Christmas in Austria - 2011

Let me just start out with a little explanation. Last year, we were all home for Christmas in Charlevoix. At the end of the break, Mom and Denny took us out for dinner at Red Mesa in Boyne City to share some exciting news...they were adopting a baby from Russia. When nobody believed their exciting news, they old us they were moving to Germany. My mom had taken an 18 month contract as an occupational therapist for 0 to 3 year olds at the US military base in Kaiserslautern. This news came about 2 weeks after Dave was hired to teach learning support the following year at FIS, which is the international school I work at.

So this is a picture of all of us, Christmas 2010, at the Red Mesa, after hearing the news that Mom, Denny, Chelsea, and Dave were all moving to Germany.

And one year later, Christmas 2012, most of my family moved itself to Germany, within 1 1/2 hours of Oberursel. Pete and Miranda came to visit from Santiago, and Dad and Diane from Charlevoix for the first week. After that, the rest of us headed down to Wald, Austria, to spend Christmas in a chalet in the mountains. Talk about a dream come true. Here are Pete and Mom, putting out the Christmas lights in our little chalet.

This is the view from the front porch.

And the view from the driveway - Bergkristal.

Nigel and Chuckanucka got in on the party, too.

Christmas morning. Mom sewed a giant stocking for each of us and we packed them with little treasures from all over the world.

Pete and Miranda.

Christmas morning.

Christmas morning! Felix, me, Chelsea, Dave, Pete, Miranda, Mom, and Denny.





Mom and I are ready for our Christmas Day walk. Mom is showing off her new peruvian scarf, hand-crochetted hat from her lovely daughter Liza, and a hot hot hot Decathalon snowsuit special.

And then we spent days and days snowboarding and skiing in the Zillertal Arena. The slopes were nail-bitingly bare all the way up until Christmas and then it dumped the day we arrived...and kept on snowing. Talk about another dream come true! This is Pete on skis with Chelsea in the background.

Pete, Denny, Dave, Chelsea, Miranda, me, and Mom. Kind of a different caliber of ski outing from Nubs Nob, but boy did our childhood ski (mis)adventures prepare us well! And Mount McSabe, for that matter. I still prefer no poles and a rope tow!

Dave, me, Miranda, Chelsea, Pete, Mom, and Denny. This is our "missing Felix' photo. A month before Christmas, Felix broke his collarbone while snowboarding in Italy and he had to wait this one out. Darn!

Dave and Chelsea on the lift!

Denny- expert skier!

Chelsea off-piste in powder!

Miranda, always sunny.

Chelsea takes the jump!

So much snow that all the lifts but three were closed down in the entire Zillertal Areana in the morning...but then, in the afternoon, when most people had left, the snow let up, the lifts opened, and we had the entire place practically to ourselves...and knee deep in on-piste powder.

Me, Chelsea, and Dave!!!

Some days we didn't hit the slopes. Here are Mom and I at Europe's tallest waterfall. Who'd a' thunk it? (wow, look at Mom's great hat!)

And after our long days of adventures, we'd come home to a fantastic meal. Each night, a different couple took turns cooking. Bean soup, pasta, white chicken chili, raclette - wow!

Some nights we'd knit. Everyone had a knitting project. I'm attempting my first pair of leg warmers!

Some nights we'd play guitars.

Some nights we'd be so dead, we'd just pile around a good movie. (can you name that movie?)


What an amazing trip! We stayed from Christmas Eve to New Years Eve and every day was an adventure.

On New Years eve, we all reluctantly drove home, took a nap, and went out dancing in Frankfurt. Here's Pete's sexy dancing shirt (given to him by the parent of a student in Chile).

Miranda, me and Chelsea with Dave, Felix, and Pete waiting for the S-bahn at the Oberursel station into Frankfurt. Although it looks like a foggy night, the air quality is actually due to the enormous number of fireworks being blasted off all around us. Those Germans take their one opportunity during the year where fireworks are legal very very seriously!