Magical Days

Ahhh.....the magical days after Christmas. In our family we have called the days between Christmas and News Years the "magical days", there is no school, I'm at home from work and so is daddy. We sleep in, we stay up late, we read, and we eat (that's the bad part). Santa always puts a Terry's Chocolate Orange in everyone"s stocking. A wonderful indulgence.

Santa also brought some Wii games, so we are all trying to perfect them!

We didn't have a white Christmas this year, but we have had wonderfully sunny, clear, frosty mornings, which is almost as good. Hope everyone is enjoying their magical days until the New Year!

Merry Christmas

Peace, love, and joy always.

Merry Christmas to family and friends near and far!

December 2009

December is half done, it's almost Christmas, and I can't believe I haven't written a single thing yet! December is a crazy month for everyone everywhere. There are school concerts to see, cards to write , cookies to make the night before a class party, gifts to make and or buy, parties to attend or to prepare for, and a tree to find! I mentioned in an earlier post that we pick out or tree the weekend after Hallowe'en. Last weekend we headed out to get our perfect tree, cut it down and bungee cord it to the car.

Once it was cut, we realized it was a beast of a tree, with a huge girth. (a precursor to trouble) We had a bit of a hard time tying it down to the car...this never happened before! We had a harder time getting it into the house, remember I said huge girth! Once up in the tree stand, we stood back to admire it ...it fell over. Good grief!


Up it went again, hopefully more stable. It looked great. The kids decorated it with great skill, the lights were on and it looked fabulous. We were having an open house party the next day so we wanted it to be perfect. The party was fun, lots to eat and good friends to share it with. The day went on the kids went to bed and we watched the news before going to bed. Then it happened......the tree fell on us, again! WE learned our lesson and tied the tree to the curtain rod! Now here is our tree in all it's glory!

Tic- Toc

Tic -toc goes the official Olympic clock counting down the days, hours and seconds until the 2010 Olympic Winter Games start. It's amazing how fast time does go by.
Ten years ago January, I was diagnosed with melanoma, it was caught early which is good. and every year since then, I visit my dermatologist to get "checked" over. My doctor is downtown Vancouver so I make a day of it. Since my appointment is in November, I do a little Christmas shopping, have lunch, and just enjoy being downtown! The Olympic clock is in front of the Vancouver Art Gallery, so I had to get a picture of that.
This time after my appointment I had a surprise. My cell phone rang, and it was my husband waiting for me outside the building! Totally unexpected.....I love his unexpected surprises! We had a latte, did some shopping and back to work he went.
Relieved that my check up went well, and happy about my surprise visit , I went home.
Remember though, you know your own body the best... if you notice anything different, get it checked out!

November 13th, 2009

Well November has been the typical west coast November so far. Wind and rain. I love wind, and I love going down to the beach to watch the waves. I do miss the cold frosty mornings we had when living in Ontario. November there was a bit of a tease. Will it snow? And if it did will it stay?

So when I saw this outside one morning on our deck, I had to take a picture of it, a bit of a tease!

Daddy celebrated his birthday on Friday the 13th. Banana spice cake is his favourite!

There were two Pro-D days after Remembrance Day , so on one of those days I took the kids down town on the new Canada Line, to see the Olympic Village where the athletes will be staying during the 2010 Winter Olympics. It's still not quite finished yet, but impressive none the less.

Hello November

Well November has arrived, and in our part of the world, the west coast of British Columbia, that means rain is on it's way. Don't get me wrong, we do get the really nice sunny days with mild temperatures, but November signals wind/rain storms and when the rain comes it makes everything seem kind of blah! On the up side of blah, that means cozy days/evenings, fires, red wine, and cocoa for the kids!
Over the past few years one of our family traditions after Hallowe'en is to scout our Christmas tree. We have been going to this ma-and-pa tree farm eagerly looking for the perfect Christmas tree to bring home in about 6 weeks. It always turns out to be a really fun outing. We play hide-and -go-seek amongst the trees, and play with the dog that lives on the farm.

On our way home we stopped at Red Wood Park. It's always a nice walk on the trails, and this time we saw an owl! Over the past years the kids have named this tree "The 100 Acre Wood Tree". It is actually a Bigleaf Maple, and it's huge!

Here are Natalie, Ben and Amelia playing peek-a-boo behind Bigleaf Maple leaves!

October

October so far has been great. My in laws drove all the way from Ontario to visit us for two weeks. I would love to do that drive with and without the kids. Our weather has been fantastic, loads of sunshine and warmish temperatures. I'm knitting something I saw on Leslie's post. I figured it didn't look too hard and it looks great too. I'm also knitting Ben's socks on my lunch break at work! I love it, it's a bit of "me time" in a crazy day!

We celebrated Thanksgiving.

Got that chick-a-dee feeling.

And celebrated 14years together!

Finished!

Happy Fall! I truly do love this time of year...it's my favourite! The leaves changing colour, the crisp cool weather, and the chance to wear sweaters.

I have finally finished my February Lady Sweater. I'm so pleased with it, there are a few mistakes, but overall I think it looks great.

I may even knit another one!

The best thing was that I wore it out the other evening to a high school band concert, and a friend of mine said she had knit the same pattern.....I was so pleased that my sweater was recognizable!

