Ringing in 2017!

Happy New Year!

We ended 2016 - and started 2017 - at home in snowy Austria!

We spent a wonderful New Year's Eve with our next-door neighbors, eating delicious food and chatting while the younger kids played.  Such a great evening!  And bonus: living next door means you just bring the kids home and put them to bed when they're tired and then continue on partying!  (Thanks to thin walls and strong baby monitors :)  By midnight both of our kids were asleep - and Brian and I were awake!!

As the Kartause church bells rang out 12 times at the strike of midnight, we stood in the snowy field in front of our home watching the fireworks light up the ski.  A blessed and beautiful start to 2017!

There's only a light snow-covering in Gaming right now - but the forecast shows it's supposed to snow all week!  However, if you drive 10 minutes up the mountain you're surrounded by lots and lots of snow (we got rained on for a few days, but they got snow).

Brian and I took to the slopes for a date a couple of days ago.  We didn't ski (due to baby boy in utero), but we enjoyed walking around among the skiers, drinking hot chocolate, and eating lunch sans the kids!

We do have a new skier in the family though!  Ellie spent January 1, 2017 on the ski slopes!  

She's 3 years old, which is the age (if not younger) most Austrian children learn to ski.  We didn't have her skis fitted quite right when she started out today, so she only made it down twice - but she had a great time and is already asking when she gets to ski again!

She was a pro at sledding down the mountain though :)  

The hill is in the neighboring town, Lunz am See.  There are a couple of small runs there.  Their bunny slope area, where you can use the "carpet" ski lift to pull you to the top to either sled or ski down, is perfect for Ellie!

The two times Ellie went sledding/skiing this week were during Francis' afternoon nap - so he and I missed out on the snowy fun.  But we always 'have a ball' (or two) playing in the warm indoors :)

Wishing you many blessings in this year ahead!  God bless!