Sunday 30 December 2012

Jacob Post: Tobogganing


Today, we went toboganing at the clubhouse. We met Robert, Sarah, Ryan, their mum, and their dad. I had got 2 new sleds. A mini luge blue one and a normal green one. Me, Robert, and Sarah played Crash. In the game, 3 people find a spot next to each other. 2 people would have the same sled. 1 person has a different sled. The different sled person would set off first, the 2 other people would set off and trys to knock the first one off. Then, we played link. We would toboggan down the hill with linked arms. We get however many people were at the bottom still linked. Then, we went to their house and played lego. Then we played hide and seek.We also had a snack. Sadly, it was soon time to go. We (as in me, Rose, Mummy, and Daddy) went home and tobogganed in the yard. Rose got her head stuck in a snow drift while belly-whopping. Here are pictures:

Rose on the crazycarpet

Me and my friends playing Crash

Thursday 27 December 2012

Proper Snow and Rescue Dogs

Last night we had our first proper snow fall, about 6 inches of it.  The children and I went to check it out this morning, it was great for making snow angels,


And shovelling


But too powdery for snowmen.  Unfortunately due to general fecklessness we have no sledge, this seemed a great pity so I thought back to my youth (many years ago when we made jack-o-lanterns out of turnips and ate gruel on Christmas Day) and recalled that in the absence of a proper sledge we would use empty plastic feed sacks.  I came up with this alternative fashioned from a recycling bag, an old cushion and some duct tape.  It worked pretty well, I enjoyed myself anyway.


I had quite a day of improvisation.  This is the dog I rustled up for Rose to make up for the lack of toy dogs for Christmas.  It's made from a pair of Tom's socks (I asked first) to a Martha Stewart pattern and seems to have mollified Rose for the time being.  I will have to work on a duck for Jacob now or this may be construed as an act of favouritism and used against me in future.

 
 

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Boxing Day Blues

Look at the state of my lounge (and my Son, bed early tonight I think).  And check out the size of that doll's house from Grandpa, I think it will probably be a determining factor in the size of our next real house.  So far it has been inhabited by naked Sylvanian Families and a multitude of balloon poodles and the music room and dining room are being used as a garage for a tour bus run by bears.  Gary said he had visions of a little girl playing nicely with dolls in it, he clearly wasn't thinking of Rose.


Yesterday went well, Jacob had the best Christmas ever and Rose had the worst day of her life due to not getting a toy dog, how glad I am that I didn't rush out and buy the other Rainbow Dash.  I am hoping that Jacob will blog some of his gifts so will not spoil his potential surprise until it becomes obvious that he won't bother.

This is what Christmas does to an already tired 4 year old.

Monday 24 December 2012

Merry Christmas

So the big day is almost upon us, my jobs are all done and my list fully ticked, the only things that I've missed out, are making my own sage and onion stuffing, so Paxo will just have to do and cleaning the house but who cares, if Santa wants to use the bathroom while he's here he'll just have to cope with a little gunge.

I was watching the weather channel yesterday (yes, I do lead an exciting life) when I chanced to hear that the official definition of a white Christmas in Canada is 2cm of snow cover by 7am.  So this doesn't count apparently.

As a comparison I looked at the British definition and if you are placing a bet a white Christmas is a single flake of snow falling from the sky during the 24 hour period of Christmas Day, I guess expectations are a little different.

Anyway, before I go and collapse here is a picture of the children with their present for Grandpa, he didn't put up a tree this year so we made him a substitute.


Won't be blogging tomorrow as although today's jobs are done I will no doubt be up to my eyeballs in turkey and trimmings and hopefully some sort of numbing beverage so here's wishing anyone who reads this a Very Merry Christmas and for now a Jolly Good Night.

Saturday 22 December 2012

Three Days to Go

Day 1 of the Christmas Holidays and we actually have a tiny sprinkle of snow!  Last night a big storm blew through that sounded like hurricane Sandy through the woods, it has left behind a fine dusting of snow in the grass and on the lea side of the roof tops.  It's pretty but I didn't rush out and buy a sledge, on reflection perhaps I should have because if we get snowed in without one I will have very cross sledge-less children.

More 'exciting' Christmas prep today, the making of hard sauce for the Christmas Pudding and a disaster with the cake.  I discovered that the marzipan I bought (very early and quite smugly) a few weeks ago went out of date on 12 FE 24 which I think was last February and not in 11 years time.  That's another thing to add to the huge shopping list tomorrow along with Turkey, hope they've got some of that left or Gary will have no leftover nut roast to take home.

Finally, here are the children posing in front of the disco decorations, Jacob looks like a 1980s rocker because he is modelling a festive headband/hat he made at school.

Thursday 20 December 2012

Dogs and Horses

This afternoon I made a flying visit to The Tender Spot which is one of only 2 stores open on the main beach strip in Grand Bend during the winter.  It is a shop that sells an astounding assortment of things from tourist knickknacks to knitting yarn, in the past I have bought balloons, napkins, baby tights (for Halloween spider leg construction) a porcelain soap dish, gloves, a fleece blanket, a pack of little felt circles to stick under chair feet.  The list could go on indefinitely but you get my drift, anyway, back to the point.  I was weaving my way through the store via the toy aisle when who should I spy in a very faded pink box on the bottom shelf but Rainbow Dash, plastic as you like and with only minimal accessories.

