The Festive Season

The cold weather has broken after almost three weeks of around minus 30 temperatures. It's between minus 7 and 15 now and feels quite balmy but yesterday we had more snow so we are firmly in the grip of winter now. 

The last two weeks have been filled with preparing and celebrating and we all had a fine time.

Our first event on Dec 22, was a family raclette with Naomi, Oren, Steve and Helen which coincided with the 2nd night of Hanukkah.

On Dec 24 we celebrated Reuben's birthday with a pizza lunch.

Christmas Day dawned bright and cold but Nicolas had a special treat for us. He made almond croissants. Who needs a TV when you can watch dough rise? He said they were so much work that he's never doing them again but we they were so good, I'm not sure we'll allow him to keep that promise. 

Santa had come, so time to open some presents. Everyone was very happy, especially Amanda and Nick - thanks to everyone in Ontario.

We spent the afternoon preparing dinner between bouts of sitting in front of the fire watching Planet Earth. 

Boxing Day, another night of Hanukkah and friends visiting.

Truly a wonderful time was had by all, even though we rarely popped our heads outside.

In the bleak mid winter

In the bleak mid-winter 
  Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron, 
  Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow, 
  Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
  Long ago. 

Christina Georgina Rosetti 1830 -1894

This is one of my favourite carols and the one I always hum when it gets really cold here in St. Albert.  And it is really cold today, although it's warmer than yesterday when it was minus 40.  Hah, warmer is a strange adjective to use when we are talking about the difference between minus 40 and minus 30. 

Some people think a dry cold doesn't feel as bad as a humid cold. And it is dry here, our hair crackles with static electricity and our lips feel as puckered up as a dried apple skin. But for  those of you who haven't experienced temperatures this cold, trust me, when it gets to minus 30 centigrade, dry or wet,  it's COLD - brrrr.  

I took these photos from the kitchen windows. Now the strange thing that you will notice, is that the sun is shining and all looks quite warm apart from the snow. Blue sky and sunshine in the winter is what most diehard Albertans cite as the reason they wouldn't want to live in BC (and it rains too much there supposedly). Now tell me, would you trade this picture for a few drops of rain?

If not, consider this, when we go out today, we must cover all expose skin because it will freeze in about 4 minutes. But we don't bother as we dash from car to shop, because we are hardy and foolish (for living here). 

This is probably not the last time I'll talk about the weather on this blog. 

It's beginning to look like Christmas

We got a Christmas tree from Ikea (rather appropriate as most, okay be honest Susan,  all of our furniture is from Ikea - I make a bit of a joke about it but the truth is I love Ikea furniture).  What's not to like? You get to build it yourself, it's inexpensive (dare I say cheap?), it's modern and Swedish. Reuben and I used to joke that we had quality time together in Ikea. That gives you a sense of how devoid we are here in St. Albert of interesting day out opportunities.

The tree is lovely, very full and even. Amanda did a wonderful job of decorating it and and some trial and error we found the perfect spot in the front window.