Taken by Jen Bumford, at the top of a mountain with her knees knocking.

A friend have mine has just returned from a ski holiday in Austria. She’d posted some beautiful photographs of snow capped mountains, reported how she was now ‘off the piste and going to the spa’, and other envy inducing updates.

I’ve never been ski-ing, I don’t think that I’d ever give up a week in the sun for a snow suit, but when I asked her if she had to choose a sun holiday over a ski, she shocked me by saying, despite loving the sunshine, she thinks she would pick a ski holiday.

Why, I asked? What is the big pull? Do you have to have lots of lessons before you go? She said ‘I’m rubbish at skiing and totally petrified when I stand at the top of the mountain! But somehow I really enjoy it. It’s really sociable even if you are in a different class from your other half.’ She told me how exhilarating it is to get out in the cold air and shoot down the slope to a welcome glass of gluewein. I knew there would be alcohol factoring in the craziness of chucking yourself down a mountainside.

My friend doesn’t have children and I said ‘I bet you don’t get many people going on a family ski holiday, but she told me that she couldn’t think of a better holiday for kids. The 3 & 4 year olds are amazing, picking it up really fast and made her jealous.

So am I totally missing a trick here, have you taken young children on a ski holiday and would you choose the snow over sun?

We’ve hit 2012 so fast, it’s a mystery how the airbag didn’t inflate on impact! I love the New Year, and all the unblemished optimism that comes with a fresh start and planning lots of new things.

This year is also the year that my husband and I both turn 40, admittedly much later in the year, but it’s there, on the horizon, waving manically at us.

So what do you do? Do you ignore it and let it pass by with a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders or do you hold a huge bash, hire a band, invite everyone you’ve ever shared a first day at nursery, school, university or job with and drink yourself into oblivion?

Do you eek out every last opportunity from it? A spa day with the girls here, a posh high tea there, a weekend city break or a shopping trip to New York?

I’m thinking of a super surprise for my husband after finding the perfect adventure for him. If I tell you that he drives trains then can you imagine his delight with a wonderful busman’s winter train holiday. I can hear him narrating the journey Michael Palin style already.

I’ve always fancied myself as a mystery character in a cocktail dress, with long gloves stood at the bar in the dining car, amongst Poirot styled surroundings, rattling through snow capped mountains. It’s a sure fire hit birthday present isn’t it? Either that or Murder on the Orient Express – eek!

After all the planning, present buying, food listing, and managing of hyper children’s expectations, the big day came and went in a flash.

One of the best things we had in the run up to Christmas this year was a toy advent calendar which built each day to a rather spectacular festive scene, the little two loved it and I was quite surprised how well they shared. I don’t think I’ll be buying chocolate ones in the future.

Also a note for next year is to put together an advent box (thanks to Twitter people who mentioned doing this). Any Christmas DVD’s, books etc we have out at the moment are going into a box that we will get out at the beginning of December next year.

Christmas Eve was lovely, watching Norad tracks Santa and snuggling up indoors, waiting for bedtime. When the mince pie, whisky & carrot were excitedly laid out for Santa. Christmas PJ’s on and eventually sleep overtook the desire to stay up and wait for the reindeer & ‘Stan Claws’ as 2 year old requested.

Christmas morning was a wake up call at 7am, which was great, although the 16 year old was rather bleary eyed asking ‘what time is it’ when the youngest two pounced on her. We went downstairs to see ‘if he’d been’. There really isn’t much that can beat the emotion of watching little ones open the door to see if they really had made the ‘good list.’

The favourite present decision.

We then Skyped my husband’s sister in New Zealand, her first Christmas out there. It was lovely, but a little bit sad. We’ll see them in person next year, she liked her barbie, but is rather partial to proper roast potatoes.

We then hot footed it over to my Mum’s for a Christmas lunch to die for. It was fabulous.

We returned the favour for Boxing Day, but we really need to sort out our seating arrangements for next year, as the children get older. It really isn’t possible to fit us and extra family all around our little 6 seater table, even with emergency chairs. I’ve been eyeing up 10-12 seaters over at thefurnituremarket.co.uk/oakfurniture.asp I’m sure you can justify a huge table for an annual meal, when some guests have flown half the way around the world, yes?

This weeks Gallery prompt from Tara is colour. Inspired by the Unicef campaign to Own A Colour and save a child’s life.

I choose this picture which was taken in Cordoba, Southern Spain.

I’ve taken a colour sample from the wall, which translated as this

http://www.ownacolour.com/#d24338

I now own Cordoba Red, how wonderful is that?

I’d love to know what he is thinking.

Taken last week at Jungle Park, Tenerife. Posted for The Gallery – Animals

This weeks prompt from Tara at The Gallery is a celebration of World Photography Day. Celebrating all that is great about photography by capturing your world on 19th August. I only caught up with the prompt a day later, but Tara said it could be from the weekend too, so here is where we were on Sunday 21st August.

Los Gigantes, Tenerife. We can see these magnificent cliffs to the right of the villa we are staying in. They dominate the skyline and tower high above all of the beautiful resort that is at the base of them. It is a little difficult to appreciate their height in the photograph, but if you look to the bottom right of the image you can see the sail boats and tiny jet ski’s to get a sense of perspective. Look how tiny and insignificant the clouds in the distance to the left look too.

As the  World Photography Day site quotes ‘Today, we take our photographs for granted. But next time you’re flicking though photos from your last holiday, remember that there was once a time when photography didn’t exist. A time when those precious moments couldn’t be captured, uploaded and shared.” I’m very appreciative of the pleasure that we take in photography today, and this image will certainly help us to remember the fantastic times we have holidayed in this beautiful, sunny part of the world.