This left me with a bit of a conundrum, should I buy it and give Rose 2 Rainbow dashes for Christmas or just risk it with the fuzzy one?  In the end I left it in the shop, it looked so old that I can probably leave it there for a couple of days while I decide.  The problem with Rose is that she is just so fickle, while we were out together this morning 2 people asked her what she wanted for Christmas and she told both of them quite confidently that she is getting a toy dog?  There were no toy dogs on any lists I saw, I hope a T shirt with a dog on the front will do because that's as close as she's going to get.

Tuesday 18 December 2012

More Baking

I am now well and truly into the Christmas prep stage and have managed to tick cranberry sauce, teacher's chocolates and 2/3 of a pan of millionaire's shortbread off my list.

You may question whether millionaire's shortbread is a particularly Christmassy thing to make but I haven't seen it over here yet, there are a zillion different versions of Nanaimo bars that are a similar concept triple layer bar but nothing quite like the millionaires stuff.  The other reason for making it is to use this crazy implement I found in the kitchen.


I am tempted to fasten bells and ribbons on it and do some morris dancing but I think that it is actually a 'pastry blender' for rubbing or cutting fat into flour.  I gave it a go and it did a pretty good job, not so good as a brilliant pastry making person but better than me and I didn't have gunk stuck under all my nails when I'd finished which was a plus.

In a quiet moment Rose rearranged the kitchen tree and it is really quite spectacularly lopsided now.  Jacob was very cross and didn't see the funny side of it all all, not cross enough to sort it out for me though, if I have to find time to do it myself it will have to stay like that until Twelfth Night.

Sunday 16 December 2012

Enter the Christmas Tree

Last night Tom and I put up the Christmas Tree, it looks very small in this large house but if we got a bigger one there wouldn't be enough decorations.  As the tree was up and ready with the decorations within reach the children got festive at 7.15am, pre-coffee Christmassiness is a little early for me but sacrifices must be made.

For once the grubby rabbit was behaving
Yesterday as part of my experimental, thrifty decorating plan Rose and I (and Jacob for about 5 minutes) spent ages making groovy paper garlands.  I'll try to induce Rose to pose with them tomorrow, they make the living room look like a psychedelic 70s hairdresser's.

This evening I put the mincemeat ingredients in a big bowl to marinate before making that up tomorrow.  Mince pies are not normal over here, the only person I've come across who has both heard of them and likes to eat them is my hair stylist who is originally from Birmingham, she has to import her mincemeat from the USA.  This is good news as when I make a batch of 200 I will have someone apart from Gary to fob them off on and spare some room in my tiny freezer.

Finally, Rose got hold of my glasses this afternoon and here she is.

Think I might borrow the hat

Friday 14 December 2012

Baubles and Stuff

Today has been a day of frantic cleaning before the Christmas decorations go up, I feel like I have mopped a football stadium.  Its going to be tricky making the house look decorated as we have only imported enough stuff for a 3 bed terrace house and are now inhabiting a 3000sq foot semi mansion.  As a result the children and I are getting creative, here are our vases full of cheap baubles, they looked good in the magazine.


Here is the professionally decorated kitchen tree, it may get redecorated with some lights on when I've bought some or borrowed some from Gary.  I watched a demonstration on how to best decorate your tree at a ladies fund raiser for school, it's odd but they didn't mention the give half the decorations to each of your children and end up with a tree that has a large collection of things at the bottom of one side and another about half way up the other side with nothing in between method.  They obviously don't everything after all.


Thursday 13 December 2012

Footprints in the Sand

This morning I walked down to the beach, it was really pretty with the frost on the sand and it even sounded calming as both children were at school.  My photo isn't up to much but that's because my camera is small and worth about $2.50, I couldn't be bothered to wait for better light and I'm not that good at framing a picture but you get the idea.


I followed a  trail of these footprints for a quite a long way, good job i know theres no bears and wolves around here!




Tuesday 11 December 2012

Shopping for Ponies

When we wrote letters to Santa a couple of weeks ago Rose announced that she wants a pony.  To my relief it turned out that she wants a new my little pony, specifically 'Rainbow Dash', the blue one with a Rainbow mane and tail and a rainbow branded on her bottom.  Easy I thought.  Today I looked in vain in Walmart, Toys R Us and the toy section of Canadian Tire.  Everything seems to be 'Princess Celeste' who is white and actually a unicorn so she won't be fobbed off with that.  The only Rainbow Dashes came in packs of many plastic ponies or in sets with picnic equipment, hand bags and crowns or lots of other tiny bits and I prefer to leave the tiny bit buying to grandparents and other people who don't have to dredge out hoover bags when the tiny bits become invisible on the floor.

