Took Claire skiing on the 23rd, and you know, I thought it was going to be terribly tedious but I didn’t mind it. It had it’s glitches, but that just added to the panache. The day before I kept calling Tiny Tots ski school to get her an early morning private lesson, but I kept getting their voice mail. I left multiple messages, but nothing.

When we got to 7Springs yesterday morning, the lady at Tiny Tots said she had no availability until 1pm. My response was “My family’s been coming here since 1962. My dad worked here for several years. I learned to ski here 32 years ago and both of my siblings learned here, too. My father would like to get my 3 1/2 year old a private lesson. Now what can we do about this?” The lady’s jaw about fell to the floor.

Needless to say, after she spoke with her supervisor, Claire had a lesson 20 minutes later. Miss Kelsey, her teacher, and I dressed her, and then the Tiny Tot’s ladies told me to leave her backpack and boots. They’d be ok right where they were, they said.

Miss Kelsey did the best she could with Claire, but sometimes Claire doesn’t like to listen. She pulls the same stunt with her swim teacher, Miss Maribel. My dad, brother, and I skiied elsewhere so Claire wouldn’t get distracted. And after an hour I went to pick up Claire at the Tiny Tot’s area. Miss Kelsey gave us her report card and told us her strengths. We took a photo of the two of them, and then Miss Kelsey went off for her next lesson. I began dressing Claire, but then went to grab her boots. No boots. Looked around. Checked in her bag. Checked in my bag. No boots. Asked the lady who didn’t remember the boots. Miss Kelsey was asked. She definitely remember the boots since she took them off Claire to put on her ski boots. Still no boots. Finally the manager gave us a smaller pair of rubber boots someone left, so Claire could go to up to lunch with the three of us (who also needed a break). She said to stop by later and check; in the meantime, they’d keep looking.

I dropped Claire off with Uncle Jaime, and I walked over to the lodge where there’s a Willis Ski Shop. Gina, the clerk, said that they in deed sold children’s boots. I found a nice pair in Claire’s size, and Gina offered to hold them for me.

After lunch we tried to the skiing bit again with Claire, but she didn’t want anything to do with it. I finally got her down the mountain and into the lodge. Jaime was changing her clothes, and I ran down to Tiny Tot’s. They did indeed NOT find her boots. The manager Pam apologized profusely and proceeded to refund me the money from her lesson, so I could go upstairs and get “free” $50.00 EMU boots for my kid. Not a bad Christmas from 7Springs. Ho ho ho.