Christmas & Skiing

Posted by Simon

Well now I can sit down at the computer and get a 'blog in edgeways' I thought I'd write a little about our Christmas Ski Trip for 9 days. We stayed at a friend's apartment in the town of Guillestre. This is near the ski resorts of Risoul and Vars, which we drove up to.

The snow was very good and for most of the time it was sunny, but the temperature varied and by the end of our holiday it was extremely cold (-20 with the wind chill factor). Rosie and the boys had lessons for the first 6 mornings. Tom improved a little over the week and is slowly learning to parallel, but needs to concentrate more on what the instructor says. Ben was in the Flocon level and both his skiing and confidence grew. Whilst Rosie's skiing has come on a lot her instructor said she needs more speed/confidence.

I skied with Sally and other friends in the mornings. In the afternoons and the last three days I skied with the Rosie and the boys, sometimes assisted by Sally and/or friends. In the last few days we all learnt to increase our speed as both boys skied non-stop. I'd be happily waiting, chatting or taking in the view when I'd look down hill and there would be a rapidly disappearing Tom or Ben. So off I, or someone else, would go, racing down to catch up. And a special thanks to A & L for skiing with us on the final two days and helping with the boys - it was greatly appreciated.

On Christmas Eve the instructors did a torch light (real flames) descent and Tom's class also went on this, joining in with the instructors about ½ way down. He loved it but seemed totally overwhelmed. Skiing by torchlight must have been brilliant and he was very lucky. When they were back at the resort Santa appeared on the roof tops and abseiled down. This was followed by a lovely fire work display. The evening finished by Tom and Ben discovering that Santa had been to our apartment and left them some gifts.

After lessons on Christmas day we went back to the apartment and had our presents. The boys had a lovely time unwrapping and playing with their new toys and games. Rosie got a selection of books to increase her knowledge of self sufficiency and I was given some home brewing equipment, so later this year will be sampling home made beers and wines.

And Christmas Dinner - well, even with all the ski gear and presents, we did manage to fit in the car one of our turkeys and a joint of pork. Both were delicious and we were extremely pleased with the turkey as it was beautifully moist and had an excellent flavour. Compliments to the cooks.

We had both a lovely holiday and Christmas but all to soon it was time to go home. After a 14½ hour drive we got back to a very cold house, a pile of washing and a list of jobs we are now working our way through.