December 28

Ahhh, finally had time to enjoy the great outdoors.  Took our poles and hiking boots to the Gunnar Nilsson Research Forest.  It was about -15, partially overcast, but all in all, was a nice, much needed walk outside.  

CHRISTMAS DAY, HOHOHO

First the stockings were opened.  Alanna was wowed by her sparkling pink shoes and Emerson loved the giant teddy bear, as well as all the other great things Santa stuffed in their stocking.  Lily (the dog) was pooped after that and had to rest with SR on the couch.

But Santa didn't forget Lily and Radar who both had stocking too.

Brooke started the stuffing and SR got busy preparing the turkey.  

Love this photo.  The kids had apples at lunch and this is how they eat them.  I had forgotten, so it warmed my heart to see their tiny bites.

I had forgotten to take a photo of our Christmas table.  The kids had eaten and left by the time I remembered we needed a dinner picture and Brooke kindly offered to take the photo.  Was great to have the company of Jean and Marie for our Christmas dinner.  And the dinner was spectacular ... great turkey/stuffing and great variety of tasty vegetables.

Meanwhile, around the corner, the kids open their Bandaids that Santa had given them and were sticking them all over their body (including hair) and floor, but they were HAPPY!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT (AND YEAR TO COME)!

Christmas Eve

Ahh Christmas Eve.  Went to Emerson and  Alanna's house and spent the night there.  They were both pretty pumped about Christmas.  They are now 2-1/2 years old.

That evening saw time spent making gingerbread houses.  I have never made them so was fun to see  and a fun experience for the young-uns.  They have never really eaten candy before other than a few Smarties.

Emerson especially had trouble putting the candies on the house rather than his mouth.  Even in the photo above he is trying to sneak one of Alanna's candies when he thinks no one is watching.

The evening comes and it is time to put out treats for Santa.  Alanna made a blue plate for Santa and a pink plate for Mrs. Clause too.  She then takes it in the living room and sets it on a small table.  Emerson adds two beer (their choice) for Santa to drink, as well as Reindeer food, thanks to Lara.  

They then write their last letter to Santa, put it on the table and go to bed and await Santa's arrival ... "while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads".  

It's that time of year

The Christmas parties have begun and SR and Brooke have decked themselves out in the Christmas spirit.  Above, SR sports his new Xmas suit complete with red pants and a coat of Trees and Reindeer as Lily looks on in wonder.  Brooke's dress, which unfortunately I didn't take a picture of, matches SR's coat.  But there is still time.  I am hoping she wears it for Christmas dinner.  The kids are getting excited too of course.  It IS beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Friday

See, all that complaining paid off.  It is a balmy -23°C right now, so we ARE on this predicted warming trend, although originally that -8 was suppose to be on Saturday.  It keeps being pushed farther and farther away.

There was a time when we would see -42°C for two weeks at a time and I will never forget the two weeks of -50°C we once had.  Global warming has made us all a little less strong and a lot more wimpy.

Still Cold

Yesterday, when the cold was suppose to break, it was -32°C.  I had very little food in the house.  Was waiting for it to warm up before I went to the grocery store, but that apparently was not going to happen, so I donned my warmest coat and boots and went downtown.  

It must be Christmas.  The grocery store ran out of two of the ingredients on my list.  So I had to go to another store.  When in the other store, there was a sign on a few of their shelves and on the fridge door that read "due to conditions beyond our control, we apologize for not having all of our usual products"; i.e. no butter, no cream cheese.  I was chatting to the young girl at the check out counter about the high price of food.  She said she was from Iqaluit where a bag of grapes cost $18 and a cucumber costs $8.  I stopped complaining.

 I went back to my car with only one more stop to make and ALL of my doors were frozen shut.  I couldn't get into my car.  I looked in the window at all the food I purchased at the first grocery store and wondered how long it would last before it was all frozen.   I tried and tried my locks and finally was able to unlock the passenger door.  I climbed over to the drivers side and just drove home.

When it is below -31°C my car gives up on registering the temperature.  It just says "---C" which means "you really should be home in front of the fireplace with a hot chocolate and a good book instead of trying to read the outside temperature from inside this truck".

