Dog Park Guy

When I decided to venture out here, I will admit that I struggled with the fact that I wouldn't be with my family or long-time friends on Christmas Eve and Christmas. I never once had missed our traditional gatherings, and since I didn't have many connections out here yet, I had no idea what would be in store for me on the holiday. It was the number one question people asked me when I told them about the trip, "What are you going to do on Christmas day?" Maybe it's because my friends and family knew I was a sucker for all things Christmas including: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, a meal with more calories than the entire McDonald's menu and yes, singing Silent Night at church on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve day I skied until early afternoon and headed back to the house. Colleen invited me to come with her to her family gathering, but I thought that would be a little much considering she and I had yet to even do anything social together. It was a nice offer, but I opted to do my own thing. I had looked into Christmas Eve services at the Vail Chapel and knew that if nothing else, I could go there. Next I headed to the liquor store for some wine. If I had to spend Christmas Eve alone, at least I'd have red wine to keep me company. I went to West Vail Liquor and remembered that a cute guy I had met at the dog park a few days ago had said he worked there. I didn't go looking for him though, I just picked out my two bottles of Zinfandel and headed to the register. Sure enough, guess who's working the register? Dog Park Guy! He remembered me right away and then asked me what my plans were for Christmas Eve. I said I didn't have any yet, so he asked if I'd like to meet up at the dog park when he got out of work. When we met up at the dog park, he mentioned he had just picked up some nice champagne and wondered if I wanted to help him drink it. Let's see, church by myself or champagne with a cute, sweet guy? I'll opt for option #2, thank you!

Dog Park Guy and I spent Christmas Eve together, drinking, laughing and even looking through photo albums. I felt like I had known this guy forever and was pretty happy that by the end of the night we had decided to spend Christmas dinner together too.

Christmas morning I got up and hit the slopes for a few hours. When Dog Park Guy and I talked, he told me that he'd be inviting a few friends over and he'd be cooking a Christmas dinner for us. This was perfect, I'd get to spend more time with him, plus meet a lot of new locals! His menu and preparation was adorable. We had smoked Cornish Game Hens, green been casserole, salad, bread, pies, appetizers and of course, more fabulous champagne! The night was a blast. National Lampoon's Christmas played all night long, we sang drunk Christmas carols and I even learned how to inject Cornish Hens with a butter/BBQ sauce. Who knew injecting birds was a culinary technique?!

Today I woke up and hit the mountain again, but had to call it a short day because my boots were killing my feet. I had huge bruises on both of my inside ankle bones and pretty excruciating pain when I skied. I was pretty cranky. Why the hell did I buy new boots to have them destroy my feet and make it so painful I can't ski?! So I called Dog Park Guy to whine, because every once in a while everyone is permitted to whine. Dog Park Guy was so sweet. He told me to ski down and that he was going to pick me up (no bus!) and we were going to go get my boots some inserts or whatever was needed at the ski shop where his friends work. Ahhh, chivalry is not dead. I felt so relieved that here this sweet guy who I've known less than a week was taking care of me and I was loving it.

They are working on my boots tonight and I think I'm taking tomorrow and Sunday off from skiing to try and let the bruises heal. I have ice on them now and I'm pretty excited to take a break from the frigid temperatures and let my body rest for a bit. Tomorrow Dog Park Guy and I are going to breakfast before he goes to work and then I'll probably hit up yoga and the dog park again. It definitely worked well for me the first time!