Loved loved loved it!
Apart from a long delay on departure everything went really well. Got slightly lost once we'd gone through the Mont Blanc tunnel (signposting was really poor) but easy drive, apartment was basic but big enough and location was spot on, and the skiing was unbelievable. Children loved it, it was amazing to be away at Christmas and it was just the best family holiday. No dropped poles or injuries.
Equipment was so much better in the resort than it is in the UK - didn't really need any of the hundreds of layers we'd taken, in fact we were all stripping off at lunch on Day 1 because it was so hot. Private lessons worked out really well, the instructor was great and the children made massive progress. We had 2 hours to rush up the mountain for a few runs before meeting them at 12 noon! DD1 was doing red runs on the 1st day, all 3 children were doing red runs by day 3.
There were a few runs on one side of the mountain that weren't open, which meant if we wanted access to most of the ski area, we had to walk to a chair lift on the other side of the village (rather than use the chair lift that was right next to the apartment) - but it was only about 10 minutes 15 minutes with 3 children and 5 pairs of skis but once we'd done that, it was amazing. Some of the snow was man made with the cannons (although not sure I'd expert enough to tell the difference), clear blue skis, fabulous bars / restaurants on the slopes, beautiful village. Slopes were pretty much empty, never had to queue for a lift. Skied over to Zermatt on Christmas Day (right to the top of Klein Matterhorn), the Swiss side had lots of snow, then skied back over to Cervinia for the afternoon. Not a turkey or sprout to be seen 
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Think we still came in at less than £3k all in (even less now that we got a chunk of compensation back from Easyjet for the delay). Thank you for all the advice in the run up. Had such a fabulous time.
