Enjoying the Christmas holiday with family and friends is the best thing about winter. But after the gifts have been opened and the holiday cookies have been reduced to crumbs, then what?

    While your kids are still on a break from school or visiting family or friends are in town, how can you continue the holiday fun? Go spend the day at Pebble Creek!

    Pebble Creek Ski Area is a located just outside of Pocatello in Inkom, is a great place to enjoy time together as a family and a good place to take guests visiting the area for a day in the clean and cold Idaho outdoors. With 1,100 skiable acres, Pebble Creek anticipates offering good skiing and snowboarding over the Christmas Break. If Mother Nature doesn’t cooperate fully, Pebble Creek will be making snow to give her a helping hand.

    “We are anticipating an absolutely wonderful season this year,” said Pebble Creek owner/operator Mary Reichman. “We are really excited and looking forward to it.”

    Pebble Creek is offering several programs during the Christmas break to focus on lessons and programs for kids. The three-Day Christmas Stars program is for children ages 4 through 12. This learn-to-ski program will be held Thursday, Dec. 26, Friday, Dec. 27, and Saturday, Dec. 28. The lessons are held from 1 to 3 p.m. Please check in by 12:30 p m. The cost is $89 for the program, or $35 a day, plus $12 if you need to rent equipment. Price includes lessons and lift tickets. Be sure to call Pebble Creek Ski Area for more information and to register for the lessons.     

    If you miss these sessions during the Christmas break, the program will be repeated March 2, 9, 3 and 10.

    Another program being offered during Christmas break are the one-day beginner lessons called Start Skiing! and Start Snowboarding! These are one-day lessons for first-timers on skis and snowboards. The lessons are designed for anyone from 10 years of age to adult, and you can choose to take the morning session or the afternoon session. The morning lesson is at 10 a.m. (sign up by 9:15 a.m.) or sign up by 12:15 p.m. for the 1 p.m. session.   

    The cost is $35 for the lesson, Aspen lift ticket, and rental equipment. ($25 cost for lesson and lift ticket only.) The program will be held every day of Christmas week except Christmas day. If you miss Start Skiing! or Start Snowboarding! during Christmas break, it will be offered again every Saturday and Sunday through mid-March of 2014, conditions permitting.  

    There have also been several improvements on the mountain in preparation for the 2013–2014 season that Reichman is happy to share with the public. One of these improvements is the work that has been done on the Outback Run.

    “It’s been completely re-cut and re-contoured for the intermediate skier,” she said. “It’s a gentler run down the hill, is completely groomable, and both sides of the run have been gladed.”

    In addition to the work on the Outback Run, Pebble Creek Ski Area can now boast a Stash Park. Terrain Park staff and volunteers have enhanced the Cherry Bomb area by clearing brush and cutting limbs to put together an area featuring jibs and hits, pillows and platforms. In short, it’s filled with fun terrain features built into a natural environment.

    If you need some help with transportation up the mountain, check out the Barrie’s Ski Bus program. Barrie’s Ski and Sports will be running its Ski Bus during Christmas break, which takes passengers up to Pebble Creek in the morning, leaving from Barrie’s parking lot, and bringing those passengers back in the afternoon. The bus will run Dec. 26, 27, 28, 30 and 31 of 2013, and Jan. 2, 3 and 4 of 2014. The bus loads passengers and gear at 8 a.m. and leave Barrie’s parking lot at 8:15 a.m. It unloads passengers at Pebble Creek at 3:30 p.m., leaving Pebble Creek at 3:45 p.m.     

    There is limited seating on the bus, so call ahead for seats. Call or go into Barrie’s Ski and Sports for more information and to sign up for the bus. Barrie’s is located at 624 Yellowstone Avenue in Pocatello, and its telephone number is 232-8996.