Christmas in Utah

Karen – every other Thursday (including both Thanksgiving and Christmas this year) 

My family and I are up in Utah, in a former mining town, for the holidays.

I have Arizona friends to thank for introducing me to Utah. When my daughter was in third grade, we came up here with another family to ski for President’s Day – and continued coming for years for my ski-mad children until finally my husband and I caved and bought a pocket-sized condo in 2009, as an investment property. 

The funny story is that we came up in the summer to furnish it and prepare it for the winter rental season. It being summer, with no skiing, I planned for us to stay only two weeks. I thought the kids would be bored and didn’t want to make them stay for more than necessary. 

Fool that I was. 

Just because there’s no skiing doesn’t mean there’s nothing to do. In fact, a common saying is, “Come for the winter, stay for the summer.” When it came time to leave – after two weeks of playground time, hiking, swimming, whitewater rafting, minigolf, ice cream, zip lines, and picnics – I went into the kids’ bunk room. Nine-year-old Julia was sitting on the bottom bunk, quietly sobbing. Five-year-old Kyle had flung his arms around the bunkbed post and was clinging to it, bellowing, “I’m!! Not!! Leaving!!!” 

Not surprisingly, we began to spend weeks in the summer, as long as we could, with the kids still in school. Now that they’re grown, my husband and I spend 4 months every summer, when Phoenix is blisteringly hot, up here in the mountains. The kids lobbied hard to spend Christmas, which we've done last year and this one.

It usually works out that we have snow anytime after December 15. Alas, we have mostly rain this year. But we’re still having fun, making vats of chili, ice skating at the rink, taking long walks, decorating our fake plant as a tree (see above), and sitting by the fire with our books. The important thing is that we’re together. And that I have comfortable flannel slippers.

What books did I bring with me for fireside reading? 

Matt Goldman, Carolina Moonset, which I just finished and thoroughly enjoyed. 46-year-old, divorced Joey Greene returns home to small town South Carolina, to check in on his parents. His father has been diagnosed with Lewy Body Dementia, and as his father rambles about his long-term memories, clues to old unsolved murders surface. Atmospheric, with solid character development and fresh writing, this novel will please fans of William Kent Krueger's Edgar-winning Ordinary Grace. 

Maria Konnikova, The Confidence Game, which I’m halfway through. Journalist and psychologist Konnikova draws upon dozens of fascinating stories to explain the seven steps of a successful con, from choosing the mark to executing the "touch."  The book examines how our own deep desires -- to trust others, to believe we are smart enough to understand what we are seeing -- can make us complicit with the cons. The next book I'm writing, the sequel to An Artful Dodge, will have a con man in it ....  

Yangsze Choo, The Fox Wife. We’re reading this for bookclub next month, so I’ll be starting it after I finish the book about cons. It's set in Manchuria, 1908. A courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to be able to transform themselves into people. Bao, a detective is hired to find the truth. Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop is under a curse that kills their sons by age 24. A woman named Snow joins their household as a servant, and things begin to change ... 

What's your holiday read? 

Please share in the comments, as I'm always looking for another fabulous book!

I’m wishing you all a wonderful holiday season, with good cheer, good food, and good books, and I look forward to seeing you again in the New Year.