Sunday, January 20, 2013

Mushrooms


I had many reasons to be excited for Christmas 2012.
 One of the reasons for my excitement was that I had thought of a gift for my dad months before.  
For those who know my dad, he is near impossible to buy gifts for, so when I heard about these mushroom growing kits, I knew my problems were solved.  I also knew my brother in law liked to grow things, so he was made another lucky recipient of these kits.

I had these kits shipped to Mamma G's house and she notified me when they arrived.  Everything was on time and in place.
When I arrived at Mamma G's house, I went to open the box perhaps expecting cute little mushroom kits wrapped in festive paper and tied with pretty ribbon.
Instead, I pulled out these large sealed plastic bags filled with dirt and well.... fungus.
My first reaction was ewwwww gross.  
My second reaction was mild panic knowing that I had no time to find something else for them. 
Anyways, here's photos of the kits.



Luckily it was Christmas, and they had to be nice to me afterwards.
Mamma G quickly inherited Lars' mushrooms and attacked the care of the mushrooms with much gusto.   We've received several updates on the status of the mushrooms.
My dad was a bit more apprehensive.  He read through the directions multiple times, then grilled me on the directions which i was little help with.
Then he went on-line to verify the instructions and after following the directions he waited, and waited and... waited.
It got to the point that he was texting me to never buy him mushroom growing kits again.  Not only that, but my mom sent pictures to our relatives in Malaysia saying "poor dad" got a bag of dirt from his daughter and son-in-law for Christmas!
And then this happened.


And then they harvested!



And then they ate this!


Which they said was delicious by the way.
And...while I'm patting myself on my back, I'll go so far to say that maybe you were a bit premature about saying you never want another mushroom growing kit again dad!


Friday, January 18, 2013

A Fort Mac Sunrise

I took these photos from our bedroom window a few weeks ago.



It was beautiful, but boy was it chilly. 
You can see an outline of frost in the bottom pic.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Post Christmas Activities

Last Christmas, Roger and I enjoyed our time at Kananaskis Lodge so much, that we decided to do it again.
The plan was to meet up with my parents and my sister's family at the Lodge to do some snowshoeing and x-country skiing.
Same as last year, my sister's family came down with a last minute "illness" just prior to leaving and had to cancel. I'm starting to think it's just an elaborate ploy on my sister's part to clear Calgary of any family so they can relax in Calgary undisturbed!

There was more snow this year than last, so the x-country skiing was better.  
Roger and I headed out to the Canmore Nordic Centre to do some skate skiing.  

Pictures from the car window of our drive to Canmore.
Trees heavy with snow.



The following day, we met up with friends from Calgary to do some snowshoeing into Rawson Lake.

Here's our before picture.


Some "during" photos.
Little J' did a nice job at setting the pace.



A couple photos at the Lake.

An avalanche.




Lunch














After photos.



Some shots around the Lodge.




Wednesday, January 2, 2013

God Jul 2012!

For Christmas this year, we did our usual traditional tour of Alberta.  
It all started at Mamma G's where we raided her stock of Julmust.









Roger's favourite Christmas gift by far.. a magnetic flashlight with extendable and flexible neck.




A jewellery tree for Bridget.  Made by Hans.
I was lucky enough to score one of these a week ago as well!


Great weather for our drive down to Calgary on Christmas Day


We were greeted by these little munchkins who were hyped up on Christmas spirit.




I have no idea where these kids learned how to pose for pictures.


The gift opening frenzy.



Grandpa scored huge Erin points with this gift.  
She opened this first, and all other gifts paled in comparison.





Brendan with his ever growing collection of Lego.



A present opening injury.







According to my mom, my dad did most of the Christmas shopping this year.
Well done dad!  You not only listened and took detailed notes, but you went above and beyond to get the best deals in town as well!
Even when it meant asking for Roger's gift back to get a price adjustment on Boxing day!