There is something so smug and satisfying about seeing rosy cheeks on children, worn out and full of fresh air after a day spent skiing or playing in the snow. It was about this time of year five years ago that we first thought about having a family ski holiday. It seemed daunting at first, lots of our friends did it every year but where do you start? Where do you go? What’s the best place to take children and when is the best time? Literally, weeks before Christmas we secretly booked a ski holiday to Austria……we didn’t tell the children that a couple of days after Christmas we would be going skiing for ten days over New Year.

I managed to kit the children out somehow without them knowing, wrapped all the ski clothes, goggles and accessories and gave them to the children to unwrap on Christmas day. Needless to say they were thrilled and even better they didn’t have to wait ages until we went. Typically, it snowed heavily here the day before we left, but nothing compared to the snow we saw when we landed in Austria…..plus extremely low temperatures. There is something so magical about snow, so beautiful.

‘Little I’ went to a creche most days and had fun with children of her own age and the older ones went to ski school, I went back to ski school too as it was years since I had skied. It’s amazing how it’s one of those things that you don’t forget though! I have a love/hate relationship with skiing…..one minute the wind is blowing through my hair, taking my breath away, my stomach turning with the thrill of it, the next I could be standing at the top of a mountain wondering what the hell I’m doing. The adrenaline rush always wins though!

Hot chocolate is an essential part of a ski holiday and food eaten in the mountain restaurants after a hard morning of skiing is all the more delicious and wonderful.

The next time we skied was in France where the older three had intensive ski lessons with a lot of fun thrown in, including visiting an ice museum up a mountain. I did my first black run!  I couldn’t believe it.

We last skied in Austria where ‘Little I’ had ski lessons, she was four years old, how cool is that?…….The older children are now proficient skiers and there is nothing better than whizzing through beautiful snowy countryside together as a family- bliss! Being stuck up a mountain in a white out, although scary, sticks in my mind as a real ‘family moment’ and I honestly believe that family ski holidays are ‘up there’ with the best! Healthy too….as long as you don’t have too many hot chocolates. 😉

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