was scared that I forgot how to do it. I was nervous about getting on the lift and didn’t want to embarrass myself…well let me tell you, I had so much fun!!! I felt like I was 16 again; I hadn’t forgotten; it was just like “riding a bike again” (and all those clichés). The views from the ski slopes were incredible. There were not too many people so we were really able to enjoy ourselves. I must say that from the hundreds of snowboarders (97% male), I was the 3rd oldest person there, and no, I do not have issues w/ getting older…yet…
The whole time I’d been putting gear on and snowboarding, I was thinking about blogging. So I guess my gab with this story is to live life, have fun with your family, and enjoy this holiday season.
By Gabriela Gerhart
