It has been a while since I filled everyone in on life and times. I have been trying to keep up with the pictures but now I have a few quiet moments, the holidays are done and I can finally relax...and so I think of you.
The week before school got out, everyone was sick , including Frank and I so we took turns with feverish children who slept on and off for days on end. Now, feeling that it would be rude, Frank and I each felt obligated to join in this napping as soon as it was one of our turns! We all rallied and were back on our feet for the last day of school. Thankfully, I was in such a frenzy to make sure that all of my US shipments made it out in time for Christmas, I was in good shape to face the first week of vacation. We had snow and cold weather so we , of course, went out hiking and generally carrying on! We hiked all through Richmond park, the boys learned that frozen rivers DO NOT freeze solid, and despite my MANY warnings of...don't jump on the ice...we had to experience that one for ourselves and fall in. Matthew took the brunt of it, but was a trooper and continued on claiming "I'm not cold" ! We had various Christmas parties to attend including 2 Rugby Parties and Frank's office parties. Frank's involved standing OUTSIDE in the freezing weather (because the first pub was full) and singing Christmas carols, then moving onto the next pub where there was food and drink, a band and karaoke. All good fun and we learned that train rides home, late at night, during Christmas party season is NOT for the faint of heart, or stomach! We all had work and things to do the next day, but many of our fellow travelers had no such obligations and had enjoyed themselves a bit too much.
At the Rugby parties, we learned that they train them young in the ways of celebrating. At one point they were just throwing food into the air over the boys tables...nothing hit the ground...Bridget's group learned some new drinking songs involving soda, but the older tables...we aren't exactly sure...LOTS of parenting after that party!
On Christmas Eve, Nick served and Bridget sang at the youth service...it was very nice, but several of the Christmas Carols they use a different tune, so we were WAY off key :) On Christmas Day we had some friends over to share the fun. They are from Poland and Spain so out table was filled with Roast Beef, Ham, Sauerkraut and sausage, homemade yorkshire puddings and special olive and ham rolled bread. All of it was topped off by Frank's homemade Buche de Noel and Chantilly Cream...we were all stuffed!!
On the 26th we set off for skiing in France. Now several things were going on and as we entered France, well, life changed. First, as I have said, it has been unseasonably cold and snowy here. This means only a few inches and temperatures just below freezing, but it has been for weeks on end and they don't really have much in the way of snow plows and such. This has meant no end of traffic nightmares and public service announcements of "Don't leave you home unless you really have to !". The Chunnel was closed for the first time in in 1/4 million crossings. 5 trains had to be towed out in the days before Christmas because they were picking up so much snow on their runs into the tunnel, that when it melted, it short-circuited something and the trains just stopped. We had reservations, but there were news reports and web postings of nightmares of long waits and not getting across etc. needless to say, as we set out, we weren't really expecting to get there. But alas, by the day after Christmas, people had either figured it out, or gone home and we sailed across no problem. We had beautiful sunny weather all the way there.
We arrived in Tignes to another sunny day. Our rental apartment was lovely, looking out over the town and slopes and had plenty of sleeping room...all twin beds..so Frank and I would wave to each other from across the room each night. For those of you who have traveled with us or, on your own with kids, you know there are some basic things that help. A kitchen, preferably with all working appliances, and laundry, particularly on a ski vacation, the ability to dry wet mittens and ski pants comes in handy...these do not exist in France best as we can tell! So immediately, we had to go into clothes sparing mode. That meant, if it wasn't horribly smelly and people could stand next to you outside in the cold without passing out, you could wear that again! This was a pretty easy standard, because all through town there were rows of meat and cheese vendors..selling the STINKIEST cheeses I have ever smelled!
Once we moved into this mode, it was a rapid downhill slide into not bathing. Again, the stinky cheese was everywhere so we were safe! It started with a trip to the pool. It was also right close to us so after skiing each day, we'd go over to loosen up on a crazy water slide, lazy river, whirlpool, lap pool extravaganza. Now, in the US no matter where we have gone swimming, it is always the same, you pay, you enter women's and men's rooms respectively, you re-emerge poolside and off you go. In England, it is coed all the way! You shower while standing along side the pool with your fellow swimmer/bather friends and then move to the coed locker room and squeeze yourself into the tiniest little changing stall(and if you are a 13 yo girl) praying for all you're worth that there isn't some teenage boy in the next stall! There always is. In France, it gets even stranger. You enter Coed, you open 1 door to a changing stall and then you must exit the opposite door of said changing stall carrying your snow boots, ski pants etc etc while you are in your bathing suit..still coed. You search for a locker(because we learned that backpack are NOT allowed on the pool deck). Then you enter same sex shower rooms....I only learned this by walking into the mens shower room with the boys....apparently this is a common mistake as no one blinked...well except for me. You then re-emerge pool side, but the women must walk by the wide open men's shower room. Needless to say...more parenting about body parts and not staring . After a swim, since you have to enter the coed changing area, our showers were brief and off we would go...hence Eau du chlorine was our new deodorant.
Skiing in France brought more new lessons. In England, there is an unspoken, but very clear rule about lines. You have heard me complain about these before that you must queue for everything. but there are rules and NO ONE steps in front of you in line and even at the bus stop, everyone knows who got there first and people will step aside to let that person on before others. Not so in France. Our motto became ..ok children we are going into the lift line "ELBOWS UP!" Really, I have never been elbowed, pushed shoved, skied over like this in my life! Where was my happy lift jockey organizing people into groups of 6 to keep the line moving smoothly, playing music and generally keeping order. No where! It was every man, woman and child for themselves...really, by the end of the week, I was throwing elbows myself!
The skiing itself was beautiful, the Alps are amazing, but you are far above the tree line and it snowed everyday we were there and when that happens, you can't see ANYTHING...not even where the moguls are, until,of course, you go crashing into one. They also don't feel the need to mark trails very much, except for very tiny back and white signs...can you guess how many of them we saw through the snow and cloud? We really aren't sure what runs we went down. The last day, the sun finally came out and we had a sense of where we were and had fun as the kids took us on all the runs we never found, but they went on in ski school. Matthew and Nick apparently spent a lot of time learning to ski backwards and do moguls...so Nick offered to teach me for a $1 a lesson! New Years brought a HUGE outdoor party to the mountain and we could here all the music and watch the fireworks from the comfort of our balcony as the kids all said..can't we just get in our pajamas and stay in...I love my children!
All-in-all a great experience, but we appreciated even more how great it is skiing in the Northwest!
We headed off early on New Year's Day to miss the crush of people all trying to get off the mountain at the same time. We had an early crossing on the 2nd so spent the night in Calais, which was lucky since it had started snowing again and driving was a nightmare for the last 10miles. We were up early to see sunrise and just hoping for a hint of the White Cliffs of Dover from our snow covered beach, no luck, but we imagined it! Home at last to our house of 42 degrees(it has taken all day for it to heat up!). The kids have spent the day playing with all of their Christmas stuff as we had nothing electric for the whole week and Frank and I are slowly unpacking, doing laundry and finally showering( only after the house warmed up).
As we enter the New Year, we are thankful for all of our adventures and look forward to more in 2010, but mostly looking forward to seeing all of you again. Our spare room stands at the ready for any and all that would like to take advantage while we are here. Keep you calls and e-mails coming, they are little care packages for us. We hope everyone had a happy and healthy Holiday Season. Cheers!!
