Umbra penumbra...mumble mumble

Yikes!  I just had horrible flashbacks of Dr. Chou!  Some of you may know what I'm talking about.  Anyways, here's some really bad photos of the really cool lunar eclipse last night.  I started taking photos at around 11:30pm (white moon photos) and then Roger and I woke up at 1:10am (red moon photos) to check it out.  Even this morning you could see the moon was still slightly yellow.

 

 and now you can see the red creeping in:

and now you can see the red moon--and also... the evidence that I don't operate very well at 1am.  

Since we're on the topic of the moon, Roger and I forgot our headlamps on our cross ski tonight.  Luckily the moonlight was bright enough tonight that we didn't really need them.  Except for getting caught in the odd moon shadow, it was like the trail was lit with a street lamp.  

Fourth Advent and Mysterious Packages

Today we lit our fourth and last Advent Candle:

And..... mysterious packages have started showing up around our house!!!!  This big one's for me!

did I mention, the big one's for me?? 

Anyway, here's our outside lanterns that we've been lighting every Advent Sunday.  Roger asked me to photograph these--he liked the glowing snow.

And this is what Roger made for breakfast yesterday morning.

No snowboarding this weekend, but we did do some cross country skiing... and... all sections of the trails are open now.  Roger also took me to see Corb Lund on Friday night.  I must say, I wasn't super excited initially.  I figured it would be more country than I would like and that there'd be a lot of clap alongs to songs I didn't know.  I was right--it was country-ish, but Corb has a very cool "country-rap" style (if there can be such a thing).  And yes, there were clap alongs, but what I didn't expect was to find myself clapping along right in there with everyone else and grinning myself silly.  Yup, it was fun, not to mention an amazing opening with the John Evans Band a rockabilly band from Texas.  Boy, don't ever pass up a chance to see these guys live.

Perogies and Knäck

I recently visited Camrose/Edmonton where Mama G and I made Knäck--a kind of Swedish Christmas toffee.

Here's the ingredients:

Which you pour into a pot:

and bring to a boil for 30-60 minutes, depending on how hard you want your candy:

Then you add almonds:

and pour the liquid into tiny little miniature paper muffin cups.

they're pretty tasty.

Mama G also fed me Swedish cookies

and..... guess what's hidden under here?

That's right...Prinsesstårta!

Thanks Lars for saving us half a cake.

I also discovered some Tomter hiding around Mama G's house!

Mama G, I hope you're stocking up on porridge and boozy drinks!

Bridget, my new sister-in-law also invited me to join her in some perogy making.  We spent around 5 hours making over 200 perogies. and that was just assembly, it didn't include actually making the dough or filling.  Whew... perogies are hard work but very tasty.

These wonky looking perogies are mine.. 

Third Advent and a visit from my sister!

Today we lit our third candle for Advent...

And... my sister came for a visit.  Well, she actually came for work, but was kind enough to make a brief stop at our house for supper, a game of Pacman and a sleep.

Here's her tiny boots:

and here's us posing with our coveted guest.

 

Yes... we love getting visitors.

By the way.. this is a turban squash--I'm going to cook it one day.

Second Advent and the Maverick Rev-6

Today we lit our second candle for Advent.  

And Roger bought a gun.  The Maverick Rev-6 to be specific, which is a high powered, pump action, 6-cylinder hand held gun.  He carries it all around the house and has been shooting everything with it--bad guys on TV, hockey players that he doesn't like, stuffed animals and..... me!  Before you panic, I guess I should mention that it is a Nerf gun, and it shoots out foam darts.  

I must say, I may have scoffed at him when he picked up this toy at Extra Foods the other day, but it's actually provided hours (ok minutes) of fun and enjoyment--I know it sounds a little violent, but don't knock it until you've tried it.  We almost think everyone should have one!  Here's  something else we've been enjoying lately...

Yup, that's Pacman, and it's AWESOME!

and we went snowboarding again today--I can carve some shaky turns!