Winterluding a little bit

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Ottawa.  It was a high of minus 1 or so and sunny and only a light wind.  I decided it was high time for a skate on the canal since we've stuck to our local outdoor rink thus far.  But when I checked the canal conditions, it looked sketchy.

I had a Plan B: the newly installed Rink of Dreams, still downtown amidst the action, still outdoors, perfectly human-made ice and right in front of City Hall.... beside the canal.  So I packed the kids up - it was unfortunately 4:00 pm by the time we were organized enough to leave the house - and headed downtown.

I parked at the National Arts Centre's underground parking.  It took us a looooong time to find our way to a door that would get us out of the parking garage and I was decidedly grumpy by the time we hit the outdoors.  My mood vastly improved with fresh air though and with the girls' excitement about getting to walk through one of the main Winterlude sites: Confederation Park.  It's the site of the best ice sculptures and other great Winterlude public art.

They (and I) and Henry were not disappointed. They ooed and awwed at the ice sculptures and even got to sit on one (these photos were all iPhone specials (and not the 4GS... so sorry for the quality).

Emily and Hope try out the ice chair... and keep sliding off.

 We loved the lost mitten sculpture (I'm sure that red and white number is mine.... I lost it earlier this winter.  I loved those mitts but I'm not really willing to knit another at this point).

Dancing by the lost mitten sculpture.  Henry is showing that he knows what mittens are.

That red and white one... there!  Mine! (maybe)

More cool public art... hockey related, of course.  This is Ottawa after all.

We stopped for a while to look at the infared wolves.  These were very cool and I think they would be even better in the dark.

Favourite public art.

And finally we made it to the rink.  We stayed in the middle so the kids wouldn't be run over by the speedy gonzaleses whipping around the perimeter and so Henry didn't get in the way in his stroller.  There weren't may people using it (most people were on the canal) and the ice was perfect.  My kids couldn't get over the condition of the ice.  They'd never skated on perfect ice before.  Emily was amazed at how well she was doing.  Wait until I introduce them to an arena.  Their minds will be blown.

Just starting out.  Love Hope's laces.

Henry was content to be pushed around by me.  Didn't like it so much when we stopped.

And with a gorgeous view of Parliament and downtown.

The lights on the boards change colours.  Sounds tacky but actually really funky.

This is a shot I took of the new Convention Centre, which looked amazing all lit up.  Couldn't get it on the iPhone but thought this was a cool effect anyway.

 We headed back to the parking garage after only about 20 minutes of skating (and I realized we parked right around the corner from the door out... I just headed in the wrong direction when we left the first time).  We were hungry and John was waiting for us at home.  This was just a first taste.  We'll certainly be back.  I give a thumbs up to the Rink of Dreams.  We'll definitely head there one day right after school and have a longer skate.  For tomorrow however, it's back to our local outdoor rink where the ice is choppy but the parking is easy.

Ontario's first winter storm pretty much had its way with us

Holy frack, I am so tired I could spit.

How's that for sticking two awesome little sayings in one sentence?

This morning and last night was Ontario's first biggish winter storm of the season. This morning was the morning that Beth left. By airplane. From the Toronto airport. An hour away from here.

I got up at 5:45 and checked the status of her flight. It was a go although many others were already delayed or cancelled but hers was still 4 hours away.

I woke up the girls and took them to my awesome friend Tamara's house (5 minutes away at the most) who is the absolute best person in the world for reasons you will soon find out. I came back to our house and Beth and I loaded the car and were on the very icy roads by 6:50. And from there we crawled to the Toronto airport. At the 9:30 mark, we were in Milton. Milton! For those of you who know Ontario, you'll know that is crazy! On a regular day I should have been in Milton in about 30 minutes. It took us over two hours to get there. We stopped at a Starbucks there and headed back out. Beth's flight was supposed to leave at 10:13. It was delayed by 15 minutes only and it left the ground without her. We pulled into the airport at 11:00, a full 4 hours after we left Waterloo. On a regular day that should take me an hour, maybe an hour and a half during the morning commute.

