Duggars by the Dozen 31: Dicky Duggars Do Damage

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

All the ski talk is making me miss skiing. I've only been downhill skiing twice, but I started nordic skiing in the early 80s. I have only been skiing once or twice since we had kids and I'm really missing it.

I've never skiied on the old-fashioned skis like you describe, @samurai_sarah, but it sounds similar to telemark skiing that some nordic skiiers still do. I've seen it on television, but not in real life. It might be fun to rent some telemark skis and take a lesson, but before I tried that, I think I would take a skate-skiing lesson. I use the old diagonal-style stride, because that was what I learned with my family. (No lessons, just some observation.) 

Like I said, I'm missing going skiing. I need to save up for a season pass for next year. 

And a Merry Christmas to you, @MakeItSo and anyone else who celebrates it. 

[MakeItSo]

@WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? is that like cross-country skiing? We may have different names for the same thing. And thank you. It's the calm before the storm here in BC...some family came in late from out of town and our big Christmas dinner is tomorrow. Most of my fam lives too far away to come out and/or doesn't celebrate Christmas so at least we won't have 50,000 people here teehee

 

 

ETA: if you do plan on going skiing or snowboarding, I always advise people to consider a season pass. If you can go 2-3 times for many resorts, you're already getting your money's worth because day passes have gotten very expensive. Season passes often come with other perks, too (discounts around the resort, free riding and skiing at other partner resorts etc)

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

@MakeItSo, nordic and cross-country skiing are the same thing. I found this webpage that defines some terms. I don't suppose everyone cares, so I'm going to put the definitions under spoilers. 

Nordic skiing:

Spoiler

Cross Country – Also known as Nordic Skiing or XC, encompassing general touring, metal-edge skiing and skate skiing.

Diagonal stride:

Spoiler

Classic Technique – The most common cross country skiing technique of opposite arm and leg forward movement, also known as a kick and glide. The diagonal stride is another term for classic technique.

Skate-skiing:

Spoiler

Skate Skiing – A cross-country skiing technique where the tips of skis are kept apart and the skier pushes forward like an ice skater.

Telemark skiing:

Spoiler

Telemark – A skiing technique with one ski forward and the other leg bent behind to provide better stability for downhill skiing. Telemark skis can be used at resorts with lifts or in the backcountry.

I probably need some new skis, too.  There's a ski gear swap here every fall, so maybe I'll get lucky and find some used skis I can get.

I think I'm one time zone east of you, @MakeItSo, so this is the calm before the storm here, too. I have the opposite family situation from you, though. Almost all my family (mom, dad, siblings, their spouses, their kids, and ditto for my husband's family) live close by. Our tomorrow will be crazy, but fun! 

[MakeItSo]

@WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo? thanks for all that info! Learned something new. I have SEEN a guy with what you described as telemark skis. I see him about twice per season and I remember the first time he came scootin' by, I had no idea what I had just witnessed haha but I was almost kind of mesmerized because it was just so different from anything I'd ever seen. I wanted to know more about it and thought I'd maybe strike up a convo if I see him in the lift line up or end up sharing a lift/gondola but I didn't get the chance. Maybe this season, hey?

And oh, don't worry. We will still have a full house... it just won't be bursting. Ok, it almost will. It might. It probably will. It's winter break (grad student, here), so like for all breaks, I'm at my parents' house. Most of our guests will be staying for at least one night (because my parents live in the mountains and no one wants to drive back and forth during the holidays). I have no clue yet which corner I'll be rolling out my sleeping bag in, but I'm just always happy to see everyone   

[laPapessaGiovanna]

3 hours ago, MakeItSo said:

In my original post I also mentioned that the ski lift would be one of the major places I would see it being dangerous, so I guess I don't understand why you disagreed with me. Anyway, it's really not that serious. I guess Europe is very different from North America. I ride at least two days every week during the season and very rarely do I still see people with baggy clothing. My friends and me, too, go backcountry riding and we wear Goretex pants and jackets. No need to layer 50 pairs of pants. One very efficient (and expensive) outter layer does the trick. We do wear base layers (which come in light, midweight, heavy depending on the weather). 

Dunno why I thought you were a Briton. My bad. 

I use to ski on the Italian Alps and slilifts are increasingly more difficult to find as they are substituted by chairlifts in most places.

Anyway, I own some expensive goretex gear and I know from experience (not of skiing but of games with snowballs) that if I sit in the snow long enough I'll end up wet. I too don't do layering to ski as it's unnecessary. But my point is simply that doing it isn't a safety hazard nor it impedes movements that are already quite limited by being tied to skis or a snowboard.

