Onward into the new year

Although our week of rental at the chalet is due to finish on Jan 2nd, we Lewises are departing a day early. Rhiannon needs to get back to St Louis and we needed to build in some wiggle room with all the travel uncertainty.  It was fine in the end and I'm glad that we left some room to be able to regroup.  However, it was really hard to say goodbye to everyone after this wonderful week!

We had an amazing dinner and then watched the fireworks from our room since we retired for the night just a little before midnight. We are getting up early in the morning for the taxi to Salzburg airport and to kick off the new year!

Few more Austria pics

Although the snow conditions were not great, the weather was lovely and it was amazing to be with so many family members for this stretch of days.

More Austria

For the stretch of days that we stayed at this place, we had breakfast altogether, then went separate ways during the day, headed back to the chalet around 4-4:30, spent an hour or so in the spa/ sauna area, then got dressed for dinner and settle in to lounging the rest of the evening. It was so wonderful to spend these hours with dear family members. 

After a few days, we changed the routine so that the kids started eating a bit earlier and then got to go on the tablets afterwards while we adults & teens continued our dinner.

The Austrian smile...

Scenes from Austria

One night there was a ski show put on by the Instructors in the area and it was really fun to watch.

Austria here we come

We got picked up by a semi-grouchy Hello Taxi's bus driver in front of our house with a 16 passenger van and we all piled in to go to Heathrow and fly to Munich. 

We actually travelled in two groups - the California clan (5) and the rest of us (8) and arrived about an hour within each other.  Finally we walked into the grand chalet of Panorama in Maria Alm.  What a place!

We got settled into our rooms and had an amazing dinner prepared by Chef Thierry, then went to sleep at a decent hour ahead of our first day on the slopes. 

The next morning we had breakfast down in the nook 

and then set out to find skis and boots and start our adventure.

And so this is Christmas

"It's 7:31!!!" That was the loud whisper that the whole house could hear this morning as the kids were finally allowed to go downstairs and open stockings.  It was really fun to have littlies in the house for Christmas again, and our teenagers seemed to enjoy being the cool big kids.

After opening presents we went for a walk to get some fresh air.

We had quite a big brunch type meal that worked out pretty well, and then we had leftovers for dinner. It was a fabulous Christmas day and evening. The only thing was that we were missing our sister Heidi and her family, who weren't able to come over and join us. 

Tomorrow morning very early we are starting out journey to do a week of skiing in Austria!

Christmas Eve

This year we decided to have our fancy Christmas meal on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day, and it was a great call!  Here are some photos from the day

Outing to Royal Tunbridge Wells

We had another outing today with just the 9 of us to get out of the house and explore.

We had a good time in the town and did a bit of Christmas shopping.  Of course, it was lovely to come home and get cozy with everyone. Tryfs and Rhiannon were already cozy laying in front of the fireplace.  

Happy scenes round the house

It has been wonderful to be able to share big family dinners. The camping table with built in seats has worked a treat for the littlies!

They did a great job of decorating the Christmas Cake with some colorful icing.  Each of the four of them did a thoughtful drawing of what they would want to have as the decoration, and then Phoebe (as the eldest) did a great job of diplomatically selecting an aspect of each person's artwork in icing form.

Grandma Debi was a welcome source of steady warmth and comfort

And then tonight the 6 of us went out to the Hopyard for a swifty on our way to collect fish and chips that Grandma Debi paid for.

Outing to Lewes

We spent some time last night deliberating on how to spend the next day, and we converged on the decision to go into Lewes.  It was a great decision because we had a good day there.

We walked around Lewes Castle and then we had lunch in a cafe on the High Street. It was delicious and exactly what we all needed. A group of 9 walking around on a cold blustery rainy day with 4 of the 9 being littlies is kind of a handful for any cafe, but this guy was really gracious and moved tables around so we could sit together.