BOXING DAY FONDUE

Romain the little cousin loves to eat, so we had a lovely Savoyard fondue for dinner.  Bread and cheese what more could a boy ask for.

 He's such an adorable boy

 Sam lugging down the slopes apposite us

It's very fast.

CHRISTMAS

Well it's been and gone but we have Manu's sister and her family staying with us so I've been a little busy. Christmas day was without Manu as he was at work but we still managed to celebrate with him when he came home at 9 that night.  The night before I made a lovely Roast lamb dinner so Christmas day we ate leftovers and had some nice snacks that night with foie gras and Smoked Salmon.  Kids lasted till Manu came home to open presents but they had there stash from Father Christmas to open in the morning.

 Hanging up there stockings the night before Christmas

 When my mom was here earlier in December my sister sent her the book - The night before Christmas with a voice recorder so she recorded the story in her words and the kids opened the book - the night before Christmas.

 They loved the story.

 The morning of - first gifts

 Uncle Guy's present - what a hit

 On the night of Christmas Santa came to Praz to hand out sweeties, we were very quick it was -7C.

 Manu home and dishing out the goodies

And that was Christmas.

MEDAL DAY

Complete, that is the course the boys took this week and completed it they did with flying colours and have the medal to proove it.

DAY AND NIGHT

So this is the video of the kids skiing down the baby slope.  Can't believe how quickly they've picked it up.  Each day after their course I take them on the little baby lift and they practice on there own.

Tonight was the 'Descente aux flambeaux' where the ski moniters come down the slope with torches.  Impressive.

After we all had hot chocolate....

You can see the huge pot with flames under for the hot chocolate.  A welcome relief I must say.

SKI COURS COLLECTIVE

So we gave in and bought the kids a week of lessons, 2 and half hours a morning for a week, and they are very happy let me tell you.  Gee what an expensive sport, the gear, the lessons, the ski pass, the insurance it all adds up.  To give you an idea for an adult your lesson would be 39 euros an hour, plus you need a ski pass for the day 27 euros, plus the hiring of the equipement for the morning 36 euros times 10 for Rands and that makes R 1000 for an hour.  Phew so you can imagine.  Here are my happy boys and a picture of my broke husband.

 Today - we've had so much snow

 Walking to the piste with the kids on luges is the easiest way

 Some cross country skiiers - ski de fond, hoping to do this with Manu in Feb.

 A piste basher - and yes Benjamin wants one for his birthday

 Ben my little man

 Sam my big little man

 Benjamin doing his moves

 Samuel fully incharge

and again


And need I say they are fast asleep this evening at a very early hour, so spending all that money was well worth it.

AND ITS HOLIDAYS

Well all finished and yesterday we went to watch Benjamin do his final Christmas concert and then it was all over.  The kids are desperate for a break so it will be a good two weeks I think.  Then back to the routine 3rd Jan already.  We don't change school year yet that's in September so no pressure when they go back = same teacher etc.

 I was so proud of his little class - all with the red hats, I tought them to say 'Hello my name is ........I like ........' they did great.  Then they sang a little song in English too.  The guy who usually does it was away so I was asked to step in and went the whole week to practice with them.

Santa usually comes with a horse and sleigh but he got stuck in the snow and caught a lift with one of the mom's, he was in high spirits never-the-less.  We had no power in the morning and one of the kids in Ben's class came to school with a cut eye having walked into something in his bedroom in the dark, shame, and his phrase was the best 'My name is Alain and I like the news'.  Cute man.

ICE SKATING AND TINTIN

I took the kids ice-skating yesterday after Samuel's last appointment for the season in Sallanches,  they have a little Santa village, it's really nice but cold in the rain I must say.

You can hire these little aids in the form of a penguin or chair, otherwise Benjamin lands on his backside regularly, Samuel surprised me he skates really really well.  It was lovely with the Christmas songs playing in the background to.

On Thursday as a treat for the little and big school, they paid for the kids to go to the local cinema and watch Tintin.  I got to go along as a helper.  It was a fantastic movie I must say.

LES SAISIES, SWAROVSKI, SANTA COMES EARLY AND DEUXIEME BARETTE DE JUJITSU

Shew where do I start.  When I have people to stay I find it difficult to keep up with the blog. My mom was here for just under two weeks, dad stayed at home - too cold, just as well because we've had meters of snow.  Mom left yesterday and the trip was good, I always find the first week rocky getting used to guests no matter who they are - food wise, routine wise, kids wise etc the second week everything sank back into routine.  We did a lot to.

LES SAISIES
The first big snow fall happened last weekend so we went off to Les Saisies to do a bit of lugging.  It's higher than our little ski station so we were assured of nicely flattened snow by the piste bashers or d'aimers as they call them here.  A very impressive piece of machinery.

So we took Grandma and went off. The town was having a show with how living was in the early 1900's in the Alps, with tents, lots of fur involved and wolves. It was a great day.

 The dog sledge teams were also there getting some practice in.

 Manu with my mom

 Samuel with Grandma

 Benjamin and his Daddy

 You can see the two dog sledge teams in the distance

Sunset on the way home.

SWAROVSKI

We headed of to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree in Megeve.  Of course it's a Swarovski Christmas tree, nothing but bling for Megeve.  They take about a week to dress the thing with big Swarovski stars, pity on the poor guard who has to stand all night making sure no body steels the stars.  But it was fun, lots of free champagne, well not lots limited to one glass each, music and we met lots of friends so it was fun.

 This is a Caleche, play havoc with the motorists and will cost you a mere 22 euros for a ride and a short one at that - shew all this negativity

Lights were floating between buildings, it wasn't as cold as last year -17C so was much more agreeable at -3C.

 The tree in all its glory

SANTA COMES EARLY

Before my mom went back we had an early Christmas just so the kids could open there presents from Grandma and Grandpa.  We did this in the evening so in the day we went walking with snow shoes.  Wow what a sport hey, a 20 minute walk took us an hour.  Great fun though.

 Kids outside our house building a wall

O no it's a house

 Kids very happy with there video jets

And we had a lovely Roast Chicken for supper

DEUXIEME BARETTE DE JUJITSU

Translated this is the second ribbon Samuel now receives from Jujitsu for completing the semester successfully.  We went to watch the final last night.

Here are some extra pics of my mom's visit.

Mom the coal miner thanks to the expert make-up artist - Benjamin.  Too funny.