For the record, people were driving really smart - and that's why it was so slow - it was a crawl all the way from Waterloo. I did see three accidents - all of them jack-knifed transports in the ditches. No one injured it seemed, which is good.

It took me only an hour to get home and pick up my kids from Tamara WHO HAD LOOKED AFTER THEM FOR SIX HOURS. Along with her own two kids. And that is only one reason as to why she is the best person in the world. I owe her so big.

And so it is 8:30 and the house is a pigsty and I don't care. I'm going to bed.

And as of right now, Beth, who missed her flight, is probably finally boarding her flight in Chicago after having a 5-hour layover there. 5 HOURS! WITH A TWO-YEAR OLD! So if I think I'm tired, it is nothing compared to how she'll be feeling when she gets off that plane in Austin at 11:30 tonight.

What I did on a beautiful day

I know that a day like today confirms climate change (if anyone really required confirmation anymore) but I really enjoyed this weather. It was so warm that I didn't need a jacket or even a sweater. We planted tulips and daffodils (nothing like waiting until the last minute). We played outside. The girls rode their bikes through the cemetery (our favourite bike-riding spot). We generally soaked up the weather because it could be the last time we see it for several months (although not likely because tomorrow is supposed to be 12 degrees and the forecast says it will be nice all week, which only makes me more worried about the state of the planet but for now I'll just enjoy the weather and try to sleep at night).

It is very hard to think about Christmas approaching when the weather is like this but it is in fact only six weeks away. Six weeks! I have a lot of sewing to do between now and then... not to mention some shopping. Yikes! And I want to participate in Andrea's 25 days of Christmas. I have some planning and organizing to do. So hard when it feels like I should be gardening or thinking about summer vacation.

Tomorrow I'll hopefully make a tiny bit of headway when I go to the Waterloo Potters' Workshop Sale. I've only been once before but it was amazing. It is very hard to choose what to buy (and what not to buy). I hope to cross some gifts off the Christmas shopping list. At least one or two anyway.

How did you spend today?

I could make a good mixed drink with my toes

It is so cold in our house at night right now that, I'm not kidding, I could ice a martini with my toes. Not that you'd want to drink it after but it might be an experiment worth trying JUST TO SEE.

The past two nights I've worn wool socks to bed.

Last night I got up, as per usual, to see what Hope was going on about. Seems her blankets were twisted. And she had to pee. As I walked up to her room I realized that my entire body, which was clothes in said wool socks and winter pyjamas, was freezing... head to toe. I was deeply, entirely cold.

So I grabbed the giant, stored away until winter, duvet and hauled it onto our bed, under which I had another blanket. And that is how I spent the rest of my blissful night. Warm and smothered in a duvet and winter pyjamas.

People, today was September 17 and I shouldn't be doing this yet. What is going to happen in February for example when it is minus 20 outside (it does get that cold in Waterloo, right?)?

I'll tell you. I'll move into the dryer and set it to fluff.

Muscles I've ignored for too long

Last night I did something wonderful.  I went cross-country skiing in Gatineau Park with a group of women, most of whom I know very well and two who I didn't know at all.  We had a great time.

We skied a trail that was ENTIRELY UPHILL for the 45 minutes or so that it took to reach the cabin.  It was a gradual uphill but uphill nonetheless.  The cabin is one of several in the Park.  There are lots of picnic tables and a woodstove, outhouses, pretty much what you need for a warm break during a ski.  We brought great food for a lovely supper together there including a good amount of wine.  

After filling ourselves, we skied back down the long uphill.  That ski back was a lot of fun and took only about 20 minutes if that.  Thankfully most of us came equipped with headlamps.

By the time we reached the cabin I knew I was in for some pain today.  I was wondering why my ovaries were aching when I knew I didn't engage those muscles for skiing.  It later occurred to me that those would be my groin muscles and they were screaming at me.  

By the time I crawled into the car for the drive home, I knew I was in trouble.  As soon as I got in the house, I ran a hot bath with my wonderful Aveeno Oatmeal Bath stuff and soaked until I could no longer keep my eyes open.  