Have a good weekend!

First Day of School

September 8th 2009, the first day back to school, mind you, they only stay for about 1 hour, but they do go back. The oldest headed of to high school,

and the younger two headed of to elementary school. I.....well I get ready to go back to work too. With an early dismissal I made some zucchini loaf in the afternoon for school lunches....YUM!

Going Home

I went home (3 hours north of Toronto) for a long weekend to see my parents and some old friends. No kids , no husband, just me. I call it my "recharger weekend". It's always so fun, but it goes by way too fast. I think I need to add another day to my long weekend next year.

I usually do the same thing, visit my in laws, drive by our old house where my husband an I started our family, try to get to favourite restaurants for the best pizza or french fries, walk by the lake, and visit with old friends!

I'm here with two good friends in my parents backyard....we are true northern girls...we sat outside talking until 10:00pm with temperatures hovering at 8 C (44 F).

Pender Island

Have you ever been somewhere and felt that you belong there? Well that is how Pender Island feels to us. Ever since we moved out west 9 years ago from Ontario, we have gone to Pender Island every summer to camp. And every time we get back home, we dream of living there some day. So 2 years ago we thought "why not rent a cottage?", so that's what we did , and stayed for a week. We had such a great time we did it again this year. You need to take a ferry from Tsawwassen B.C., and the ride itself is wonderful, and as soon as you set foot on Pender you are on "Pender Time" , meaning nice and slow, no worries.

The view from our cottage was spectacular!

We saw a huge pod ( about 30 ) of Orcas go by, seals, bald eagles, and many deer.

Mid week we did a day trip to Victoria B.C.

Hiked and had picnics. We even entered in the Fall Fair!

And enjoyed many beautiful sunsets, dreaming of next year's visit!

August 24th

My oldest baby has turned 13!! Where has the time gone? I remember being 13!

Natalie was due on August 10th, but was overdue and I had to be induced. Even with being induced she didn't want to come out, she had a mind of her own even then and was going to come when she was good and ready. It's been wonderful watching her grow up into a young lady, but the time is going by too quickly, and I have a hard time taking it all in. She will be starting high school this fall and we are all so very excited and proud of her. Have a wonderful year Natalie!
Thirteen kisses from daddy!

Rain Day

Finally we got our rain! I really can't remember the last rainy day, maybe the beginning of July? Anyway...we got lots of rain, and sometimes you just need one of those days, to catch up or just do nothing. I made my second most favourite cookie, between loads of laundry, Old Time Ginger Snaps. If you like soft ginger cookies, these are definitely for you!

Here's the recipe:: Old Time Ginger Snaps::3/4cups of butter, 2 cups sugar, 2eggs well beaten, 1/2 cup molasses, 2tsp white vinegar, 3 3/4 cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 tsp baking soda, 2-3 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon. Preheat oven to 325F. Thoroughly mix ingredients in order given and form into small balls. Place balls on cookie sheets. Bake 12 minutes. Yum!! When they come out of the oven they start to get their crackly appearance. These don't last too long in our house, so sometimes I need to hide some.

Chester our cat wasn't too sure if he wanted to get wet!!

Whistler-Blackcomb

We headed off on our camping expedition to Nairn Falls, which is located between Whistler and Pemberton B.C.. We had camped there before but it's been a few years since the last time. The drive there is absolutely stunning with all the wonderful views of Howe Sound on the new and improved Sea To Sky Highway. We stopped at Shannon Falls to take in the natural wonder of the falls.
We spent a day at Whistler-Blackcomb, which was very exciting. After taking the gondola to the top of Whistler, we took the new Peak2Peak gondola over to Blackcomb. Looks totally scary, but it isn't, at least if you don't think about the vast space you are travelling across with nothing underneath you!! The kids loved it!

There were many trails or ski runs that you could hike on once at the top. The views were spectacular, even with the haze of forest fire smoke still looming.

It's was a great trip, one that I wish everyone could experience. It's amazing all the different languages you can hear around you, German, French, Japanese, just to name a few, while walking around, it makes the world seem smaller. You can feel the excitement in the air of the coming winter Olympics. Hopefully our family can make another trip soon...maybe to ski...or watch some of the Olympic events!

End of July

Wow...July just flew by!! You wait and wait for it to come, thinking of great and wonderful things to do once the summer starts. Well I do think that our family accomplished most of what we set out to do, or at least what I set out to do.

The weather has been just amazing. We did have a bit of a heat wave that broke a few records. We aren't use to these sort of "warm" temperatures in our part of the world, but we survived with help of fans that came out of hiding.

With the wonderful abundance of fruit this time of year, how can one not resist making yummy pies, even when it seems too hot!!

There is nothing like an early morning bike ride to get you through the rest of the day!

Heres to August...with more family trips, and outings in store!!

A Summer Day

Ohhh...summer is the best, actually fall is my favourite time of year , but we are truly enjoying the lazy days of summer! Today we headed down to the beach while the tide was still low. One of us wanted to just sit and read....

....while some of us wanted to build a sand castle.

We had some yummy corn for supper,

and some jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese, crab and green onions. The rest of the evening was spent outside playing or just soaking it all in. Joy!