Christmas Day started just like most Christmas mornings all over the world… presents and way to much chocolate! We also managed a special Skype with the grandparents who are not with us for the first Christmas in 3 years.

As we headed to breakfast, Santa walked past carrying a snowboard. Boy blue practically jumped on him with excitement. The poor man played the role perfectly asking what his name, age and if he was happy with his gifts.

Boy blue excitement further grew during breakfast as he spotted more and more Santa’s, elves and reindeers hitting the lifts. If you dressed in Santa outfits, you got a free lift pass, which made the day very entertaining.

We had a lesson booked for the afternoon but the husband was keen to get out and practice ASAP which meant we were one of the first on the nursery slope. Even with the extra time required to dress us all as Santa’s! (Thank you taobao) .

After a fun morning sliding down the slope and spotting Christmas characters we headed in for a Christmas buffet in the hotel restaurant. Lego boy basically ate salmon and fruit, middle man ate his weight in pigs in blankets while boy blue ate a lot of cake!

Our afternoon lesson started on the nursery slope where husband mastered turning left and the big boys practiced jumping, and standing on one leg. Soon though it was time for their first chair lift. I went with the husband who despite his nerves was loving the views, I was super excited to be doing a run and knew the chairlift was necessary evil.

We successfully disembarked but the boys on the lift behind us with the instructor managed to completely take each other out.

All reassembled with skis, poles and Santa suits we managed a family picture at the top of their first run.

They all made it back down in one way or another and were super keen to go again and again! By the end of the lesson, all were super confident on the blue, lifts had a “ma ma hu hu” (horse horse, tiger tiger) (50/50) success rate but husband’s Santa beard had been ditched due to it flying in his face! Who knew long beards were impractical for winter wonderlands!

The day ended with a scavenger hunt around the village, the treasure was even more chocolate, followed by smores (chocolate biscuits and marshmallow ) around a fire. A Christmas Day full of adventure and chocolate!