The FIS guys have a joke that us American girls are always saying that this awesome thing or that cool thing are “the BEST EVER. Like, ever.” Apparently we also say things are “the best ever” when they’re actually not all that fantastic, but I like to call that optimism.
Anyways, this Christmas break with my family in Davos might actually have been the best ever. I was so happy to be spending a relaxing week soaking up family time and just hanging out with my Mom, Dad and little sister. It helped that they were in vacation mode and I also needed a little break from racing, so I was able to chill out which was exactly what I should have been doing.
Of course, I was still training, and focused when it was time to clip into my bindings, but as soon as the skis came off it was time to play Christmas tunes on Andy’s guitar with my Sister singing the lyrics, decorate the tree, bake a gingerbread house…all the traditional fun stuff we get up to over the holidays. And thanks to friends in town, we went to a Davos Hockey game!!! It was so fun!
On Christmas Day we had the USST team “orphans” over for some family time and a nice dinner. We also made a gingerbread house from scratch, which is actually pretty hard to get all the pieces to fit together right! But with a little help from some string we got it done. 🙂
We also took a day trip to Livigno, in Italy. It was fun to ski some new trails and see a town I’d never set foot in before. We skied for a few hours, ate delicious food and walked the shopping street all lit up for Christmas.
Although there’s definitely a little risk that comes with Alpine skiing during the competition skiing (especially for me! Hah), I decided I needed to make sure I wasn’t SO careful with my career that I would resent skiing for stopping other fun adventures.
So on my day off my family and I went Alpine skiing on Parsenn, one of the mountains surrounding Davos. It was powdery and the morning was sunny and clear and it was breathtakingly beautiful. I was so happy!
It’s funny to me that on many XC skier’s “day off”, we often go do other adventures or try other sports. *sigh* it’s hard to make an endurance athlete actually rest! But I didn’t fall or hurt myself so I’m not on the outs with the coaches.
My family left last Tuesday, but it was a wonderful vacation!
Before we left Davos, we celebrated Kikkan’s 32nd birthday with a mustache ski. This isn’t a new thing for us! We did it 2 years ago on the tour, and I think we really confused a lot of the other teams but it made everyone laugh.
Then we traveled to Obersdorf, Germany for the start of the Tour de Ski. After a healthy break I’m so excited to be racing again!