Jason and I thought the weirdest Christmas we’d ever experience was behind us with 2020’s isolated holidays. We were incorrect. While we knew 2020’s festivities were going to be odd with COVID’s interference and planned accordingly, in 2021 the oddness just hit out of the blue. Omicron, the latest COVID-19 variant to trend, was keen on bringing the unusual back. We coped by incorporating less people and more powder into our holiday schemes. This escape plan worked… with one exception.

Just two days before Christmas, we learned my brother had COVID, a nephew on our other side had COVID, and a couple nephews from a different family were exposed and had symptoms that might be COVID. My dad also came down with a cold but tested negative for COVID. As a result of all the above, my family postponed our Christmas gathering, and Jason’s family’s merriments were reduced. Frankly, it was a bit of a mess. However, the outdoors were not down with COVID, so that is where we found our entertainment and our serenity.

Jason and I went snowshoeing on Christmas Eve near Tibble Fork Reservoir in American Fork Canyon with fresh layers of snow underfoot and more falling on our heads. Although the snow was quite heavy and already melting in place, the experience was magical. The families enjoying the reservoir and its nearby sledding hill virtually disappeared as the time for their Christmas Eve plans approached. The mountains silenced and became all ours.

Our last-minute Christmas Eve snowshoeing diversion had one downside, it meant we had to finish wrapping presents and straightening our house after returning that evening. We packaged and cleaned speedily and still made our intended dinner of citrus salad right in time to eat at 1:00 AM.

Since family plans were canceled, Jason and I elected to do a hike near Blackridge Reservoir on Christmas afternoon instead. It was windy, muddy, and icy in sections, but we still loved it. I’ll never complain about a Christmas hike. Afterward, we met up with my parents and sisters at a park. With the warmth provided by three portable space heaters, we tolerated the chill and chatted for a couple hours.

That evening, Jason and I made Yorkshire pudding and citrus salad for dinner and then played games on Jackbox with some of our family members stuck isolating. This left the tradition of opening our presents to each other very late intact. We started opening around 11:00 PM and finished after midnight. Yes, even with the pandemic irregularities, everything was right in the world.

We spent the next afternoon tubing with Jason’s parents and brother at Soldier Hollow. The snow was slippery and fast, and we got unexpected air a couple times. After spending three days outside, we saw no reason to start moderating our habits. We went snowboarding at Solitude the following day, our first time of the season. More on that will come in my dedicated snowboarding post.

By New Year’s Eve, some of my extended family had reemerged from their virus-induced separation. We applauded the arrival of 2022 alongside a few of them in our garage with games and good air flow after another day of snowboarding. Confetti cannons and a 1:00 AM silent snowball fight heralded in the New Year.

On New Year’s Day, we went snowshoeing with my sister and her husband on the Mill Canyon Trail in American Fork Canyon. Then, the next day, we went snowshoeing again with a brother-in-law and some nieces and nephews up the Pine Hollow Trail.

When everyone was well again, we let the nieces and nephews choose between a few activities as their Christmas present. After debating, negotiating, and bribing each other, they finally decided on an escape room at Enigma Escape. No one got out. That sounds pitiful, but let me explain… okay, it’s a bit pitiful. As we were too large a group for just one, we had two escape rooms reserved. We split into unbalanced subsets based off the kids’ preferences. This led to an uneven distribution of adult and adolescent brainpower. Jason and I were in the group that did Hexed, a room with a 60% success rate. We almost escaped. If only we had been more observant of one tiny thing… The other group did Hyde, a room with only a 15% success rate. Lots of kids and a 15% chance of success? Doesn’t sound promising, does it? It wasn’t.

That is the summation of our strange-again holidays. Between the snowshoeing, tubing, hiking, and snowboarding, we spent four days outside, took a three-day break, and then spent three more days outdoors. We escaped people and COVID, but we didn’t manage to escape from an escape room.