I did well on the ski considering I haven't skied since Emily was in utero.  Before that point in my life I'd spent a lot of time on my XC skis.  Luckily it came back pretty quickly.  My muscles don't have the same memory (or strength) apparently.

All this blathering to say that I plan to spend way more time on my skis for the rest of this winter and reap the benefits of the beauty of Ottawa in wintertime and the benefits of getting this body back into shape.

A different winter

I realized yesterday how much more I am enjoying this winter compared to last year. It is no surprise I guess. The shear amount of snow we had last year made it difficult to avoid being edgy and a little depressed at how long it would take for the grass to show in the spring.

We have a good amount of snow this year but it is a normal amount. The grass has probably a foot and a half in the back yard. Of course, our front has the usual mountain from shoveling but that's our play area and we had a lot of fun with it last night.

After supper the girls had more than the usual amount of verve and it was driving John and I a bit batty. The driveway needed one more shoveling so John suggested I take the girls outside with me (interesting how he suggested that I take them outside while he stay in the nice warm house. Hm. Nice one!). We had a great time out there. We climbed and climbed and laughed and fell.

I've never taken them out to play after supper before during the winter. Usually that's our wind-down time but I'm going to do it more often. It set them up to have a great sleep and be totally worn out.

Me too, actually.

I'm also finding more ways to enjoy this winter myself. I've developed a nice routine of skating the canal of Monday evenings with Julie and Meredith. Even if the ice conditions are crappy, like last night (there were actually three guys mountain biking on the canal if that tells you anything), we have a great time together and it is wonderful to be outside on a winter night. This weekend I hope to go cross-country skiing for the first time in years. My ass will feel it the next day without a doubt.

How are you enjoying this winter?

A backyard for the birds

During our 24Days of Christmas, one of our activities was to feed the birds. In preparation for that I bought a Nyger seed birdfeeder at Lee Valley. It declared itself to be squirrel-proof and given our resident squirrel population that was a must in any birdfeeder we put in our tree.

And so, I hung the birdfeeder in mid-December hoping for the best. It was chalk full of Nyger seed.

The first three weeks there was nary a bird on that feeder. I was disappointed. Moreso than the girls for sure. When we lived for a short year in Peterborough right along the Otanabee River, one of my greatest pleasures was watching all the birds at the feeders and in our garden. I even kept a journal to record all the different birds that visited. There were a lot. I didn't do any of the work of attracting them. That was due to years of work by the neighbours.

Since then, I've wanted birdfeeders but hadn't done anything about it until this year. And then, nada.

Until a week ago.

I was in the kitchen when John told me to look out the window. The feeder was covered in birds. They were mostly sparrows I thought. Nothing against sparrows but I wanted something more interesting as well. And then, when I looked closer, I realized that many of them were finches, their bright yellow bellies dimmed by the winter sun. Hooray!

And then the squirrels knocked the feeder down. Twice. Off to Hope Depot to buy chain and clips and things that squirrels couldn't break. I re-hung the feeder and put up another one: a suet feeder. Now I was getting greedy. Could I actually attract a woodpecker in my urban back yard?

The suet feeder sat unused for the last several days. This morning a chickadee inspected it but swung back to the Nyger feeder.

To add to the complication, my neighbour's free-to-roam cats parked themselves above the feeder in the tree today scaring off everything for a couple of hours. When I finally hit bottom about the cats, I called the city to make a complaint. As I was on the phone with the attendant, I looked out the window. No cats but lots of birds. And then, lo and behold, a bird came out of nowhere scaring off the small birds. The larger bird landed on the suet feeder, its bright red head gleaming in the sun. My first downy woodpecker.

It must have improved my mood because I told the attendant on the phone that I would go over and talk to my neighbour about her cats before I make a formal complaint.

Let's hope she is reasonable and concedes about keeping her cats inside during the day so the poor birdies can feed without being pegged off. Unfortunately her cats have a killer instinct.

So, today I am celebrating my woodpecker in the city. So lovely.

