Cheesecake and Dragons

I can't say that I did a great job of celebrating the start of Chinese New Year this year, but we did get this fantastic lantern from Roger's book keeper. 

It was quite elaborate to set up.  Took us about 15 minutes of quiet concentrated work before we got it hanging in our entrance way.  

Anyhow, Chinese New Year is not over yet and who knows, I may still whip up a celebratory meal.  

The snow has been great, so we've been spending lots of time skiing on the trails.  Hopefully the weather will hold out a little longer.  

My latest offering in the "Quest for the Perfect Cheesecake."

Getting Closer!

Pancakes

I'm married to a pancake snob.  The only true pancake for my husband is pannkakkor which is essentially a crepe.  He claims that he never knew what a North American pancake was while growing up until he had one of my dad's famously large pancakes.  My dad is all about efficiency and the larger he can make a pancake, the fewer he has to make.  Anyway, since Fort Mac is basically a skating rink after last Monday's rain followed by Tuesday's freezing cold temperatures, we've been a bit house bound.  With not much else to do, our thoughts have turned to eating and after seeing this pancake recipe a few days ago, I haven't been able to think about much else.  After braving the sceptical looks from my husband, this morning I tried it out. 

I'd say the results even managed to please my pancake elitist husband!

Not bad for a North American pancake.

Don't worry mom and dad, we're not really sitting around, we did manage to get out on our skis yesterday and today despite the icy conditions and bitter winds.

Finally winter is here!  This is more like it.

*Update*  Roger recently informed me that my information in this post is incorrect.  My dad's gigantic pancakes were not his first North American pancake.

There.  Now the world can go on turning.

Christmas 2011

Christmas this year started as usual in Camrose where we watched Mamma G whiz around her kitchen whipping up tasty delights which is an even nobler feat than usual since her radial nerve hasn't quite woken up in her right arm yet.

Christmas at Mamma G's house is all about the big kids (and the food).  

There were toys:

toys...

And more toys!

The disappointment in Lars' face when he found out he had to wait 8 hours for the batteries to charge was heartbreaking.

Mamma G received a beautiful quilted lap blanket made by Bridget

And tried out a few of her new gifts.

(sorry Mamma G, I couldn't resist, these pictures are just too priceless)

Afterwards we had some Glogg and called it a night.

The next morning after Christmas meal no. 2, Lars came over bright and early to play.

After that, we headed down to Calgary.

Where, it's all about the little kids.

and the food.

After gift opening, Joyce worked furiously on a puzzle that she eventually was the first to solve (you can see her in the background)

After that, Roger would not rest until he solved the puzzle as well..here's the evidence.

And then we settled in for an intense, but keeping in the spirit of the holidays, a friendly game of Kadoo.  Those kids are ruthless!

In our search for snow, we headed out to Kananaskis for a few days after, unfortunately we found it too warm too ski, and instead traded out skis for snowshoes.

We hiked into Rawson Lake

By the way, the bag I'm carrying was my gift from Roger.  It's a cool camera bag that allows you to access your camera without even taking the pack off your back.  You just unclip, sling it forward and voila, camera in your hands!  

There wasn't a lot of sun that day, this glimpse of blue sky was about all we got.

And when we got back to our hotel, look what was waiting for us.  We promptly moved them so that they had a good view of the TV.

We enjoyed our hike so much that the next day, we took our parents.  We didn't head into Rawson Lake but did a hike around the Upper Kananaskis Lake which was just to my mom's liking.  It was blustery that day, but once in the forest, we were as snug as bugs.

What's this guy up to?

Pack it in, pack it out.

This is about as far as we got.

A little more blue sky on this day