Frohe Weihnachten!

Every year Santa decorates a big sugar cookie of every family member and puts them in our stockings. But when you're not at home....

Your older sister gets to eat yours!

I'm used to spending a lot of time away from home especially in the winter but it's always a little harder at this time of the year.  I grew up with so many holiday traditions that can be hard to replicate on the road.  Even the little things like sitting as close as possible to the wood stove first thing in the morning when the rest of our wood heated house is still a little chilly is a really special feeling.  So I always dread not being at home at Christmas even if I'm doing something I love.  But that said, I had a wonderful Christmas this year.  I spent the ten days between the Toblach World Cup and the Tour de Ski with my teammates in Davos.  We rented a really nice apartment and had a great break together cooking delicious meals, skiing, ice skating on Fluella pass under the full moon, and enjoying the sunshine.  Winter hasn't really arrived yet in most of central Europe so we skied on a manmade loop in Davos but enjoyed sunny weather every single day! 

After the last World Cup we drove from Davos to Zurich via Innsbruck where we stopped for some groceries.  It was cheaper there than in Davos so we stocked our kitchen for the week and also had a scenic drive through Innsbruck in search of a bigger grocery store.

Jessie serenading our living room with some Christmas carols 

Our house came decorated with two Christmas trees and we added some other decorations from the "Christmas box" our team saves in Europe so the apartment was very festive!  I woke up early a few mornings and loved reading in the light of the tree with a cup of coffee before everyone else woke up 

Andy, Noah, and I at the dinner table.  We don't often have kitchens or the opportunity to choose what we want to eat so we took advantage of this time and had some awesome meals including burgers, curry, fajitas, mushroom risotto, pad Thai, and sushi bowls!

Noah and Liz making sushi rolls!

Yum!

Chrismas family this year getting a little silly.  So lucky to spend the holiday with all of them!

The view from our deck on one of the cloudy days

Lunch on the deck after a morning of skiing

We were just out of town at the base of the Jacobs Horn gondola so it was an easy walk to the ski trails or grocery store.

A strip of snow in green grass.  There was about 8km of manmade snow in Davos.  The temps were freezing at night so they were making new snow most nights and many of the trails (not this one) were shaded so the conditions held up extremely well.

Christmas eve dinner with the Capol family is a highlight of our Swiss Christmas.  Jurg Capol works for FIS and is the mastermind behind the Tour de Ski.  He lives about 45 minutes from Davos with his wife and daughters and they have graciously welcomed us into their home for a wonderful meal.  Jurg's wife Michaela taught herself how to cook a turkey just for us and I think her turkey's may be the best that I'v ever had!

Delicious food and great company

The moon shining on the snowy mountains on the top of Fluela pass! We ice skated on the top of the pass under the Christmas full moon!

Winter in Switzerland?

A pretty drive to Lenzerheide from Davos for interval training on the next World Cup sprint course 

Almost looks like VT

This tunnel maybe not as much

A pretty Swiss church in the village of Schmitten

The view from Lenzerheide.  Today we drove 45 minutes from Davos to Lenzerheide for the start of the Tour de Ski.

The Tour de Ski starts here this weekend!  The entire tour is eight races in ten days in three countries!  I'm only planning to race the first five or six races and then will stop in order to recover for the following World Cup weekend in Slovenia.