White Christmas in Twisp

As I stepped off the Amtrak Empire Builder at Wenatchee Station, I was happy to finally be at my destination. I had had a good train ride from Buffalo, but my arrival had been delayed multiple hours that day and I hadn't mentally prepared myself for it. Luckily, it didn't take long for mom to pull up in her trustworthy Subaru to pick me up. We had some errands to run before we could return to Mom's house in Twisp, but it acted as a great opportunity to catch up. Although it was a pretty solid day, we only really had half of it together. Fortunately for both of us, we'd have no shortage of time together in the coming days.

Our first full day together (12/17) was a great microcosm of my entire stay. We had a nice, slow morning with some coffee-providing an opportunity for slow conversation and the occasional board game. We then did a little work around the house-like shoveling snow or chopping wood-and ate lunch together. After lunch, we did our own things for a while- which involved me working out-and then we went to a dinner party.

Doing my part in keeping the house running

I'd say the running theme of my stay was exercise and socialization-which honestly made for a pretty great stay. Due to the weather and my lack of adventures lately, I'd been a little starved of social interactions, so being thrust into an inherently social situation was surprisingly nice. We attended a total of four parties while I was in Twisp. The aforementioned dinner party was for my mom's work, the second one was a gathering of my mom's friends, the third was a Christmas Eve party, and the last was a nice Christmas dinner with my mom and my aunts. They weren't all amazing, but as a whole, I'd say the parties were a definite highlight of my stay.

The other end of trip's theme was exercise and my stay in Twisp actually afforded me the chance to try new forms of exercise. The most notable being cross country skiing. Way back when we lived in Montana, mom used to take me alpine skiing at a ski lodge a couple hours drive from the house. I remember really enjoying it enough to have it be a recurring hobby, but when we moved to Arizona, we just had a hard time justifying the drive and the cost. However, while in Twisp, mom introduced me to cross country skiing, which was a fun pastime. I'm definitely not as fond of it as alpine skiing, but after getting the hang of it, I figure it would be a worthy way to kill time if I ever moved to a snowy, rural area.

My first time cross country skiing

While most of our skiing took place on the roads near mom's house, we had the opportunity to ski with auntie EB twice. The next three photos are from our ski trip in Mazama. Both of our ski adventures with EB allowed us the chance to spend time together, but in a less social context. We would occasionally throw banter at each other, but it was equally as pleasant to just enjoy each other company as we messed around on our skis. Both attending parties and skiing provided that similar opportunity.

Family ski trip in Mazama

Spending quality time with mom while we ski'd

Making weird faces with my mom at the ski area

Getting fried at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery... Not really, haha!

While nothing groundbreaking happened during my stay in Twisp, it was definitely one of the most unique opportunities I've had to catch up with mom. I think the biggest takeaway I got from the trip was how my relationship with my mom is in a place it's never been before. Not only have we never not lived together, but mom has never moved to a new place without me and then had me come into her new place. Now that she has had time to settle into Twisp, she has made new friends and had special opportunities. During this trip, I got to finally see what her everyday life looks like in Twisp and I got to see new friends that I'd heard so much about. Even though I didn't have to sleep in my car every night and even though I wasn't in a place I've never been, I got to experience something wholly unique and new. If that doesn't speak to the spirit of my current adventure, then I don't know what would!