I recently packed  up the SUV and headed to southern California with my family to spend Christmas with my oldest son.  On the morning of Christmas Eve the kids and I headed up the road to the local ski resort.  It was a beautiful day and we couldn’t wait to get onto the snow.  After a few warm-up runs at the lower part of the resort we took a chairlift, to the top of the mountain.

At 8,000  feet I skied off the lift  to the trail head.  …