After last year’s awful holiday season (can you say cancer and chemo?) we decided that this year it would be all about creating good memories. So to get the ball rolling, we headed off to Glenwood Springs CO for Thanksgiving. it’s a wonderful place, a natural hot springs resort town in the Rockies. We left last Tuesday and did the drive in two days, stopping for the night in Mesquite, NV, where I lost $1.50 in less than a minute in a slot machine. We met Chuck’s sister and brother-in-law and their Cairn Terrier Frasier in Glenwood and we all stayed at the Hotel Colorado, an old hotel right across the street from the hot springs pool. It’s a great hotel, but it has the hardest beds in the world so by our third night there my back and neck were mighty stiff (conveniently that was the day we had massages scheduled). We spent a good part of each day at the pool doing what they call the Glenwood stroll – walking from one end of the enormous pool to the other (one end has water temps around 84 degrees, the other gets as high as 105). We drank some excellent wine and ate delicious food and generally enjoyed some good old-fashioned rest and relaxation. The only minor disappointment: no snow fell, though it was certainly cold enough.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at the Redstone Inn, a lovely place where our view out the windows was of snow covered mountains. On Friday, we took part in the Hotel Colorado’s annual Christmas lighting ceremony which had live symbols for facebook” title=”music symbols for facebook”>music, fireworks, hot cocoa and cookies to recommend it. I have never done anything like that before, and have to say that it really did get me in the holiday spirit! Chuck was really jazzed and inspired by all of the holiday lawn art – they had reindeer, trains, carolers and sleighs. He plans on putting up our holiday lights this coming weekend and incorporating some of the Hotel Colorado’s ideas.

We started the drive home on Sunday, stopping in St. George UT for the night, having no desire to fight the increasingly heavy holiday traffic any further. The rest of the drive on Monday was easy and fast, and we nearly finished an excellent audio book called The Last Oracle. All in all, it was an excellent holiday weekend and nicely achieved our goal of creating a whole host of new and happy holiday memories. Pics here.