I agree that it would be completely different if they wore longer skirts that limited knee movement or long enough that bending your knees the cloth can reach under the ski or the board. That would be an unthinkable hazard.

[Carm_88]

Merry Christmas from the Duggars. I couldn't figure out why Justin was in with the M Kids.

[Yaoichan12]

No Mason in the pic. Must've been taken before he was born. 

[Firebird]

Josie front and center on a lap I noticed.

[brusselsgriffon]

3 hours ago, Carm_88 said:

Merry Christmas from the Duggars. I couldn't figure out why Justin was in with the M Kids.

Did Taryn Yager do the card?  Everyone’s quite bright, blurry & washed out 

[HarleyQuinn]

6 hours ago, Firebird said:

Josie front and center on a lap I noticed.

Of course. She's a miracle. Justin must have been the tallest howler they could stick in front of Josh to block most of his body but still leave the face visible for family.

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

Anyone else notice the Douchey ends? I wonder if that was for easy cropping. 

[Iamtheway]

7 minutes ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

Anyone else notice the Douchey ends? I wonder if that was for easy cropping. 

That was my exact thought too! 

[Carm_88]

48 minutes ago, allthegoodnamesrgone said:

Anyone else notice the Douchey ends? I wonder if that was for easy cropping. 

And when Derick is cropped out. he will say "I wasn't cropped out. I was never in the photo."  

[sleepy_doggos]

On 21/12/2017 at 12:03 AM, Antipatriarch said:

Ugh... every year at Christimastime my mother-in-law's church does this "Happy Birthday, Jesus" song (apparently it's Brooklyn Tab, whom I really like, but not this one!). It's the most cloying piece of saccharine I've ever heard. They usually have one of the kids sing it ('cause dawwww, so cute, right?) and then the whole congregation sings it which just sounds... ridiculous. I honestly squirm in embarrassment on everyone's behalf.

Hah! We sung this every year as kids and my mom just showed us a video of a little girl singing it this year. It's such a crappy song and we now always sing it off key and crack up laughing... All those years doing Christmas specials badly [emoji38][emoji23]


 

[lumpentheologie]

It's nice to see Jana for once not holding/attending to a child. 

[Pasta]

I don't understand why they're missing Mason from that picture.  Wasn't he born before Samuel? Or am I mistaken?

[MsSaylor]

@Pasta Sam was born in July and Mason was born in September

[singsingsing]

3 minutes ago, Pasta said:

I don't understand why they're missing Mason from that picture.  Wasn't he born before Samuel? Or am I mistaken?

Samuel was born in July and Mason was born in September.

Oops, @MsSaylor said it just before me - jinx!

[Sky with diamonds]

Are the Duggars trying to squeeze Josh in? Ugh, can't stand him at all.

[justoneoftwo]

On 12/25/2017 at 10:04 AM, Carm_88 said:

Merry Christmas from the Duggars. I couldn't figure out why Justin was in with the M Kids.

Its weird to me how much Jinger and Jeremy stick out.  Everyone else matches in tone but they are wearing really dark cloths.  Probably its just because I now they seem different, but it looks intentional.  

[MakeItSo]

I'm kind of surprised that they all don't match a little more. I don't mean matchy-matchy prairie dresses and overalls, but like...just a little more general matching, like they've done in the past (not saying I'd prefer that. In my head, it'd just be a Duggar thing to do). 

[VeryNikeSeamstress]

4 hours ago, justoneoftwo said:

Its weird to me how much Jinger and Jeremy stick out.  Everyone else matches in tone but they are wearing really dark cloths.  Probably its just because I now they seem different, but it looks intentional.  

JinJer are more dressed up than the rest of them, except maybe Jana. They look like the cosmopolitan city couple surrounded by country bumpkins.

[TuringMachine]

On 12/25/2017 at 5:40 PM, Carm_88 said:

And when Derick is cropped out. he will say "I wasn't cropped out. I was never in the photo."  

And then Cathy will come int with "A lot of assumptions are being made here."

[Antipatriarch]

On 12/25/2017 at 8:39 PM, sleepy_doggos said:

It's such a crappy song and we now always sing it off key and crack up laughing...

HA! Wish I'd thought of that... that song would be perfect for off-key mockery. Well done.

[HereticHick]

I see my least favorite DC event, the March for Life, is coming up in a couple weeks: Friday, January 19: http://marchforlife.org/

I wonder if any Duggarlings (or Bateseses) are going to come to Washington for it.

Or will they just go bother people at the Arkansas State Capitol March? I believe they've shown off special miracle baby Josie there in the past.

 

As always, I implore my sweet Rufus to give me the strength to get through the day without taking a discarded Knights of Columbus bloody fetus poster and bashing a Catholic high schooler over the head with it.