This year, however, it wasn’t going to happen. Our brand new rescue dog came with pneumonia. Family descended for the weekend. I contracted a rotten cold, then couldn’t find two consecutive uncluttered days. So my home-for-the-holidays son and I set out on the solstice for a day hike - the next best thing - and it was an earth gift.

At Rockfish Gap (Afton Mountain) both the Blue Ridge Parkway and Skyline Drive were closed due to ice and snow. Hallelujah! Do you know what this means! You have the entire Shenandoah National Park, the entire George Washington Forest lining the Parkway to yourself. No cars, no motorcycles, no RVs and with any luck, both roads will stay closed until spring. Just you and the mountains. Behold the Christmas present! Get out. Hike, ski, snowshoe, backpack! And in addition to the solace, there is nothing more enchanting, more eye-sensual than winter woods.

We started our solstice hike from the Howardsville Turnpike under a Currier & Ives sky, walking south along the snowed-over Blue Ridge Parkway to the Humpback Rocks area. Up through the woods, we trekked along the Appalachian Trail until it connected to the Rocks spur trail. With all the leaves gone, the forest now has contour, snowy ridgelines undulating through the mass of gray sticks - trees whose trunks now flaunt undeniable texture - from deep groves to smooth, just peeling bark. And with the carpet of snow, there are all manner of animal tracks: deer, rabbit, turkey, squirrel.

We climbed, we slipped, and we scrambled out on to the Humpback Rocks outcropping for views that were all ours against a darkening sky of gray blue merging into oranges and pinks.

On the way down, it seemed that someone had let the water out of the backside of the mountain as the trail was a frozen waterfall. Slick, but fun, with a big red-headed woodpecker making fun of us as we gingerly swung from tree to tree.

And then, all too soon, it was over and back to Christmas mania. But I’ll be back after the New Year, and then for a night or two.