A protesting body

This week I've done something, twice in fact, that I haven't done in a very long time: exercise. I've wanted to exercise and had grand plans but either I didn't have time or found excuses not to find the time.

On Tuesday I went to a new yoga class that I've registered for at our local community centre. I've taken a good amount of yoga over the last several years and never considered it exercise, per se. This class was different. I was aching by the end, in a good way. I broke a sweat. This wasn't even deemed power yoga. It was hatha yoga. I would not want to be in a power yoga class led by her. I would have been crawling out the door. Having said all that, I did enjoy it. It just wasn't what I expected but it will do me good if not give me the relaxing evening I expected.

And then last night I joined two friends on the canal for a skate. Armed with a flask of Bailey's and dressed in three layers on legs and torso, we had a great time and were fully prepared for the minus 20 temperatures.

I really love skating the canal at night. The canal isn't very busy with skaters, I enjoy the quiet of the city at night (and yes, Ottawa is quiet at night. We're a sleepy city), and of course, I like the risk of the cracks you have to navigate with no lights. Okay, that actually is a bit scary for an iffy skater like myself. And I did have one wipe out but no injuries.

I can't wait to do it again, especially now that the canal is open, as of this morning, almost the full length. Welcome, winter!

In which I somehow start looking forward to this winter

And did we get the snow that the weatherdudes predicted? To quote a currently prolific but much maligned phrase, you betcha! Here is the photo evidence:


I love the sapling maple in the background still holding onto its brilliant yellow leaves.

As much as I feel this is too early for my liking to have the white stuff on the ground, I also have to say that I LOVED playing outside with the girls this morning. And as I pulled the sled along the path and listened to them laughing and saying "Faster, Mummy, faster!" I was so thankful again that it was me doing this and not someone I was paying to do it for me. I'm so thankful to be living these moments with them every day rather than wishing I was.

And, miraculously, it actually made me feel a lot better about the coming winter even if we get a lot of snow again this year. We made snow angels and I towed them around on the sled and even took them down a small hill. We had a lot of fun. Hope didn't want to go in at the end of it all.


Which is a stark difference from last year and the reason, I think, that I'm feeling so much more optimistic about the coming winter than I did yesterday. Last year, Hope whined most of the time we were outside. She had a lot of trouble walking through the snow. She wouldn't leave her mitts on and cried whenever snow touched her skin. I forced her to join us regardless but I always had to put up with a lot of whining each time we went outside to play. Today would indicate that this winter could be a lot different.

Emily also loved playing outside, although she did last year too. However, today was made extra special for her because one of her favourite fruits of the season just hit the stores: pomegranates.
The evidence of the massacre after the pomegranate met its ugly fate:


I even have a recipe to share for What's cooking Wednesday after all this but it is late and I have a book calling my name and a warm bed to get into. Perhaps next week.

I didn't know I was a prophet

So when I wrote yesterday's post I hadn't yet looked at the weather forecast for today. And to be honest, I've never read a weather forecast that included the word "humdinger" when it described what was coming.

Apparently we're in for a humdinger of a storm... at least for this time of year. The weatherdudes expect Ottawa to get up to 20 cm of snow by tomorrow morning.

I'm not going to go on and complain (as is my usual modus operandi) about the snow, how crappy Ottawa winters can be, how it is too damn early for this, etc etc etc. Instead I will tell you that I just spend the last hour putting away all the gardening tools and toys and other crap that was littering the back yard assuming the weather would hold a little longer.

It's a step up from last year when I just left it all there and then cursed myself in the spring when I had a number of cracked plant pots and deflated balls covered by icky stuff.

I guess I'm getting the hang of this home-ownership thing. All right!

And now I will wrap my frozen fingers around a large mug of tea and head back out there to get Emily from the bus. But I'm not complaining! Nope, not me.

