Merry Christmas!

Monday:
E: We really had a lot of fun skiing. It was easier than I remembered. I spent much more time standing up than lying in the snow. The hotel is very nice and convenient.

S: We went skiing for the first time in my life. I learned how to use the poles. After ski lessons when I was learning to use my poles with Daddy and R I went on the big ski hill and used the button lift. I was impressed with myself because for my first day of skiing I was doing pretty well. I was having a lot of fun and when we went home we watched Christmas in Connecticut. It's funny when Mr Yardley says the baby looks different and the girl says, "Wouldn't you look different if you swallowed a watch?" even though it is a different baby.

R: I was pleasantly surprised when we got to the hotel and found out it was so much nicer than the other places we have stayed. There is a kid's club childcare that T and L love. In the basement there is a gameroom with ping pong, foosball, and some PS3s. There's a chess board in the lobby.  Our rooms are nicely sized and pretty with big TVs and lots of closets.

I was also happy to see the slopes which don't look super hard, but fun. I found out that at least the smaller beginner's slope is fun and manageable. Our instructor told us that by the end of the week, at least, we'd be going over the the bigger beginner slope, which made me happy. The bigger beginner's slope, from the bottom, looks long, steep, and exciting.

T: I did some skiing. There is a magic carpet that pulls you up the mountain. Then someone pushed me down. I went fast fast fast down the hill flying into the air, flying into the moon. I fell off my skis. My teacher helped me back on. We went on a merry-go-around. You hold onto a rope and go around on your skis. Then you eat a treat. We had iced tea and apples. Then we had a little dance. Then we were tired and it was over.

Christmas Eve:
E: After another great day of skiing we decided to walk back through town. We had a nice relaxing time watching the beginning of White Christmas and then went to the marathon Christmas Eve dinner.

A: Dinner was an unexpectedly long event. Five courses: beetroot mousee with pomegranate, consomme, scampi pasta, ham, and quince ice cream. There were a few variations for the girls, but none of this appealed to T at all. We used our usual tactics of bribing him with a Rivella soda and promising him other food when we got back to the room, but they couldn't buy us five whole courses. We would have left but we were held there by the promise of a visit from Father Christmas. So we stayed that long and T enjoyed it, but he bailed before dessert. By the time we all got back to the room it was time to read The Night Before Christmas and go to bed.

R: The visit from Father Christmas was not what we expected. Rather than Santa coming in his big red suit and having kids on his lap, the hotel shuttle driver arrived in a white wig and wearing a flourescent yellow emergency work suit. He claimed that he had to wear it because of the wind and snow. He had no excuse for the lack of beard.

He played some sing along Christmas songs in English and German like Jingle Bells, Silent Night, and White Christmas. Then we were treated to a clarinet solo by some kid. Then Santa gave all the kids Santa hats and little present bags from his suitcase. The bags had an apple, an orange, a pencil, and some tiny chocolates. It was a drawstring bag, and L wore hers like a little backpack. S and I would have liked to have seen the littles with Santa, but it was made up for by T having a lot of fun with our British friends in the hotel.

After dinner we read The Night Before Christmas and T really liked it. Then we went to bed with T ready for presents.

S: For Christmas Eve lunch we went to a restaurant and had crepes. We walked all through the village and found a new path to the hotel. R and I played ping pong and on the playstation games in the playroom. We listened to a lot of Christmas music and ate cookies. We also watched Santa's trip on NORAD and played some of the games on the NORAD website. When we went to sleep Santa was in South Africa. Usually when we go to sleep on Christmas Eve Santa is in Brazil. R decided to wake up early on Christmas so she could track Santa on the East Coast, which she never gets to see.

T: I skied again. We did it again and again and again. I skied ten times.

Christmas:
R: We woke up and Christmas and went outside to get the bus to the ski area. But when we got out, not only was it snowing, but the wind was blowing so hard that T nearly fell down. We were even considering not going once the bus was late since we knew all the slopes were closed except for the beginners'. Then the bus came and all of us skiers, minus T, who we let stay home because of the weather, left for the slopes. When we got there it was okay, just a flurry. But after a while there was a big snowstorm for about an hour. The wind was making mini tornadoes with the snow and as S says, the snow felt like tiny icicles cutting into your face.

Our class had to take a break, so we went to a cafe for some hot chocolate. When we came back out it was still windy, but not as much until the end of class. We did a few extra runs then went to lunch. After lunch Daddy and I skied until the slopes closed.

Christmas dinner was a five course meal even more elaborate than the one on Christmas Eve. We sent T upstairs to play on the ipad. After the first course, L was chewing some toast and mid-chew closed her eyes and fell asleep. The toast was still hanging half out of her mouth.

S: One of our friends at the hotel thought L was so funny that he came over with his phone and took a picture of her.

In the morning we each got one present to hold us over until we got home. T chose which present would be opened first. He kept changing his mind until he picked his. He got a Batman ugly doll. I got a carved wooden cow with a Swiss flag bell. L got a wooden puzzle with a picture of a mountain hut by the Matterhorn like the one we got lost at. Mama got a box of chocolates. R got a really soft fleece sweater. And Daddy got a big old bag of dried fruit.

The littles were in the kids club all day and they got to make cookies in the real hotel kitchen. Mama and R say that L was very cute, sitting on the counter with a rolling pin. In the late afternoon, R, Daddy, Mama, and I went outside and made a snowman. R did a great job on the arms.

Before bed Mama read us Nancy Drew with the characters replaced by superheroes for T. Those are his favorite stories. Mama replaces Nancy with Batman, George with Superman, and Bess with Hulk. Bess smash! We also had Christmas cookies and caramel (made by R) which Mama brought with us.

A: S and I also did some extra skiing after class. The wind was so strong that at one point, even with her skis facing straight down and pushing with her poles, S was blown back uphill!

That's S and me, to the left of the leftmost red sign.

T: I was in the kids club with L. We went in the kids club and we made cookies and we made brownies. Anything we can think of we could make. I used the rolling pin. Then I used the cookie cutter. I did triangle and a big heart you can eat when it's done when it cools down.

L: Good!