Happy new year, everybody. I hope you all had a relaxing time over Christmas and new year. We had our break in the mountains. As in previous years I spent the two festive weeks also working for the Swiss ski school in Champéry. The conditions could not have been better. The Alps received a ton of snow early December so the snow cover was better than many could remember for the time of the year. The weather aided more by providing us with two almost completely sunny weeks. Smiles all around. If there was one downside to this it was the arrival of the indigenous population the second week. Normally you have a bunch of tourists who stay for the 1 to 2 weeks and will go up every single day to ski as it is their holiday. The locals, however, tend to wait and see. So the second week they all decided to join in the fun and we had a density of people that is even rare in February (the super high season) with higher incidents of collisions as a result. Well, that was the only downside. For the rest is was upsides. My family joined me, as well as a friend (pic of myself and my daughter below). The kids I worked with were great and I got to see many friends that I see there every year. Quality time away from screen and keyboard.
I hope you all have a healthy and prosperous 2009!