Ski Trip to Avoriaz

We just finished a fabulous trip to the ski resort of Avoriaz, France.  Avoriaz is a quaint resort in the Portes du Soleil ski area of the French/Swiss Alps.  It is car free, so people either walk around the town or hitch rides in horse-drawn sleighs (complete with sleigh bells)!  We bought a little sled and just pulled Tyler and Natasha around in it.  We stayed in a beautiful new ski-in/ski-out apartment complex complete with a spa, pool and games center.  The three older kids went to ski school for a couple hours in the morning, so that Rob and I could do some real skiing ourselves.  Natasha stayed with a babysitter every morning.  Doesn't this sound nice?  It was!  I was afraid that I would not be able to ski well because I'm 6 months pregnant but I look like I'm ready to give birth!  The skiing was just fine.  It was the bending over to help the kids that hurt me.  Once I sat down to put on Tyler's skis and I could not get up again!  It took lots of pulling from Rob to finally get me up again. One highlight for me was getting to ski from France into Switzerland.  How cool is that?

Avoriaz also puts on an amazing Christmas "spectacle" every year -- a Santa Claus, giant snowmen, and one of the best fireworks shows I've seen!

The view from our apartment window.

 Anna Claire posing with the view.

 Tyler too!

Mariah has to do it too!

 One nice part of the trip was doing Christmas without having to worry about the presents. (We opened most of the presents before we left.)  That meant that we could focus on the true meaning of Christmas and really emphasize Christ's gift to us.  Of course, we did our traditional Christmas play on Christmas Eve. . .followed by a nice raclette meal.

Tyler was our wiseman.

 Natasha wanted to be a wiseman too.

 As you can see we had plenty of wisemen!  That meant that Mommy was a shepherd and Mary (pregnant, of course) and Daddy was basically everything else!

Ski time!

"Come on Mom.  Just let me ski!"

"Woo Hoo!   Let's go fast!!!"

 Natasha cherishing her Daddy time!

Natasha got tired of watching us leave to ski every morning.  She would quickly put on her warm socks and boots, hoping we would take her.  It was hard to leave her. But she did have lots of fun sledding!  And, of course, she loved our après-ski swim parties.