Signs of the end of fall

This weekend was full of busy Hallowe'en related activity. The whole weekend however seemed to point to what I know is inevitable: the end of fall. Which means the beginning of winter. Which means the start of Ottawa's longest season. A season that, this year at least, I am dreading. Dreading because of last year. The snow. Remember? New here? Well, this is what we had in Ottawa last winter:

So as November approaches I'm getting apprehensive and pining already for spring because last November the snow arrived and didn't go until late April. This weekend was filled with fun and seasonal events but also, for me, a bit of sadness knowing that Hallowe'en is the last of the fall celebrations.

On Friday night we picked out the pumpkins for Hallowe'en. We went cheap this year rather than getting the experience of pulling the orbs out of the patch ourselves. Next year I promised Emily we'll go to a farm rather than a farm market. That was fine but what wasn't fine was the fact we were only getting four. I know, I know, what a nasty piece of work I am only letting my kids have four pumpkins. Truth be told, you could hand her a fuzzy puppy and tell her it was hers for life and she'd burst into tears because it was the wrong colour or wrong smell or wrong fluffiness. That's Emily lately. She cries about the unexpected.... and the expected. The reality is that she still needs to nap. Afternoon kindergarten puts the damper on that and she flatly wills herself to stay awake on weekend afternoons. The result is tears almost on an hourly basis and that is not an exaggeration.


Her tears dried up when we decided to go out for pizza for dinner. She was stellar, snarfing down an adult-sized portion of Hawaiian pizza. Hope ate about 3 strands of spaghetti, after crying (of course) at the sight of pizza. We abandoned ship and headed home, defeated and also agreeing that we pulled a rookie move by trying to go out to dinner with two very tired kids.


Saturday, the rainiest day of the fall so far, was the Hallowe'en party at The Farm. The kids had fun in between the bouts of Emily's crying for various reasons. They decorated their pumpkins, ate some caramel apple pieces, visited the calves and pigs and sheep and enjoyed wearing their costumes a few days early.


On Sunday afternoon after both (BOTH!) refused to nap I took them to the playground and library. The ominous sky and high winds were truly the sign of the end of fall for me and probably one of the last trips to the playground for this year. At least without hats and mittens.



Goodbye fall. I do love your visits and miss you when you're gone.

Hello winter. You suck.

The great melt

I have shared with you many photos of our gigantic snow pile in the front yard. Finally the time has come to say: it is melting!

Pretty slowly however. Instead of being in the middle of the branches of the crabapple tree, it is now at the bottom of the branches. Woo. Eee.

On Tuesday the thermometer hit 10 degrees. We put on the rain gear and headed out in search of puddles. We were not disappointed. In fact, we found the east coast, complete with ice bergs, right on our street:


And then I put the kids to work. They seemed to enjoy themselves.

Small Moment Day 9

I'm slowly catching up in my small moments. You knew, of course, that yesterday's small moment would be of snow, shoveling, digging, getting stuck or some snow-related activity. I won't disappoint.


That's John just starting to shovel the driveway. As I mentioned in an earlier post today, we got 56 cm of snow from Friday night to Sunday morning, with a brief reprieve during Saturday afternoon. We're a mere 33 cm away from the all-time record of snowfall in Ottawa, which occurred in 1970-71. It is definitely within our grasp.

Take note of the large divet at the bottom centre of the photo. John dug out a small area at the bottom of the stairs. It gives a good idea of how deep this snow was. And, we had just shovelled the night before. Holy smokes.

Small Moment Day 8

We're skipping Days 6 and 7 because I don't have anything I want to record about those days at the moment. Also, I took no photos so onto Day 8 which was Saturday.

Saturday was Storm Day and Baby Shower Day. It was my sister-in-law Cibele's baby shower (that is John's brother's wife), at her house which should generally be easy to get to from ours, about a 15 minute drive. It took a bit longer what with all the snow and blowing and white-outs. It was worth it however as I've never been to a Martha Stewart shower before. Check out these decorations:





There were many fun moments during the shower but my favourite was Emily's helping with the gift opening. She was supposed to be the helper. Watching, you would have thought the shower was for her. I made a few interventions to try to keep her under control. It had a marginal affect. And with that, here is the small moment of that day:


I do also have to add one more small moment from later that night when John's sister Sue and I shoveled the driveway just before building a luge in the backyard (I'm not kidding, we really did that and it was AWESOME):


And this is not the full amount of snow we received by the end of the storm. The paper this morning said 56 centimetres and I believe it. I'll have pictures of that later when I post a fuller account of our family weekend.

