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

Finding winter

Winter has been a little shy this year, but I managed to find out where it's hiding out, at least momentarily.  You wouldn't know it today though, the warm breeze that has blown in has heated things right up to +7'C.

Here's some photos from my ski through the trails on Friday.  It was a foggy morning with frost on the trees, but by the time I made it out onto the trails, the fog had burned off, and most of the frost on the trees had disappeared.

This deer almost gave me a heart attack.  It's nice to see that my heart is still working.

Yesterday, it was a bit cooler, so I grabbed my camera right after breakfast and headed outside before the frost had a chance to melt away.

The Land of Cheese

At the beginning of December, Roger and I met Lindsay and Jeremy in Las Vegas.  

We didn't go down specifically to see the Statue of Liberty made out of jelly belly beans:

Nor did we go down to play (and lose horribly at) slots:

Or to buy Tequila at the gelato stand and drink it out of a paper cup

Nope, we went down to do this:

Why we thought it would be a good idea to run a half marathon with 44,000 other people is still not apparent to us, but that Lindsay can sure be convincing.  

Anyway, there's enough negativity out there about the poor organization of this event so I'll just focus on the positive like running the entire boulevard at night and not having to worry about getting hit by a vehicle, and the music along the route and getting pleasantly distracted by the Bellagio Fountains and..... having the foresight to stay at a hotel close to the start and finish of the race.  Unfortunately, the only photo I have of the actual race is this:

taken from our room on the 37th floor of the full marathoners.   

We also paid a visit to Roger's candy store. 

 A couple of black ones, a green one, a red one...

Roger got to take a couple of them for a spin

and, he signed me up for a ride along in a yellow one.  Probably not the best thing to do when you have the stomach flu.

Boy, was I ever happy that I was wearing the helmet--that's right, I'm not just wearing it because it looks sooooo good.

Then....we came back to reality.

This is actually a good thing.  I was beginning to think we were going to have a green christmas, but a couple of Saturday's ago it snowed all day long and finally, we had enough snow to take our cross country skis out for a spin.  I just hope this snow sticks around.

A Pack of Cubs and First Advent 2011

This past weekend found Roger leading a pack of Cubs (Cub Scouts that is) for a winter walk through the woods.

He was really in his element and only made one kid cry after his bear safety talk.  

He managed to tucker them out pretty good by the end, and I think all-in-all, managed to leave only footprints and almost a juice box.

I managed to fit in better than I thought I would, especially after one of the kids asked if I was Roger's daughter!

Riding the Bus

Last weekend Megan and I found ourselves doing our darndest to keep this little munchkin amused.

It was no easy feat.  As you can see, she is not easily impressed.

Thanks Megan for the action shots (3rd time's a charm!)

And for being the grumpy bus driver.

I sure don't fit into that equipment like I used to!

Will you be our 40 Acre Wood?

Here's some sunshine to help with all the miserable cloudy weather we've been getting.