Mon copine arrives.

Heidi was here for the holidays last week. She arrived a couple of days before Christmas and was a real trooper. She was only scheduled to be here for a week, so I thought she'd get hit hard by the lag. No jet lag for this girl. Other than the first night she didn't feel too tired for anything.

The day after she arrived we hit the hill. We slept in and started late morning. It was 1pm before we got into skis. The bus system wasn't quite the same as it is first thing in the morning for employees. So we waited a little longer at the wrong stop, ran after the bus when we didn't need to, waited again in Plagne Centre, and finally made it to Plagne Bellecote. By this time, we were ready for food and cafe'.

Finally on the chair. Nico calls me to say that the glacier had closed that day and the crew was near Champagny having lunch. The visibility was pretty bad so the skiing wasn't great, we headed to Champagny for lunch after only one run. Heidi was thrown right into the French way of skiing. That means you ski when its good, or not, then eat with friends and maybe ski more if you can still stand. This day was about the eating and drinking. After a great plate de jour of duck filet, potatoes, and veggies we headed out to meet Sandy for a beer. A run down to the bottom of Champagny and up was perfect timing to meet Sandy. We also met up with Mikey Hovey. Mikey grew up in the Vail valley and is also living in La Plagne for the winter. Couple more beers and we we're headed back home to get ready for Christmas Eve dinner with Nico's fam.

Nico's family had invited Heidi and I to holiday dinner. Dinner was at Nico's mom house on the other side of the valley from La Plagne. Anyone who has been away from their family during the holidays can tell you how much it sucks. So having Heidi was amazing, and Nico's family made us both feel very welcome for the holidays.

Before dinner we all had some duck and goose foie gras with wine and bread. The foie gras was actually really good, I think Heidi and I agreed the goose was the better of the two. After some fireworks for Nico's niece, literally fireworks in the house, we exchanged some gifts. Actually, Heidi and I received a few gifts from the family and were very grateful. Of course we weren't expecting anything and only brought a bottle of red wine for dinner to give the family. It was very generous of them.

For dinner we had a boat of seafood. Crab, snails, muscles, shrimp, oysters, crayfish, more shrimp, more snails. All this stuff was in a small Styrofoam boat you could have put the baby in. I don't mind shellfish, so I housed as many shrimp and crab as possible. The snails/urchins were a bit hard to eat, but I managed to eat at least one of everything. Heidi, not so much. When I saw that boat I knew Heidi was in for a challenge. She likes an occasional shrimp or two, but a boat was going to be hard. She said the bread was really good.

Christmas day we decided not to ski and just take it easy. I hadn't really seen much of La Plagne other than Bellecote, we decided to do some walking around the resort and see what we could. We had plans to have dinner with Nico and Mikey, so we did some shopping for dinner and gifts in Plagne Centre.

The next four days I was scheduled to work. Nico had those days off and showed Heidi around the mountain. She skied some of the powder we have, ate calf head, drank wine, and really enjoyed the French culture.

After skiing each day we spent more time eating and drinking. A couple nights this week we went to friend's houses for dinner. Fondue with Jean-Yeves and his girlfriend, CiCi. Then Rochlette with Sandy and Emily. And of course Liv. Sandy is a very proud father and loves being with his daughter.

Having Heidi come visit so early was awesome. She made missing home, friends, and family much better. Knowing she'll be back soon helps too. Having a visitor who speaks English eases the pain of bashing my head into the wall because my French is still lacking.

I know Heidi had a great week and many times didn't want to go back to the U.S. Those teachers at Edwards Elementary are lucky they have such a dedicated principal, or at this very moment she'd be here on her 3rd cup of coffee and second pain au chocolate. LOVE YOU BABE!