Our Christmas Adventure.....

My Dad and his wife invited us to their new house on Vancouver Island for Christmas this year and so I planned for a Vancouver Island "Green Christmas". I had grandiose plans of visiting every yarn shop in the Duncan, Sidney and Victoria area, beach combing with the kids, walks along country roads in pleasant and mild +5C or higher temperatures, with, perhaps at worst, some rain to contend with. I did NOT, in any way, plan for this



or this



or this



Notice the steel grey colour of the water??? It's not frozen.... it's floating snow... there was so much snow that it couldn't melt in the water and just sat there.... oh and did I mention this was only the FIRST big snowfall after I arrived??? There was another on Christmas Eve that was at least as much..... I think the Grand tally of snow for the week that I was there was around 60cms.... that's around 2ft, but there was some on the ground before. When I played in the snow with Chey on Christmas Eve and stepped into the untouched snow (which had melted and compacted in between snowfalls) it was almost mid-thigh, which on me, is slightly over 2ft. The best part of the snow was that it was great for building stuff (and I'm sure the kids would have enjoyed it more had I brought their snowpants, but snowpants were not in my plan damn it!... good thing Dale brought them when he flew out on Christmas Eve morning).....The kids did play in the snow in their pants one day and made snow angels and when the snowpants arrived Chey and I built a polar bear.....




In the newspaper on Christmas Eve, it stated that there was more snow in Victoria than at the North Pole and being as we were slightly North of Victoria, I believe we had even more.

In between bouts of snow, we did manage to take a day trip into Victoria, where we HAD to stop to see the BC Legislature buildings (Eli made a specific request, on the plane.... He wanted to see the government). We also made a trip to the Royal BC Museum, which was enjoyed by all...... The kids are standing in front of the Legislature buildings and in front of a partially frozen fountain in front of the Legislature.. the last picture is in the Museum.




We were very lucky on Christmas Eve that Dale managed to arrive on one of only TWO planes that were allowed to land in Victoria all day.... every other arrival/departure was cancelled for the full day...... And Christmas Eve was a yummy fondue, followed by the feeding of the reindeer and the sleepless (at least it was for me... I get very excited about Christmas) night before Santa came....

Christmas morning was a blast. The kids got spoiled and I got yarn and roving...... Dale got a few bits, but his main present was a new guitar that was left back at home.

The weather finally co-operated a bit on the 27th and we managed to go for a tour on my Dad's boat. It was a beautiful day and made even more complete by a viewing of a sea otter and a couple of seals......

Here is a picture of Chey with her two most favorite presents... a crocodile and dinosaur puppet.. she spent the next couple of days terrorizing the household with her "puffets"



and a great picture of Eli and my Dad on his boat



and do you recognize this sailboat??? It's the sailboat in the ocean picture above..... amazing eh??



I even made it to a yarn store.... It's called The Loom and let me tell you.... it is packed... JAM packed full of yarn, yarn stacked in boxes, with baskets of yarn on top and more baskets or bags or boxes of yarn stacked on those in all of the isles and on top of the yarn stuffed into shelving. This apparent lack of organization would normally send me running the other direction (I'm not a super neat freak, but I'm pretty neat most of the time), in this case though, I found it enormously entertaining and kind of like hunting treasure (she had lots and lots of treasures to be found) and asked if I could take pictures to show you.......




All in all, it was a fantastic eight days..... even if getting home wasn't *quite* as easy as getting there..... it involved cancelled flights (for Dale), sitting on the tarmac for three hours (again, poor Dale) and waiting for luggage for three hours after a direct flight which I still can't figure out how that happened (that was me and the kids) and then having one suitcase lost (again... can't quite get my head wrapped around a lost bag on a direct flight).... the one with frozen fish that my Dad had given us...... fortunately it was still frozen when the airline found and returned the bag the next day......

Merry Christmas to ME!!

I was pretty sure I knew what Dale (and his mom) were getting me for Christmas..... Dale gave it away on the day he bought it (never give away the size of a gift when nothing even remotely to related to that size was asked for or needed... just for future reference), but I wasn't 100% sure until this past week when Dale was home from his away-work rotation. He kept mentioning that he wanted to show me this place he had found, but if he did, I would be 100% certain of the gift he got me for Christmas. I knew immediately that he wanted to show me a yarn/spinning store that is close to our house. He was just so proud of himself for finding this place on his own that I didn't want to ruin it for him right away...... so after the, perhaps, 20th mention, I finally put him out of his misery and said "Honey.... I've already been to Shuttleworks, remember??? I told you about the horrific wind storm I got caught in on the drive home from there????" He couldn't keep it a secret any longer and swore at me (in a loving way, I'm sure) for guessing the gift...... Can you guess??? He couldn't even keep it hidden after that and put it together yesterday......


Here it is...... my new Ashford Traveller Double Drive spinning wheel (don't ask me what that means, 'cause I haven't the foggiest idea..... even after reading all about it)




I'm am so excited to learn to spin... and even though I KNOW I'm not going to have time to learn until AFTER Christmas, I couldn't control myself and immediately purchased more roving than I can expect to spin any time in the near future......




I did make an attempt (attempt is perhaps an understatement, considering I was at it for at least 4 hours, probably more) to spin.... but I didn't figure out until I was extremely frustrated and annoyed and wondering if spinning and I were ever going to be friends, that I could use it either as a double drive OR with a scotch brake, but not both... I think... at least that's what I'm hoping I learned...... I did finally admit defeat after going through quite a bit of my new roving... I should have taken a picture of that mess..... but I wasn't thinking clearly and the evidence is now gone.......

And now, even though I REALLY want to call Make One to ask for help over the phone, I'm going to TRY to resist and go back to plan A.... learn to spin in the New Year... with Lessons...... Think I can do it????

Did I mention that Winter has struck Calgary with a vengance??? Last weekend we got, something like, 16 cms of snow.... Here are a few pictures of the kids playing in it... and one of the post-snow TV watching.....

I know I have a problem now...

Today was a great day. Chey went to my neighbour's dayhome for a playday and Dale and I went shopping together, just for us. No Christmas presents, no kid shopping, just shopping for us. It was lovely..... During this excursion, I decided to look at wedding bands. I'd really love a new wedding ring. My original was purchased on a shoestring budget and is very, very thin and my engagement ring tangles up and catches in yarn when I knit, so I never wear them. I occasionally think it might be nice to advertise that I am, indeed, married. Anyway, I found one I really liked. It was a beautiful ring, but to be sure...... I pulled out my knitting (a pair of slippers at an unrecognizable stage of knitting) and knit a couple of stitches... right there in front of the jewelry salesman..... To his credit, he barely batted an eye.......

Downside was that the ring I loved won't work with my knitting...... sigh....