A Topless Tree!

Whilst I don't intend to write a daily blog I'm making the most of a quiet chalet. Our first guests arrive this evening, well, tonight at 10pm and would still like dinner! Not a problem - I've revamped the carrot soup and we'll be having chicken (now down to 26 pieces!) in a delicious homemade tomato sauce with a green salad, finished off by Mrs Ginger's Chocolate Brownies (recipe here) and homemade ice cream!

Talking of dinner, last night's went down very well with the lovely Ski Royale owner, manager, staff and family. We impressed with some yummy canapes - I didn't even get one - and some yummy vin chaud. The soup was tasty, the chicken worked well (I still have 30 odd more to use!) and the Tiramisu was such a success that one dinner guest managed 2 and a half and another was 'forced' into enjoying a second! It's all part of my determination to not gain the chalet girl pounds but give them to guests instead...I'll post the recipe next time I make it.

Luckily for our guests our tree, which, until yesterday afternoon, was feeling rather naked and bare with no top part (it's a three part fakey) was found a top and some decorations and now looks beautiful!

We've been for another little ski today on the very limited amount of lifts open. This is partly due to the resort not being officially open until Saturday but also in due to the lack of the white stuff - snow! The Megeve snow makers have been busy and they are keeping the open runs in a really good condition. I've certainly got my ski legs back and am very much looking forward to skiing the rest of the resort.

I am certainly not the fastest skiier and whilst I'm negotiating the second bend of the run Martin, the guide from Les Cimes, is already back on the lift ready for his seond run!! Today Phil took is board up and I thought I'd have more chance keeping up but he's like Mr Daredevil himself and was hurtling down the hill! I'm not sure what level of control he had over the board but he didn't look too bad! We took our sandwiches up to the top of the open hill nd enjoyed lunch with a view - the only thing spoiling it was the delicious smells of BBQ and chips with vinegar coming out of the horrendously expensive restaurant!

So now we're back at our chalet hoping for the return of the powdery sparkly stuff tonight - it is forecast and all the French say it's coming and they're NEVER wrong!

PS Alex (the rather handsome chalet owner/mountain climber/ski instructor...) came by this morning just to empty our fire ash on the garden?!