A Courch Christmas

Joyeaux Noel to everyone! I hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas.

Although I already celebrated Christmas with Claud and Lars in November, I felt the need to participate in the current Christmas. The Christmas celebrations started off with the "Bin Bag ball" that took place on Tuesday night. As Wednesday was our day off, we all knew we had to take part. I was not privy to the preparation that goes into a bin bag ball as I did not really know what a bin bag was up until 2 weeks ago. Turns out it is a trash bag. Wanting to feel cool I decided to participate. I made a pretty little so called prom dress out of my bin bag and proceeded to get absolutely hammered in about 5 minutes. I blame it all on the altitude and the fact that I am 28 and just cant hang like the 18 year olds. I ended up passing out, sitting up in my bed, around 11 PM. All in all it was an extremely successful evening for me. My roommate still thinks I am a tool since she came in at 4 am and found me sitting up as if I was trying to read a book. Damn spins.

The next day we had the day off so we all hit the hill. It had snowed several inches the night before and I made sure I was on the first lift. The powder was amazing and we spent the most of the day in the snow. At the end of the day we met up with our group for some sledding. My boss and our rep had organized some fun for us. I remember thinking initially how lame sledding is and how much I hate it since I could not forget my previous sledding experience that led to me having a concussion. Regardless, I figured it would be super lame and boring. Turns out there are no rules in France when it comes to sledding, or anything really. When they sled here it does not remotely come close to what we are used to in the States. The type of sledding they do is down dark runs that are closed off, in the middle of forests, extremely bumpy, and all around deadly. It was absolutely hilarious. There were 15 of us bombing it down these runs. I am still surprised that no one died. Apparently last year several people dislocated shoulders, knees, elbows, what have you and had to end their season there. After that we headed down the Valley to La Pras for some burgers.

On Thursday, Christmas Eve Day, we were told to meet my boss and our rep on the hill after breakfast. We quickly sorted out the Chalet and made our way up there. We were greeted by two Santa's who looked a bit shady and scared most of those passing by, especially children. Charlie and Mike, our Santa's, had planned out a fun little mountain game for us that involved us chasing in them around the runs, gaining points for tackling them or pounding them with eggs, as well as additional points for the best naked ski tricks. My team won of course. It was by far the most fun I have had since I have been here. The looks on peoples faces as we bombed down the mountain in hopes of tackling the two pervy Santa's was priceless. My favorite moment from the day came when after having been tackled by 2 members of my team, a little girl skis past Santa Mike, sees him on the ground covered in eggs and shaving cream, and yells at the top of her lungs, "Someone save Santa, he is being attacked." Priceless.

The following day I headed up to the hill with my three ski buddies; Mike, Charlie, and Ian. Since it had snowed so much the following two days, we knew it was going to be a great day. Never did we expect it to be as great as it was. We spent the day off piste, skiing most of the tree runs that were to be had. We took a break and skied down to La Tania to have burgers. After all, it was Christmas and we had a lot to celebrate. That evening we served our guests the traditional English Christmas dinner. After dinner I was pulled aside by one of our guests who requested that I have the entire staff come out. He ended up orating a 10 minute speech about what a phenomenal team we were and how we had done such an amazing job the entire week. Hearing that made us forget all of the crap that happened the week before. It also reminded me that for every 10 assholes, there is always 1 person that makes up for their shortcomings. I was reassured about the entire operation and felt confident to proceed.

All in all, I have to say this Christmas was by far the best Christmas I have ever had. Who gets to celebrate Christmas twice in two months?