I did brave one more trip out in the late afternoon (but I didn't lock my car) and whom should I see but Garbage Truck Santa.  I guess as he is from the North Pole, -30+ weather will not keep him inside and it doesn't.  He was HO HO HO'ing at the foot of Main Street.

Enough Already

We are now getting into week 2 of cold cold weather.  It is dropping to the -40s with the wind chill so outdoor activity is on a must do basis.   This weekend is suppose to warm up ad I do hope it will.  Oh and by the way, they are now calling ice fog, ice crystals.

Went out yesterday and took this snap of my street with a raven sitting on the lamp post.

Santa's in Town!!!!!!!

And Christmas creeps ever closer.  Santa Clause came to town today.  He arrived in the Santa Clause parade down Main Street.  

And guess who I met there??  Pink Ning; aka Alanna, all dressed in pink with her favourite:  Dadda.

We moved across the street to get a better view.

We saw a Fire Engine with lights flashing and siren screaming preceded by the Fire Dog who Alanna thought was Paw Patrol's Marshall.  

Santa came at the end of the parade. He climbed off his float and mingled in the crowd.   The kids were so excited.

Alanna got close enough to see him, but not close enough to talk to him.  She may still have an opportunity yet before Christmas and even if she doesn't talk to him, he is magic and knows what she wants for Christmas.

Christmas is upon us.  Went to the first Christmas event of the season last night - the Seniors' Soir at the Festival of Trees.  You can see it was sponsored by Save on Foods, the new supermarket that is being built in Whitehorse and will open in the summer of 2017.   And the food was very tasty this year.  And the last roast, as we were one of the last tables to be served at the buffet, was NOT dropped on the floor, like it was a couple of years ago.

Attended the event with a few of my line dancing group.  People loved seeing us line dancing to Hank Karr and the Cannucks.  We had many many many many compliments on our dancing.

McPherson Trail

Our walk today took us along a trail I know well.  My back yard used to back right onto this trail.  It was in McPherson subdivision.  We stopped at the lookout where I snapped a photo of Gail.  It was an easy walk that took about 2 hours.  The temperature, -6, was perfect for a hike.  An this was the snowy day we have been looking forward to for a while now.

Looking at the snow covered Takhini River brought back memories.  And as an additional treat, at the end of the walk I was able to visit my old friend Helen who used to be my next door neighbour.  All in all a very productive day.

Allied

We don't get a good movie here for months, then they come fast and furious.  Don't usually go to war stories but heard the acting in this movie was excellent.  It was.  The cinematography was excellent as well.  As for the story line, it was slow and not very exciting.  I am glad I watched it on the big screen as I think I would have been bored had I watched it on my TV.  3 out of 5 Stars.

Gold Panners

Every year there is a Geoscience Forum and Trade Show.  I don't know if they have it every year, but this year there was a KIDS' DAY and SR & I took kids.  One of the tables had gold panning so Emerson and Alanna both tried their luck.  They came away with a gold flake although they preferred picking up the bigger stones with their hands and throwing them, with a splash, into the water.

Today's walk was a simple one - from the Roundhouse, around the Millennium Trail and back.  Only about 1-1/2 hours. It was about -15C so we kept at a faster pace to stay warm.  On the way home I saw my first sun dog of the season.  Would have taken a photo of it but my phone packed it in, in the cold weather.

Grey Mountain/Twin Towers Walk

Our walk this week was on Grey Mountain.  And it literally was along a mountain.  The ups and the downs were extreme and long, especially with a bit of snow and ice on the trail.  Now, having said that, we all make it with only one slight casualty (and it wasn't me, thank heavens).  

The sun was brilliant.  We surely got our Vitamin D today.  And the temperature was cooperative as well, around the -3°C .  There were two EXTREMELY beautiful viewpoints.  These photos are from the second one.  When looking to the left, you could see all the way to Carcross and when looking right to Whitehorse.  That is an expanse of 75 kilometres.

This is the view towards Whitehorse.

Nancy & I ended up walking at the front of the crowd.  Here she is taking a snap of the view.  In the distance, along the trail is little Ginny who came with us on the walk.

