24/12/14
Today I got up early (and I had a half day off!!) And Rachael, Mum, Lauren, Hannah and I headed up the mountain to go skiing. The snow was pretty average - lots of ice, but it was good to put my season pass to some use finally!!
We were driven by Tanya at 8.20 to the bottom of the valley - Oey. Mum organised skiing gear for her lauren and hannah whilst Rachael and I shopped. I bought a helmet... cause I'm totally going to use it all the time in Perth. However I would rather wear my own than borrow and it would have cost me more to hire one than buy one!!
Then caught the gondela up to the top of Silleren. There we found what we thought was a baby slope and started practicing. Within 10 mins and less than 20 meters hannah had fallen over, lauren ran into her, I fell over from laughing and mum went past screaming that she didn't know how to slow down before falling over as well. This left Rachael standing next to hannah having to retrieve her pole from halfway down the slope not understanding what just happened. She later said it was the funniest 20 m of skiing she had ever done.
After figuring out the 'baby slope' we were on was actually a blue and red mixed slope. So we decided to try the blue slope which goes around the mountain and down the other side. That was all fine... until we hit the ice down the bottom. Mum decided she didn't want to stop and crashed onto the tarmac. Luckily some nice Swiss people helped her up because we all just laughed.
We skiied until about 2ish, when Rachael and I decided that we had had enough and instead sat and had Gluewein, whilst the rest of them went up and down the blue run at the top of Silleren.
We saw Danielle and Ana at one point - they had come up to go sledding.
At 3 pm Rachael, Mum and I headed down the mountain to go back to the Chalet. Rachael and I started work at four. Tanya picked us up at Oey at 3.30 and we were back at the Chalet by 3.45 pm. By the skin of our teeth we were in the kitchen making dinner by 4.
Christmas Dinner was a full and traditional Christmas dinner - Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, sprouts and peas. It was nice to eat a hot meal for Christmas and not have the aircon on!
We lit the Christmas Tree after dinner (real candles again!!) and handed out the presents which were underneath.
After Dinner, there was a 'talent show' where each family or group was invited to share a performance with everyone. Naturally, I was nominated by my family to play flute for my families preformance. To finish the show, some of the Chalet staff had organised an outdoor Christmas tree on the hill side to overlook the town lights. We sung some carols in different languages whilst we admired the lights.
At 9:30, we went to church. There was an international service being held in Boden, the village next to Adelboden. It was a bilingual service in German and English (with only minor interpretation errors!). I had been asked to play 'Away in A Manger' on flute, as part of the service.
