New Year's Eve 2015

The year 2015 is coming to an end.  I didn't see the fireworks tonight (they happened well before midnight apparently) but I still did see a light show - not spectacular but magical as always.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all and I hope that 2016 brings you all health and happiness.  Cheers!

Merry Christmas ... is it still Christmas???

 I will start with an explanation.  The afternoon of December 23rd I started to feel achey.  I napped that evening and awoke feeling weak with a chest infection on the 24th.  I laid on the couch all that day hoping to combat the problem.  I awoke on Christmas Day and didn't feel too bad.  I showered, put on comfortable clothing and drove to the Rudolph House (had to call it that at this time of year) to open gifts with their family and Brooke's parents and her sister Hayley.  All my gifts for them were already there except for the two chairs for the kiddos (seen below).  I entered the house, put the chairs down and Alanna ran up and gave me a hug and Emerson ran past me and sat in a blue chair, ignoring me completely (whell !! ).  Below is my Christmas Day.

The kids, all decked out in new PJ's got their breakfast smoothies and returned to the chairs.

It took nearly 3 hours of present opening before a break came.  There were still gifts under the tree but the kids and the adults were beginning to be overwhelmed.  You can see the sun shining in the window on the left so it was around noon when this was taken.  It was a cold day, -26 in the morning with a windchill dropping the temperature to -40 but nice and cozy in the house.  

Hayley spent some book time with Alanna while SR (not pictured) played trucks with Emerson.  The hosts then busied themselves in the kitchen preparing the fresh turkey and all the fixings, the guests departed downstairs to shower and dress and I returned home to recharge with a nap, then dressed for dinner and returned to the house.

As the finishing touches were put on the meal, Gran and Gramma spent a bit of time with the kids.  Above, Gran pours tea from Alanna.

We all sat down to an absolutely astonishing Christmas Dinner.  Words of thanks went around the table and Emerson even sang us a song - the first one I have heard him sing since Wheels of the Bus song.  Kudos to the chefs - the meal was festive and delicious.

A   B I G   T H A N K Y O U goes out the SR and Brooke for all the hard work they put in to make this another memorable Christmas Day.  Their beautiful children were an added blessing this year.

I left around 8PM.  It was still around -26 outside.  Hayley wanted to do a "tea throw".  When you do this at -40 the tea freezes in the air around you.  At -26 it did begin to freeze but quickly turned to fog/mist.  It was a valiant try though and through a slow-mo camera some frozen spikes  were captured before turning to a foggy mist.

Home again, home again, I went to bed and didn't get up for 4 days.  What I thought was a light touch of a cold was actually a deathly flu.  My chest filled and wheezed, I coughed and coughed and coughed ... which gave me a head ache, my eyes ached, I was hot then cold, then hot and luckily I had no appetite so I didn't have to get out of bed for food because I could hardly move a bone in my body anyway.  The very unfortunate part of this story is the virus also spread to the Rudolph household so despite the extremely enjoyable December 25, everyone has been under the weather since.  Hopefully this too shall pass - the sooner the better.

A Book Club Christmas

Did only did a bit of Xmas baking this year.

It looked good next to my new napkin holder (thanks again MJT).  Also received compliments on my Xmas paper napkins (thanks again MJT) which of course were cut out of this photo.

I had planned to take a group photo after we ate our appies and sipped our champagne ...

... but I forgot and by the time I remember had only 3 club members left.  Not that they don't make a fine picture themselves.

Merry Christmas to all - only 6 days left now

Sunday, December 13

Sunday was my day to look after the wee ones.  SR was out of town and Brooke had to travel to Vancouver for the day.  Above, NO, they are not getting ready to go outside.  Don't tell their mom, but I let them play in the outside clothing room.  Of course, Alanna is trying to get into my purse.

She got tired of sitting the floor and moved into a coat box.  Emerson looks on, then decides he wants to be in the same box.  When I wouldn't let him in the same box ...

... he hits Alanna on the head.  Boy I'm getting a lot to blackmail them with when they get older.

All in all, we had a very good day.  The above was just a small tiff which was easily settled.  We played and read books and went for a sled ride outside and shovelled snow outside and ate and ate and ate and napped.  I really have to give it to SR and especially to Brooke who raise these two healthy happy kiddos in a clean organized house and with all the other things she/they do.  She is amazing.  Me, I was exhausted after a full day.  But it was fun and I would do it again, anytime.

December 2, 2015

On my way to Line Dancing on Wednesday I saw the SS Klondike sitting brilliantly against the blue sky and just had to stop to look at it and take a few photos.  As I was taking my pictures a man walked by and asked if I wanted him to take a picture of me with the boat.  So nice.

I turned to get back to my truck and the Yukon River was sparkling with sunshine.  There were also 3 other people taking photos of the river, so it wasn't just me that was attracted by this beauty.  

P.S.  This is how high the sun is in the sky at 1:00 PM in December.