österreich and happy germans!

 tirol has had lots of snow which is great for skiing, and i think morgana has been on the slopes every day this past week.

 she needs to retake her ski test, which will happen in april. until then, she keeps practicing!

 it's looking very busy . .

tired . . after a full day of skiing.

 a view of the alps out the bedroom window . . 

and celebrating a birthday.

----

 on another note, chanda and i stayed up late last night watching the pairs figure skating. a dance teacher from whom she took a class with in london had his twin brother skating, so we were especially looking out for him. they are all so very good that you want them all to win, but we were happy with the final winners this year. sometimes the one who wins is not my favorite, but this year the german team of aljona savchenko and bruno massot won and they definitely were a favorite! they skated to la terre vue du ciel by armand amar, with choreography by christopher dean. it was beautiful.

above is a pic from the german team's instagram page. its' amazing how the men throw the women so high in the air. we also loved the italian team of valentina marchei and ondrej hotarek who skated to amarcord by nino rota and i was amazed how he lifted her and spun her around without her holding onto him at all. i was really hoping they could get a medal but everyone is so good that they ended up in seventh place. they skated cleaner than any of the other pairs, but i guess their jumps weren't as difficult. chanda's dance teacher's brother landed in sixteenth place with his partner and they were happy to be included in the final free skate (ruben blommaert and anna hoeke).

click here to view aljona savchenko and bruno massot's 2018 olympic pairs free skate program.

victory skate . .

team selfie pic . .

and here are valentina marchei and ondrej hotarek from italy (same program, but from a different competition):