la semaine blanche

Last week, on midwinter break, we packed up and drove up to the Alps for some skiing and vacationing. My grandmother grew up in the mountains and so returning to where she grew up is always very special. Somebody of the family was on the slopes five out of the five full days we were there. The first day our toes and fingers were frozen numb after one run and we weren't long in finding refuge in a warm chalet. One of the lovely things about skiing in Europe, restaurants are dotted all over the mountain, one at least for every couple of runs. By the end of the week though, we had brilliant blue skies and puffy white clouds, my very favorite weather for skiing, or anything else. 

The last day we pulled off the skis early and headed up the lift again, this time armed with sleds. We discovered the sledding run and and the fun of speeding down the mountain a different way. The whole experience was very fun and something we'll be sure to repeat. Although there are ten minutes of that trip that I would be quite happy to not repeat. The ten minutes in which my sled slid down the slope, riderless, and I had to wade through the unbroken snow to get it, not without almost falling apart. After that, each time that I or my sister fell off the sled, plunging headlong into snowdrifts or slipping down off the track, we made sure to hold onto the blue plastic handle and always came up laughing.

p.s and somebody small lost his first two teeth! that's the excitement around here.