Uncle and Auntie Ragamuffins

We haven't been up to much lately--it's kind of that time of winter where, with the excitement of Christmas gone, all we can do is shovel, stay warm and wait for spring.  Since there's not much else to do, I've decided to get started on a small project.  For some time I've been wanting to designate a wall in our house a "Family Wall."  Nothing too unique, just a place to hang up pictures of our ever expanding family.  I've started with my family--here's some photos I came across during Christmas at my parent's house.  I have to apologize regarding the quality of the photographs--I haven't figured out how to use our scanner so I just photographed the photos and in some you can see evidence of my flash. 

This first photo is of my Grandmother's family at the Kuching Museum.  I think you can see my Great Grandpa and Great Grandma as well as my Grandma.  I believe my Grandmother is the 6th person from the left in the back row (just behind my Great Grandpa's right shoulder (optometrist's left)).

LR 

Here's a photo of my grandparents and their 8 kids.  Can you guess which is my mom?  

She's the second from the left with the knobby knees and cereal bowl hair cut--she estimates herself to about 7-8 years old.  My mom didn't like photos when she was small.  She thought the camera was a scary contraption--despite this, she's managing to squeeze out a small smile.  

  

For those of you at the wedding and who were lucky enough to meet my Uncle's, you can find Uncle Ignatius second from the right with the suspenders and Uncle Francis is standing in front of my Grandpa.    Here's them now--Uncle Ignatius has the same pout but has somehow managed to lose the suspenders!

Here's another photo of the ragamuffins minus one.  My mom has the same knobby knees but her hair's grown out slightly.  This time she's the second from the right in the front row.  Uncle Ignatius is standing beside my mom on her right (wearing suspenders again!) and Uncle Francis is on her left.

LR

Here's my Grandma and all 4 of her daughters.  My mom is second from the left and her cereal bowl hair cut is now a very distant memory.  Apparently my Auntie Dorothy-(the beautiful girl on the far left, and the oldest of all the girls) would sew up the clothes for her sisters.  You can see my two Aunts in some of her designs.  

LR

I have a few photos of my dad as well although they are harder to come by.  Here's a graduation photo.  I think most of you who know my sister and I can see a definite resemblance of my sister to my mom and me to my dad.  

 Here's my dad with his first car in 1968.  He loved white VW Beetles and probably would still own one except for the harsh winters of Canada.  I'm afraid this poor VW would have been chewed up and spit out by Old Man Winter.

This is my mom and dad's wedding photo.  Handsome and pretty no??

Still looking good!

Mamma G, I'll be raiding your photo archive next!

A New Tenant

Some of you may have noticed a rather sour looking individual in one of my previous posts.  This is Bob.

He was introduced to us by Lars who somehow felt that Bob would be quite happy in Fort McMurray.  Bob is the ideal tenant-he's quiet, you don't have to feed him and he never complains.  The only problem is he doesn't pay rent which technically makes him more of a squatter.  We don't mind though because what Bob loves more than anything else in the world is for you to give him a good punch to the head or stomach.  Yes, we enjoy having him around..

By the way dear husband, you know the other day when you said the pantry door is NEVER closed?  Well....

that looks closed to me!

No Room for a Hand

It finally warmed up today!  Yes, this morning it was -22'C (no windchill) which, by my standards, is  warm enough for a ski.

Here's the beautiful Birchwood Trails in the winter:



I've also finally got around to making little Marcella's mittens.  I made Marcella a pair of mittens last Christmas which got eaten by her dog.  I'm trying a new pattern this time around called "Fleece Stuffed" or "Thrummed" mittens.  I prefer "Fleece Stuffed" because when you see this:

you know what I mean...I may have taken the fleece stuffing to an extreme however.  As you wear the mitten, the fleece on the inside is supposed to get matted together and form a sort of extra felted layer to keep the hands extra toasty warm.   

  Yes, that is Marcella's mitten in the making.  It's turned inside out right now, and looks quite the mess but when you turn it back you get this:

Roger thinks the white bits look like hearts which I don't think is a bad thing.  

I just hope there's room for her hand in there-that is, if Jenny can convince her to put her hand inside.  It kind of looks like there's a hand in there already!  And yes Jenny, that's an extra long cuff as you requested.

Christmas 2010 and Pandas in Cochrane!!

It's been chilly out lately--yesterday morning was -39'C with windchill so we've decided to put a halt to the outdoor activities, and hunker down inside watching movies and eating cinnamon buns!  There was a time when the cold weather wouldn't have bothered me and I would have gone about my outdoor activities like normal, but apparently I'm getting wimpier as I age...(or perhaps it's wiser?)

 Anyways, here's an update for Christmas.  As usual, we went to visit Mama G on Christmas Eve to celebrate God Jul:

We arrived on the 23rd and found this little bear who Roger explained is trying to visualize a solution to the Rubik's Cube.

On the 24th, we woke up to fairly mild temperatures, and clear skies that made this trees in the front of Mama G's house sparkle.  We were also able to take advantage of the neary-by groomed x-country ski trails for the first time which was fun.

Here's the God Jul feast at Mama G's house slowly taking form:

We were especially lucky this Christmas because Jessica and Odie were able to join us.

Here's Mama G with the new scarf I made her.

After opening gifts, we engaged in some non-traditional but still festive activities:

The house quickly descended into chaos:

Especially when Roger brought this guy out and Jessica got a hold of it!

Poor Bob!  This wasn't what he was expecting for Christmas!

Somehow, Mama G paid no mind to the chaos, and found a quiet spot to model her new clothes!  Must come with having raised 3 boys.

On Christmas Day we drove to Calgary to spend Christmas with my family.  There was a different kind of chaos here--half of it looked like this:

And the other half looked like this!

We were quickly introduced to Beyblades, and Zhu Zhu pets--and as you can see, these toys aren't just for kids:

Here's feast number 2:

Opening Christmas gifts is an entirely different experience with a 3 and 6 year old around!  Here's Erin with a mouse stuffy that she promptly hugged to her neck after opening.

And my mom with the scarf I made her

And the Doodle Bug that even I wanted to play with:

Joyce with a gigantic can of Chef Boyardee--it doesn't seem to take much to make her happy.. I'll have to remember this for next year.

And Brendan and Erin enjoying some gifts from Mama G's house!

Anyways, this year, after Christmas Joyce, Raymond, Roger and I headed out to Lake Louise to do some skiing.  Unfortunately Louise was crawling with skiers and snow boarders and was icy. We heard that it was the worst snowfall they had in 10 years!  I did enjoy eating though, and also the nice achy feeling you get in your legs after a full day of skiing--and after the initial shock of Raymond and Roger realizing that we were really sharing a room I think everybody had fun.  We made a quick stop in Cochrane on the way back to Calgary from Louise and saw this:

Hmmm... interesting....