Amber....

Snowy scenes from Elk Island....

Elk Island Mid Winter....

Such a beautiful day and the park was as stunning as it always is with it's Winter coat on!!!  We didn't even see one animal this time, but we did have a wonderful walk and fun in the snow!

Behind Lloyd and Susannah you can see Astotin Lake - frozen of course!!  And in the middle is Astotin Island.  Several people could be seen walking across the ice to the island.  Lloyd and I keep meaning to kayak out there for a picnic one Summer.

Sunday ramblings....

We're heading out to Elk Island Park for a few hours today...continuing to enjoy the warmer weather and avoid the chaos at the stores.

I'm thinking I might drag out the old snow shoes today and head out for a trek in those later!!!

I'm planning on joining in with "52-10" an online course on Dollys Dreamings blog!!  It starts a few days before my current class finishes!!

I'm tired today and my arms ache and feel heavy - I'm wondering if thats from Christmas Eve when I had to stand up and be a human X as part of the silly Quelf board game we were playing!  I think a long walk at Elk will be good!

I'm so happy Lloyd has another week off of work.  It's a lovely relaxed feeling to know he is home for so long!

I'm thinking towards New Year...new plans...new ideas...new projects...new books to read....new homeschooling ideas....new routines....

I loved looking out at the ice fog this morning - what a beautiful start to the day.  I'm glad it didn't last long though and we now have another beautiful sunny Alberta day.

I'm enjoying these quiet after-Christmas days of lazing about and relaxing and not having to do anything much at all :)  Able to enjoy our Christmas gifts, our home and each other.

Abby by the fire pit....

Abigail kept pulling funny faces for the camera - this was the best of the bunch that I managed to get...she still looks cute though :)  My girl - almost 8.  EIGHT!!!  Wow.

A trifle sweet....

Lloyds trifle - I made this for him for dessert tonight - he loves them :)

All prettied up with sprinkles on top!!

So good to be outside....

It was good to have temperatures warm enough to enjoy the outside again without being too wrapped up!!!  Sam loved being outside without being miserably cold :)  He's such an outdoorsy boy and misses the Summer sooooo much!

So sad to think that normally on days as warm as this Charlie would have ventured outside for some sunshine :(

Coffee in the snow....

Having coffee sat by the firepit this afternoon....

Cat love.....

Lady Cottington's Pressed Faeries....

I have loved this book for so long...I showed it to Lloyd fleetingly on the internet MONTHS and MONTHS ago......I can't believe he remembered!!!  I was sooooo amazed when I opened one of my gifts and saw what it was!!!  A special edition of this beautiful book!  It's like a book of pressed flowers but instead of flowers, they are squashed faeries!!!  They were all caught by the lady who was the little girl who saw the faeries at the bottom of her garden all those years ago in England!

She grew up but still regularly saw faeries and caught them by squashing them in books and getting imprints of them!!  Some of the prints are 'naughty' and show boobs and bums ;)  so the back few pages are actually sealed to 'protect the innocent' ;)

The book is beautifully written and sooooo clever and 'realistic'......

You can find out more about this book and read excerpts HERE

Word of the Year 2009.....

Many Life Coaches / websites / books / articles suggest having a word to focus on throughout the year.  You can read about this on websites such as Christine Kane's blog  and One Little Word

My 'Word of the Year' this year was COURAGE!!  Focusing on this word helped me through quite a few events this year!!  It really was a GREAT word to have this year!!!  Whenever I was scared to do something I would focus on my word and tell myself to go with it!!

When I opened this gift from Val I was overwhelmed!!!  It's one of my beautiful Willow Tree ornaments, but this one is called:

 'COURAGE' - "Bringing a triumphant spirit, inspiration and courage."

Val - thank you sooooo much!!!  I can't believe you remembered!  She's beautiful!!! So very thoughtful of you!!

xxx

Sat here watching Oliver!

This is one of my favourite songs from this movie........I just LOVE this movie. It feels like only yesterday that Chris was in Oliver at Festival 
Place and performed on stage at the Mall too!!


Lloyd is reading his breadmaking book beside me and has been flicking through the guide to his Dragon Age: Origins game. Laurence has gone to a friends to sleep over. We were supposed to be at a party this evening but sadly it was cancelled late this afternoon. I hope everything is ok. 


Susannah is watching the movie with us. Sam and Abby are busy playing....Chris is downstairs probably online chatting....we spent the afternoon outside by the fire pit...had a nice buffet supper like we do every Boxing Day.....and I made Lloyd a trifle.  


A nice relaxing day recovering still from Christmas.  


I forgot to say that my neighbours dropped over on Christmas Eve, Lloyd had dropped over to 
them and they asked if they could drop over here in the evening to see everyone. It was lovely and gave me the chance to see how H was doing - she only has two weeks left now until the baby is due! They are coming over again before New Year which will be nice as they haven't lived here long and we don't know them too well yet but they seem soooo nice - H was telling us about her travels - she lived in Korea for 2 years and travelled to Australia, Japan, Hawaii etc etc....


Sorry Blogger is messing about with my typing again :( lines ending mid-word etc :(

Samsam...

Checking out his stocking.....

How was it today Laurie???

One of Laurie's gifts was a 'Poo log'  - a book where he gets to record his poop details hahahaha! There are spaces to write down details like colour, texture, shape, smell....suggestions on what to write....and a space to draw a picture - hahahaha as you can see Laurence found it funny :)