Christmas 2008....

...although I've got my photo looking more like Christmas 1982. *grin*

I still haven't gotten anything on here to fix my pictures up (sharpen, remove red eye,re-size, crop, etc) so I'm stuck using online tools - most of which I dislike...the site that did this was cute though... it's called Picnik - you can do all sorts of fun stuff there, according to all the crazy photos on my 15 year old cousin's facebook page. I had a little fun changing my colours to the "old school" appearance and turning it into a polaroid...

Christmas has come and gone once again. Diane came out for Christmas with us - being very lucky with the day she flew..storms before, storms after ...perfect on her flying day - and her mother came up from 7 hours away as well....this house is not exactly designed for this many people. :-P ....good to have them here, though! Diane is here for the rest of the week; her mother is heading back to her place today.

I have tonnes of pictures - but I'm not mucking around with online tools to fix them, so they'll have to come later (yes because I can pretend that there are lots of people just waiting to see them LOL) ....it's partly the uploading speed that slows me down so much with the sites...and partly the laptop itself.

The kids were both incredibly excited on Christmas morning - stockings were dumped, paper wrap went flying, toys were discovered and, for one nearly-12 year old girl, a certain unexpected electronic gadget was found under the tree.... Cindy got a Nintendo DS for Christmas - completely unexpected and surprising enough that she laughed, grinned, and then started to cry LOL (in a good way) ....see, Diane has one of those handheld game thingers and Miss Cinders had been playing with it since Diane had arrived, loving the games and having a blast....she said she wanted one, but she also had no expectation of getting one, as they're a bit on the expensive side and she knew we were finished with the Christmas shopping...

Or at least, we were. Until Blair and I found ourselves running around on Christmas Eve day trying to scare up a DS. *grin*

We got very lucky, finding the last kit (one with a case and game and a special colour) in one particular store -- normal shopping in this town is a bit foolish, of the sort where you'd best buy it when you see it or you won't get it...so you can imagine what Christmas is like!

We grabbed an extra game for it as well and when I wrapped the stuff, I labeled the game as "part 1" and the box with everything else as "part 2" ....she followed the labels and opened the game first....

"eh? A DS game...but I don't have a....."

*looks at second box*

*light goes on*

*hair raising preteen scrEEEEEEEEch*

She made short work of the second wrap & the box itsef. *grin*......

Funny though - tied with the DS for first place in her "favourite present" category was something very much NOT electronic or techy....a big blue & white hockey stick. Yep....she's just itching to get over to the rink near us and start swatting her puck around. :-)

Christopher's favourite presents were his new sled (he loves to sit in it, even right in the living room) and his "Kerplunk" game - though he enjoyed the ripping of wrap more than anything and just wanted to put his presents in the sled and open more. *grin*


Christmas dinner was the usual for us - turkey, stuffing, potatoes, sweet taters, turnip, carrots, cranberry sauce.....Diane's mom took over the kitchen and did most of it up herself - she said she loves to cook, didn't want any help, and that it was a Christmas present to all of us... fine by me, I'm lousy with the bird anyway.

Now we're just sorta mid-holiday....I always find the time between Christmas and New Years to be odd feeling...it's a strange week - Christmas doesn't quite feel finished, yet it's meant to be...but everything hasn't gone back to normal yet either...

Miss Cinders turns 12 next Monday (the 5th) - where does the time go? Yeah I know, everyone says that...but it's a very good question!

Mmm...speaking of game systems.....



edited to add: I didn't pose that - I walked into the bedroom and that's exactly how Moly was laying LOL

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!!

We have a house full of people and the kids should be up very shortly - hope all of you have a fantastic Christmas!

Brrr.....and some chattering....

Even the sun looks cold up here. *grin*






Pretty near everyone in this town seems to own one - or more - of these, commonly referred to as "quads" (I'm used to them being called ATVs or 4-wheelers)....one of those belongs to Norm, the others to his friends. I intend to pester him into showing me how to drive 'em!




Cinnamon rolls, warm out of the oven, are one of the best answers to winter. They're not as blurry in person.

(They're also not, apparently, what people out here know as "cinnamon rolls" - that's my guess based on the funny look that a friend of Norm's {a friend not from the maritimes like we are} gave them when she saw them...I think what she knows as "cinnamon rolls" are perhaps the things we call "sticky buns" back home.....these (in the pic) are made with the exact same recipe you use for tea biscuits...)


I have no photos from the evening - I did have my camera but nobody else did and I didn't want to make anyone feel awkward - but we had a lovely time with the local homeschool group at the sleigh ride! There was a snow fire, a sleigh with beautiful horses, a sledding hill, and delicious snacks. Cindy met a lot of kids and I met several moms - though I'm quite shy and likely seemed odd and awkward, argh!

Sunday past, we checked out a church here - wow, it was huge! I thought ours was big back home - this makes ours look tiny! Something like 500 people attend this one...it's a Baptist church - we attended the Church of the Nazarene back on the island, but there isn't one of those here.... I don't know a whole lot about all the different denominations, but I think it seems rather close to the same in beliefs...

There's another that we want to check out - it's the Pentecostal Assembly and it seems like it might be just as active as the Baptist one, but perhaps smaller...I really don't know much about them either, so I have some investigating to do....

Meanwhile, we were invited to a "cookie exchange" at the first church this Saturday and we'll go to that - you bring Christmas goodies and everyone shares, the kids do crafts, and whatever else... I'm a pretty basic baker, so nothing fancy - I think I'll bring Reeses cookies.

Sunday afternoon is the kids Christmas party hosted by Blair's workplace - that ought to be fun!


Now, in other news, and I'm slow to get this posted due to always being frustrated with this laptop (I can't wait until I have a desktop again!)....I won a blog contest!

Yep yep - I entered a contest over on The Clan McLeod for a blog makeover and I won - I never win things, so this is rather cool.

The lady who does the blog designs is Judi, from Doodlebug Designs - check out the lovely designs in her gallery! She's quite a talented lady - and this is pretty good timing given that I had some blog plans that I can't get working the way I want. Yay!

Tea biscuits!

Miss Cinders makes delicious biscuits - the boys are quite enjoying our determination to become better cooks. *grin*

Along with the biscuits, there have also been molasses cookies which I have no doubt will disappear pretty quickly, and chocolate chip to come this weekend....our lovely new kitchen has inspired us to become better homemakers, yes indeed.

What there *is not*, is a good photo editing thing on this computer, leaving me rather frustrated because I am used to working with my PSPX on the old computer - basically just for resizing and fixing blurred images, red eyes, etc....free online ones take FOREVER because the wireless connection thing is...well...slow? I don't know very much about how that works.....The top photo of Cindy is messed up...but I don't know if it was already like that or if I did something screwy when I was resizing it....ah well, you can tell what she's doing....(images also don't show clearly on this laptop screen for some reason....colours are all sorta wrong and washed out)

I do, however, know that there is a cd somewhere in this house with Photoshop on it - I intend to find that and install it on here.... :-)

In other news - Cindy and I are joining the local homeschool group later today for their Christmas sleigh ride thingamajig....there's supposed to be an outdoor hot dog roast in the snow, sledding, skating, and other fun stuff....Cindy hasn't gotten to meet any kids out here yet, so we're looking forward to this! There's actually a fairly big homeschooling community here - and many are right in town, from what I've been told, which is fantastic! Back on the island, the group was pretty spread out and up until rght before we moved, we didn't know any right in our town. Finding out that there are many in town - and one family for sure just down the road - is awesome!