A white Christmas after all

F A M I L Y

 

 

F O O D

 

S N O W!?

 



 

It was a wonderful day... Merry Christmas 2012, my day was merry and bright, I hope yours was too.

Tis the Season

It really feels like Christmas now!

The kids are off school now until next year.

T's brother (and his long time girlfriend) just got here from the far North.

Christmas shopping simply has to be done... hopefully people are okay with low-key presents this year. Not that I'm broke, I just don't want a big deal.

My ipod has a "Christmas Tunes" playlist made up with everything from Bing to Boney M and a bucnh of classical music too.

A big, house-full coming today for a ham dinner!

M E R R Y    C H R I S T M A S    T O    Y O U

SNOW!

Well, I didn't see that coming! The weather man has been saying that snow was unlikely anytime in the foreseable future, then BAAAM there it is in slushy, fat flakes last night after dinner. If that wasn't shocking enough, it actually stuck around! We woke up this morning to the power going out (and staying out for over an hour) and on the ground was the snow: crunchy frozen on top and slushy on the bottom, it's an evil brew for walking in... and even worse for scraping off the sidewalk. Heavy, awkward, messy. I'm glad it doesn't happen often in this part of Canada.

 

Poor kids, there wasn't enough to stop school today.

New house - New Christmas Experience

 Amazing! This is the first house we have ever lived in that has CHOICES for Christmas tree placement! I didn't even have to rearrange furniture to set it up. AND we didn't have to drag our freshly harvested tree through the kitchen (a Norway spruce)... the slider off the livingroom made it oh so tidy and convenient.

  

 

A new house means new challenges and opportunities for the holiday decorations. I enjoyed it and also enjoyed getting rid of 3 boxes of things I didn't need or want in the way of Christmas decor for this house. And the house came "pre-strung" with the big outdoor lights on the gutters. I love the glow those big, old lights give off even if they are power-suckers. A flick of the switch and we look festive! Which is great because T doesn't like hanging lights (LOL).

 

The shopping is done and the big meal is planned. No baking done yet (not sure if I even will this year). I toned down the Christmas chaos by A LOT this year. Not so many gifts for the boys and not so many people on the list.  I hope nobody minds. It's just gotten so out of hand, bigger and fancier every year. It's supposed to be a gesture of caring, not a chance to go in debt right?

 

 

(how is he not bald?)

 

I am feeling the Christmas spirit of love and giving though. It's been easier to make donations and share the joy through random acts of kindness (loading parking meters for example) .... I guess I feel less frazzled this year. BUT the chores don't end, and the mountain of dog hair accumulates as fast as ever... can't let my guard down on that front or the obnoxious tumbleweeds will get into the decorations along with all the normal spots.

 

I still love the flow and function of this house's floorplan. T says the kitchen is harder to clean than the old one... pretty sure that's because it's bigger. The only thing lacking (that I can tell) is bathroom exhaust fans. It's a bit humid in here after we've all had a shower, that's for sure. So we crack a window open (letting the heat out) until the mirror clears. Brrr. Good thing we live in a temperate part of Canada!

 

The chickens are content out in their yard clucking away, though they have completely stopped laying (hopefully just for the season). What fun pets they are. Fluffy and entertaining and full of character. Totally worth the small cost of feed and time that they require.

 

We walk to school every day. The dog just loves that! It's a good walk: out our back gate, across a park field, down a quiet, tidy suburb street and up the back field of the school. Max can be off-leash for most of it. By going out the back we miss all the traffic that is on our street. And if I feel like going for a woodland walk afterwards, the wilderness trails are next to that park field on the way home.... it's a good life here.

 

A drawback is with all the big trees around (the ones that keep us so comfortable in the Summer) we get almost no sunshine in the yard with the low angle of the Winter sun. I can SEE it shining through the trees and across the street, but it doesn't quite get high enough to clear the trees and touch the ground here. (At the other place the sun hit our house any time of year with it's southern exposure and placement on the high side of the street - brutal in the Summer, but cheery the rest of the time). If we could talk the people that own the strip of trees behind our house to top them or thin them, we would get the Eastern light. Not sure how well that would go, but before next winter I will try to talk to them.

All in all, the house is awesome, and the kids love it, but no place is PERFECT.