Once again an outstanding Thanksgiving Day with our family at the St. Paul Ski Lodge on Red Mountain Pass.  This was the 42nd year of this traditional event for the extended George Family, where it’s now quite evident that generational shift is well under way.  In the last century when we were mid-thirties and the George children were infants or speculative, we all did the planning, prep, cooking and entertaining with a handful of geriatric/senior guests. Now we are them.

The George children are teaching their infants and toddlers to ski, sled and navigate the trappings of the Lodge.  Those same grown children, now in their mid-thirties, are managing all the planning, prep, cooking and entertaining with their friends and we are the handful of senior guests (not so geriatric since we can still manage the mile climb to 11,480′ under our own steam).

Winter managed a last-minute 17″ of snow on top of a prior meager 6″ to cover all but the tallest of dried grasses and low-lying rocks.  Skiing up to and above the lodge wasn’t an option this year, so most walked or in our case snowshoed in under absolutely cloudless dark blue skies.

A much smaller crowd settled down to a 12-dish meal not including the 5 dessert offerings plus ice cream. We’d wondered if only 21 guests to the huge potluck would mean less food, but one couldn’t imagine us lacking for any traditional dish (unless it was Janet’s Brussels Sprouts plate we’ve often appreciated).  With 10 less folks attending this year’s feast, we all managed to sit around the same table in the lodge, for a change.  Of course this bountiful meal is preceded by an entire afternoon of a variety of hors d’oeuvres servings “paced” on the hour, so it was a dutiful pain to taste each of the desserts after the volunteer kitchen crew knocked out the dinner dishes.

We snowshoed out the next day just before all the left-overs were brought out for lunch. However, we did enjoy some of the remaining desserts (with whipped cream) with our breakfast.