In the end I found a soft fabric Rainbow Dash, I don't know if this will do or if there will be tears because it isn't plastic.  I could feel the angst of Christmas building up inside me as I stood in front of the shelves willing the little blue freak to magically appear and I almost started to think a real pony might be easier.  Present shopping is much less enjoyable now that I am responsible and the happiness of small people hinges on getting it right.

Sunday 9 December 2012

Poutine

This week Jacob has mostly been filing, you'll have to ask him about that.


I think I have the tiredest children in the world, check out the bags under Jacob's eyes.  Here is Rose modeling the treat bags I have been making to hang on the Christmas tree, she doesn't look a lot better.


Today we tried to go for a walk in the Parkhill conservation area but it was all a bit weird.  We drove a long way down an increasingly pot-holed road with lots of signs saying hikers welcome but no walking trails so we gave up and went for lunch.

I tried a Canadian classic called 'poutine'.  Now I thought poutine was a dodgy Irish whiskey made from fermented potatoes (nice) but apparently that is poteen and the 2 should not be confused.  Poutine is a Canadian delicacy consisting of fries, curd cheese and gravy I'm surprised you can't get it in Yorkshire.  The verdict: actually it was pretty good in a carb heavy, sits in the stomach for 3 weeks kind of a way and would probably seem like a good idea after 5 pints of bitter (something it may have in common with poteen), it doesn't make up for the lack of mushy peas though.

Friday 7 December 2012

Something for the Weekend

Today at play group Rose and I were introduced to Pete the Cat by Eric Litwin.  We listened to a CD accompanying the book called I Love my White Shoes and as Rose loves singing, dancing and shoes it was just about the perfect thing to make her morning.  When we got home I found the song online at the address below and we had a good boogie in the basement.

http://harpercollinschildrens.com/feature/petethecat/audio/pete-the-cat.mp3

I urge you to have a listen as it certainly jollied me up, it's a good job I'd not had a beer or I'd have made a fool of myself strutting around play group pulling faces.  Its a pretty good way to kick off your weekend but you may be humming it all week.

Thursday 6 December 2012

Christmas Preparations and Big Birds

Hurray, finally got my last overseas parcel in the post, Now the race is on to get my Christmas cards written.  I might have to resort to a glass of festive sherry and 'Now that's what I call Christmas' to get me in the mood.

Today on my Thursday morning walk in the woods I saw a pileated woodpecker, I had never seen one before and it was massive.  I looked them up in Chuck and Suzanne's trusty bird book and apparently they are 16.5 inches long with a wingspan of 29 inches, I'm glad they don't come to my bird feeders and really glad one hasn't tried to check into the chalet.  I often think it would be nice to have a good camera for that sort of sighting but I'd probably leave it on the kitchen table with all the rest of my rubbish anyway so I guess it doesn't matter.

This evening I got the dried fruit soaking for my Christmas cake.  I wasn't going to bother with one but on reflection I can't really go through the whole of Christmas without fruitcake and how else am I going to use up all the candied peel.  It will be very Canadian as the fruit is soaking in Canadian Club whiskey (got no brandy) and I forgot to buy sultanas so used cranberries instead, the glacĂ© cherries are green which is a bit weird but hopefully you won't see them when it's cooked.  I just hope that I've got enough time to adequately feed it before Christmas.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Apologies

Many apologies for the half hearted blogging and lack of photos or anything much else published recently.  My excuse is that I have been very busy with some secret, Christmas related, unbloggable craft activities, they are now done and I can get on with thinking about other things.

On Sunday while Jacob was curling Rose and I went to another garden centre open house for free hot chocolate and cookies.  Rose got to make a Christmas arrangement that is now proudly gracing our mantelpiece.


And here is Jacob with his very important and fat folder of important Bone Collecting data.


Saturday 1 December 2012

Happy Advent

Well here I am with nothing to talk about.  Jacob and Rose received letters from Santa in the post yesterday and Jacob was so excited that he photographed his in order to blog it (brilliant, a night off I thought) but unfortunately he was side tracked by Scooby Doo, tonight he is playing some computer game or other so I'm afraid you will have to make do with me with no prepared pictures.

Nothing exciting has happened since I became stuck in the drivers seat of the Rav on Thursday night so I will celebrate the beginning of Avent by telling you this interesting Christmas related bird fact I have come across.

Robins in Canada are quite different from English Robins.  I am told that they belong to the Thrush family, they are quite large and grey with a sort of orangy colored breast and they are migratory and only hang out in Canada during the summer preferring to fly off and have their egg nog in warmer climes.  I have known all this for a while but it didn't occur to me until just recently the devastating effect this has on Christmas, there are no Robins on anything.  Instead cards and wrapping and decorations feature Cardinals, this is a bit of one-up-man-ship I think as instead of the homely looking little brown robin with a bit of a red patch Cardinals are about twice the size and absolutely stunningly red all over.  Its all very razzmatazz but I may have to send to the UK for a little plastic robin sitting on a holly leaf to put on my Christmas cake so that I don't miss them.