What's cooking Wednesday and March Moment Day 5

Yeah, so I missed March Moment Day 4. I took the girls to the Farm yesterday and hauled the camera all over the place and only realized as we were nearing the parking lot to leave that I hadn't taken it out of my bag once. So, while there were many tiny moments, none was caught on film.

Today I could just post a photo of white for our small moment. Just white and that would represent today because again Ottawa got slammed with another big snow. Officially, this is now the second snowiest winter on record in Ottawa. If we get 100 more cm of snow (within the realm of possibility) then it will be the snowiest. What an achievement. We received an email this afternoon from our city councillor. She forwarded an update from the city snow plough manager guy. Here is what Mr Plough wrote:

Sidewalk clearing is ongoing however will be delayed due to snowfall levels. Our sidewalk machines are now using snow blowers. Due to the ongoing demand for salt we are using grit/salt mixture on the main roadways.

Nothing mind-blowing or earth-shattering, I know, but notice the second sentence. They are now using snow blowers instead of the little tiny ploughs that do the sidewalks. Know why? Because the snow is so high beside the sidewalks, the little ploughs have nowhere to put it so they have to blow it up over the big high snow banks. Here is the most recent photo of our yard. John took it this morning (the pile is bigger now) to send to a friend in Vancouver who intelligently moved there from Ottawa last year.


Here is today's small moment:

Hope loves to play with these bingo dauber markers. Her game is to put the lids back on. I noticed today for the first time that she perfectly matched the right lid with the proper marker. I was so impressed. Another baby genius.

And now onto the recipe for this week's What's Cooking Wednesday. My month into The Frugal Gourmet Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines kind of fizzled out. I love that cookbook but I realized what I love about it is just browsing through it, learning some new things, but not actually cooking out of it too often. So, unward and upward. As a bridge into a new cookbook next week, I'm offering up an oldie but a goodie. This recipe is from Jean Pare's original Company's Coming 150 Delicious Squares, her original cookbook. My mum used to make this a lot and I do too.

Peanut Krispie Squares

1/2 cup smooth peanut butter (I used natural crunchy)
1/2 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
4 tsp butter

Melt above ingredients over low heat and stir. Combine 2 cups rice krispies and 1 cup peanuts in a large bowl. Pour hot mixture over top. Stir well to coat evenly. Press in greased 8x8 inch pan. Let it firm up then eat.

Winter fun

On Saturday we finally went out Winterluding. Yes, in Ottawa Winterlude is now a verb. This year I was determined to take Emily to Snowflake Kingdom in Jacques Cartier Park on the Hull side of the river. It's a kids' winter wonderland with big snow slides, giant snow sculptures, this year a small historical village representing Quebec City 400 years ago, and of course Beaver Tails.


Above is Hope in the pink coat. She loves walking on snow, which made it a bit slow to get around, but she had fun (for awhile).

As always, I was amazed at the detail the sculptors could get in such large works, and made of snow, at that.


I couldn't convince Emily to take a ride down there or even the kiddie-sized version not seen here. Oh well, maybe next year.

Last year we stuck to skating but this year I wanted to make it to the Park before Winterlude was over so Emily could really enjoy it. There is still lots of time for skating and at this point, that's really for me, not her or Hope.

My dad and Donna were with us for the weekend. The weather was great, a bit brisque but sunny. It went well for a while but then Hope got really cold. It took me a while to figure out that that was the problem. You'd think I'd have some of this stuff figured out by now. So, we only stayed for about an hour and a half and then went home. It was time enough to see everything and have a hot chocolate and Beaver Tail.

Later that afternoon, Donna decided to take Emily back outside to shovel off the back deck. This is the third time we've (or Donna has) shovelled the deck this winter and yet look how much snow was back there! Emily tried to find her play equipment.... and the stairs.


