Winter

 

"Winter is the season in which people try to keep

the house as warm as it was in the summer, when they complained

about the heat!"

I don't want to hear about how hot it is in Latin America.  It was - (minus) 20 with the wind chill today and tomorrow doesn't look much better - in fact next week doesn't look much better.  Thumbelina spends her days curled up by the fire after her quick run in the backyard.  We all have perpetual "hat heads".

 

Avalon started a trend with her "Sock Monkey" hat and gloves that she got back in October - unfortunately, now they are everywhere!

From the front seat of the car, Trinity doesn't like the heat blowing on her, so it's a constant battle between the two of us - turn it on, turn it off.  I might have to banish her to the back! The winds have been so cold the past few days that I dread getting out of the vehicle to get gas, so I procrastinate until it starts beeping it's low gas warning to me.  Every Tim Hortons' drive thru is packed.

At least, there are some pretty outdoor skating photo ops:

 

  

 

 

Chrismas & New Years Eve in my Little Corner of the World

This Christmas was without Douglas - he was missed. The girls and I spent it at my Mum and Dad's house. It was wonderful, despite the cloud of Douglas being alone in El Salvador. Our weather was pretty mild this year - not like last year! Last year, the last day of school before Christmas break was cancelled due to a snow storm. We live by a lake - this is what the lake front looked like last year at Christmas time:

                                           

This is a lamp post by the pier.

The only snow this year was from the ice rink down by the lake.

This year my entire family and I celebrated Christmas with a wonderful woman from Prague, her infant and four year old child, who has come into our life - she is my couisin's soon to be ex-wife.  She is going through an incredibly bitter divorce, but his adulterous affair was a blessing in disguise for her and her children. We have become incredibly close, speak everyday and get together a couple of times a week for fun with the kids.  She has brought much love & drama into our lives! There certainly has not been a dull moment since April with Iveta around! Now, the joke is that we are "dating" since we are always together and sans husbands!

                                                

This was the year of the Sock Monkey for Avalon-she is obsessed with them - big ones, little ones, funky dressed up ones, necklaces etc. !!  For Trinity, it was the year of electronics! (aarrgghh!)

My "hot date" for New Years - Iveta & her kidlets, my Sister and her kidlets and of course my kidlets.  So, for those that have lost count - that is three adults, two infants and 5 other children aged 5-12.  Yes, we are a glutton for punishment! My sisters' husband was smart - oops, I mean "ill". To ring in the New Year, we went to Niagara Falls, Ontario.  We had a great meal at Kelseys on Clifton Hill...

gambled at the Canadiana Midway (we start 'em young)

saw the "Lights of Niagara" (Avalon fell down on the ice post posing) -oh look a picture of my sisters' arm holding her baby pram

and rang in the New Year with Fireworks!  It was a great evening.  We wound it down around 1:45 am on the GIANT Skywheel

where I remembered in mid-air how much I loathed it!! Nothing to grasp in a glass enclosed gondola that holds you  175 feet above the falls, with young children really interested in the gondola doors ("for the fifth time, can you please remain seated in the middle of the gondola before I have a panic attack, please and thank you") that keep us safely inside! Last New Years Eve, Douglas & the kids & I went to a Spanish Dinner and Dance - this year he experienced the authentic thing in Latin America with all the errant cohetes (fireworks)!