December 23rd

Lily is flying to Vancouver today for Christmas. Above is her Travel Papers (passport), which will be attached to her kennel while in-flight.
Merry 1st Christmas Lily!

It's Still Not Christmas

In case you missed it (I did - the only night it was cloudy!!!) here is what everyone was talking about - the lunar eclipse, as seen from Toronto. Thanks Jenn for passing this along to me.

My friend passed this clip along to me. It was produced by her friend Dan Sokolowski and I thought I would share it with you. 'Tis the season of the Winter Solstice. Here is how much sun you would see if you lived in Dawson City. http://sokcinema.ca/solstice08a.mov
Thanks for the Iris!

The Nativity

For all you techies out there and people under 30: (sorry but you'll have to remove the Google ad -- "x" on top right hand corner of ad -- when it pops up, as I cannot figure out how to remove it)

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas ... dinner tonight with Cousin Frank, opened early gifts from Brooke (loved your gifts B!!) who will spend Christmas down south. Everything I do these days relates to Christmas. Good thing I stayed in town this year.
Haven't seen Frank and Anne for about a year. He did advise me that a Hungarian friend of his will soon be bringing back Hoorka so will let me know when he cooks it up. Still has the kennel and tourism is booming. All in all, he is the same as I saw him a year ago.

SR & Brooke brought Lily who behaved exemplary as usual. I will miss that little one when she goes south with Brooke.
More visiting this week and before you know it the weekend will be upon us and you know what that means ... so I better be good till them!
Oh, and that lunar eclipse that is so special I won't be able to see again in something like 300 years, I cannot see tonight unless the clouds quickly scoot away. Hope the skies are clear wherever you are.

Happy Christmas

Christmas is fast approaching. Already had my Book Club Christmas and my Golfing Foursome Christmas. The cookies are baked and being gifted to the neighbours tomorrow. The pics are for my bud and one day I hope she can share the cookies with me here in the Yukon! Now that would be a picture worth taking!


This weekend will see a Hungarian meal (Chicken Paprikas) being served to family ... haven't seen cousin Frank for ages so will be fun sitting down and breaking bread with him. Brooke leaves soon for her Xmas with her family, so the gift exchange will take place before she leaves. SR is spending Xmas with me this year - I will look forward to that. And, is my luck changing ???, I won my Christmas turkey -- so so lucky!!

If you've been reading my blog, you would have seen the dump of snow we have already had. Now the thermometer is dipping with a high pressure system descending upon us this week. Temperatures between 20 and 30 below zero. We are so lucky here escaping the snow, snow, snow of parts of Canada and the States, escaping the floods of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Yes, it may get cold, but living in the Yukon, we are not only prepared for that but expect it.
I do wish well to all those experiencing the harsh conditions Mother Nature is throwing their way.

And, just heard this on the radio recently, so here's a heads up for all of you. There will be a lunar eclipse December 21st beginning about 1:30 AM Eastern Time (so I believe that makes it 10:30 PM on December 20th Pacific Time). It is also called the Christmas lunar eclipse. It will be the first total lunar eclipse to occur on the day of the Winter Solstice (in the Northern Hemisphere) since 1638. Worth a look.

And a Happy note to us northerners, December 21st is almost here ... !yeah! ... after the shortest day, longest night (on December 21st, sunrise in Whitehorse is 10:10 AM, sunset is 3:48pm, a total of 5 hours and 38 minutes of daylight), the tides turn and every day will bring more daylight - can't wait.

In case Christmas sneaks up before my next blog, The Best of the Season to all my readers!

The Cone of Shame

Brooke sent me these photos taken last night of poor little Lily. Continue down and watch the movie exerpt which will explain just how she felt.




This excerpt from that fabulous movie UP explains Lily's first experience last night:

Hungarian Dogs

Always said those Hungarians are a talented lot!

Winter

Winter is finally here. In the "olden days" our first skiff of snow appeared around October 11th and by Hallowe'en we were in full blizzard mode and -30 temperatures. Not this year. Last weekend saw our first real bout of snow - it seemed not to stop snowing for days and our snow banks were building higher and higher and higher. Today it stopped and the temperatures dropped. We are lucky in the south of the territory - our "cold" snap stopped at around -20. Not two hours north of us, the temperatures are at the -40 mark. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is that when it is bitterly cold the skies are the most clear shades of blue and the little sun we do receive cloaks the trees in a golden glow. It is beautiful. And we are lucky as well in the fact that we have the clothes to dress warmly. Cold weather comes as no surprise when you live north of 60.


My friend just sent me an article on the weather in England. "Up to 20cm (8in) of fresh snowfall is expected to fall on the east of England on Thursday, with London and the South East also being hit by more blizzards. " Winter won't stop there causing airport closures and chaos on the roads. Ahhh winter!