After all that frolicking in the great outdoors, Emily was left a little red-cheeked. I could stare at that beautiful face for the rest of my life (and plan to) and never get tired of it.

Digging out

After a relatively easy and mild January, we got dumped on again yesterday. It seems like we got more than we did in the big storm in December, but it could just be because there was still a decent amount leftover from before making the piles seem bigger.

To be honest, if I'm going to live in a winter city, I want it to seem like winter so I really like the occasional big snow storm, as long as the power stays on. We (or John) spent a good part of the morning shovelling.

Here he is post-shovel:



And the pile on its own, revelling in its own formidableness:

I may open my front yard as a ski hill

Our front yard, tiny as it is, is looking distinctly like a bunny hill at a ski resort. The snow piled there from many drive way shovelings is approaching momentous and it is only December 15.

Environment Canada is currently predicting a major winter storm to hit most of Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick tonight and tomorrow. Ottawa is going to be walloped again. Here is some of the language from their current warning for Ottawa:

A near-crippling snow storm...A massive winter storm...Copious amounts of snow...the potential to cause near-paralyzing conditions...

And in case I doubt their accuracy: There is a high degree of certainty with this storm as the concensus of weather model data is virtually unanimously forecasting this event.

So, should you be coming here soon from, say, Texas... well, you won't be having to dream of a white Christmas and you might just have to toboggan here from the airport.

Snow Day

Finally Environment Canada called it right. Normally when they call for a big storm and everyone starts to panic prepare, nothing happens. Maybe a flake or two, but that's it. This time it turns out they were right. And then some.

It snowed all last night. It snowed all day today. It's still snowing now.

John shoveled the driveway twice and probably could have even done it twice more. Two of our neighbours were stuck in the middle of our street. I foolishly took Emily over to the Community Centre on the sled and dumped her twice because of the tire ruts on our street. We laughed. Well, mostly me.

So, for all of you who are in a more tropical climate and are, just for a second, wishing for a white Christmas, here's a little taste for you. I'm sure this will be enough to satisfy you. And then you'll be very happy to walk out your door, feel the sunshine on your face and know that the only shoveling you'll be doing this Christmas will be in your garden.

This is a photo of our patio table. Notice we were lazy caught unawares this year and still have our umbrella on the deck and the chairs arranged as though we're about to have after-dinner drinks. Yeah, we meant to do that.


Anyway, that's a damn lot of snow. Want some?

There are stairs under there somewhere.

Last year we barbecued our Christmas dinner. I'm thinking we'll be cooking indoors this year. Oh, that's the barbecue if you were wondering why I was going on about last year's dinner.


I really wanted the photo below to turn out better but I'm limited by my sub-par technology. There is a very cool snow drift on our roof just below our bedroom window. I'll see if I can get a better shot of it during daylight, although I really like the back light from the house lights.


Although our winter tires are still in the garage, I realized again today that good winter driving is only partly about tires. Mostly it's skill. Luckily I seem to have some of that (my dad would be proud to know that) but some of my neighbours definitely do not. Those would be the ones who were stuck in the middle of the street and at the ends of their own driveways. It's called a gas pedal, friends. Think about using it.

The first big whopper

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. I do love December for the anticipation of Christmas at home and at church with each Sunday marking a new theme during Advent. Today, appropriately, was hope and I have a lot of Hope this year.

In further anticipation of Christmas and all things wintery, today is our first Major Storm Warning put out by Environment Canada. They are promising us snow, ice pellets and freezing rain. Good times, good times.

Meanwhile, our garage is still full of bikes, strollers, a Christmas tree from Ikea, sand toys, SNOW TIRES, and absolutely no room for a car. Can you guess what I'm doing this afternoon?

My reward, albeit a few days late, will be on Tuesday, which I am forever going to call Tim Tam Tuesday because BECAUSE my friendly neighbourhood Loblaws man promised me over the phone last week that he was ordering in (now and forever) Tim Tams. Yay Mr. Loblaws Man! Christmas comes early this year!