I bought the Farm

I saved some of SR's toys and now have the opportunity to put them to use once again.  You may remember the Fisher Price Farm.  Many more animals were added to this set including a giraffe and hippopotamus (not shown here) and a few were lost but for the most part it is very playable still.  The new Fisher Price Farms are not as well made, as is the case for most toys these days.  This set is currently about 30 years old.

The barn door still "Moo's" when you open it.  A great toy and one we will save for little Emerson and Alanna's future children.

Doctor Strange

Dr. Strange, a movie based on the Marvel Comic Book, is the story of a Neurosurgeon, Dr. Strange, who texts while driving (we all know that that is a no-no) and has a horrific accident, injuring his hands, making them useless to his all important trade.  He goes on a journey to return his hands to full use and stumbles on a world of alternate realities.  This movie stars Benedict Cumberbatch, a reason to see this movie if no other.  As well,  Tilda Swinton and Rachel McAdams play major roles.  It is visually stunning (see it on a big screen, probably the bigger the better).  They could have left out a bit of the fighting but that is my personal preference.  I enjoyed this movie and give it 4 out of 5 Stars.

Inferno

I know it only got 28 tomatoes (out of 100!!!) but as I saw the first two in this series and Tom Hanks does star in this movie and Ron Howard (another of my faves) directs it, I went to see it last night.  No surprises here.  Dan Brown's books are all kind of the same - a quick read and forgettable.  Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) awakens in a hospital with amnesia and people are trying to kill him.  He must follow a series of clues to escape tragedy.  The movie is mostly set in Florence, a city I have visited a few times so it was a pleasure to re-visit the city through this film.  A quick visit to Venice was also great.  If you saw either one of the previous two films in this series, you will know exactly what to expect.  As I said, no surprises here but glad I saw it.  I give it 3 of 5 Stars.

Wolf Creek Loop

Joined Elder Active this week.  My first walk was the Wolf Creek Loop.  This is a trail I walked in the summer with the Senior's Orienteering group but now we needed ice cleats (and the poles came in useful too) for traversing the hills.  There was quite a few in our group on this warm winter day (around 0 degrees C) ranging in age from about 55 to about 80.  The 4 Kilometre walk took us along Wolf Creek, through the Boreal Forest then the Yukon River.

Summer or winter, the views of the Yukon River are always breathtaking.

It's Neverland

October 31st transformed my home into Neverland with Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, Captain Hook and the Alligator.  

Here's Tinkerbell.

A family portrait.

And the kiddos on the run and having fun.

All costumes thanks to the talented Brooke who sat at her sewing machine and by the glue gun for weeks.  Great job once again Brooke!  

I live on a "kids" street.  Last year we had about 100 Trick or Treaters at the door.  This year we had about 150!  What will next year bring??

Yukon Wildlife Preserve

Halloween is for animals too, so we set out for the Yukon Wildlife Preserve to watch the Red Fox (the little guy who is now getting to be a big guy that Ralph Shopland, my old co-worker, found when he and his wife were camping, and brought home thinking it was a puppy dog!).  The lynx had already eaten so we set off for the fox area.  

Ideally, to make it on time, the kids were in the stroller.  That lasted for about three minutes, then they had to walk with their little snow pants covered legs.   You can guess how fast that walk was. 

We made it to the fox area just as they were putting out the pumpkins.  We waited, and waited and waited for the fox to show up.

We waited some more.

Then we went across the road to the Arctic Fox pen (and where the fire pit was with sticks and lots of marshmallows for roasting!!)  That was more fun as the Arctic Fox was running around eating pieces of his pumpkin.  

The loop is about 5 Km.  I finally got to see the Moose!!!  Yeah!!!!!  For the first time ever.  Not only the big bull moose but saw the baby and the female too.

The kids were getting tired as they preferred walking to being in the stroller and sometimes they wanted to be carried.  When I was carrying Emerson in his bulky snowsuit, boots, hat and mitts, and I was in my bulky winter coat and boots, he kept saying "Run Gramma".  I guess he figures I am something of a Super-Gramma!

Nearing the end of the walk, we finally got them into their stroller once again and before you knew it both were sound asleep.

It was a wonderful walk around the Wildlife Preserve on a beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon.