Holiday Time

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!!!

I am in Davos, Switzerland for the Holidays this year, preparing for the Tour de Ski which starts in Oberhof, Germany on Saturday.  The Tour is 7 races in 9 days and is a very taxing but extremely fun bit of the season.  We are thoroughly enjoying the holidays together as a smaller team and I want to wish you all a very happy holiday season wherever you may be.  Here is a recap of the week.

Picture of me racing in last week's 15k skate taken by Andrew Moorehouse.  Great to have some extra help over here this week including Eli Brown, Erik Flora, and our awesome PT/Massage Therapist Fredrica "Fred" Manning. Huge shout-out to these guys for the awesome extra help this week.

And another HUGE HUGE shout-out to my awesome Rossi boot guys.  These guys are the reason I am pain free in my feet and able to train and compete at my best.  Luca and Luigi drove the long drive from Montebeluna, Italy to Davos to help me and a few other athletes out with some boot work.  Thanks a ton guys! You rock.

Noah and Jessie night 1 in our apartment here in Davos for the Christmas break.  Pad Thai. YES!

Breakfast 1: French Toast and REAL VERMONT MAPLE SYRUP!! My awesome cousin and his family gave me a lucky maple syrup from Slopestyle Syrup, the Cochran Family's sugaring business and it was delicious and sure to bring us extra energy for the upcoming Tour de Ski!

Noah, me and Jessie sporting our aprons for cooking time.

Christmas cookie time!!  My good friend, Anna Haag and I made dinner and then got our bake on the other night. We made these delicious chocolate cookie balls, fudge, chocolate covered pistachios and almonds and some gourmet Reeces!

Me and Anna having a blast in her kitchen.

The weather and the snow has been nice here and our apartment is just a short walk to the stadium and all the trails.  Jessie, Noah and I headed out on an early ski on Saturday so we be back in time to watch the sprint heats.

Jessie snagging some sun time.  Oh yeah Davos. Oh yeah.

Our Christmas Tree!!! Complete with lights and ornaments and a handmade snowflake for the top!

We fired up a game of sequence the last couple nights.  Games are awesome.

Jessie putting in some one pole work.

Yesterday Holly, Jessie and I skied together for a bit and worked on our classic technique together.  No pole and 1 pole drills may not feel "cool" but there must be something to it when you see the best skiers in the world doing tons of it. I think the only times I have seen Justyna use 2 poles this year are in the races.  That may be an exaggeration, but if you aren't ever dropping a pole or two, now is the time.

Mini coffee....

Mini Sandwich...

AND SO DELICIOUS!  Thanks for lunch Holly! (Don't worry, this was not it!)

There is a new hotel that has opened here that we call the "Golden Egg" because that is what it looks like to us.  They had an open house yesterday afternoon so a few of us went up to see what it was all about.

The flower presentation on the tables was beautiful.  

And the sun on the deck and comfy couches was hard to beat.

Florian (Robs friend from college), Holly and her husband Rob.

The view from the 10th floor bar in the Golden Egg.  It is a very crazy, overbuilt and modern hotel, but it has a bit of intrigue for me just because it looks so different than any other building I have ever seen.  I forgot to take a picture of the outside of the place but I will try and take one today and add it to this post.