This Beautiful Life

Merry Christmas and what a merry one it has been!

We had a wonderful visit with Papa and Mary who braved the roads again to come visit our outpost in Jaffray (actually Galloway, but its hard enough to explain where Jaffray is, let alone its wee neighbour 5 minutes down the road – it takes longer to get down our driveway than it takes to pass through). The weekend was packed full of trips here and there and everywhere. Jeff took them out to to visit the farm and to see the foundation on the house, and we snuck in and out of Kimberly for a last chance shopping trip before we ran out of time. Being a Sunday though and the ski hill not yet open, it was pretty quiet and many of the shops had taken advantage, staying closed for the day. I did get to visit my favourite kitchen shop, the Grater Good, to pick up one last gift that had been eluding me. A good day, wrapped up with a warm drink at the coffee shop in the Platzl.

A sunny afternoon inspired a test of the pond in front of the house. Jeff took life into his hands by traversing the bull’s pen to get to it, taking Papa and Mary with him. He was doing exactly what our landlords had told us not to do. Jeff was tempting fate with the only refuge from the bull being a sketchy bit of ice on a little pond. But, that didn’t seem to bother him or Papa, and Mary is always game for an adventure, so off they went with the shovels and skates to see if we could make a rink of it.

Mary was the tester, putting first her Dad’s and then her older sister’s skates on (turns out her feet are bigger than last year, go figure). The ice was a bit soft and the blades dug in a bit while she was skating so the call was made that the ice wasn’t quite ready for us all to test it out. Another week or so of cold though and we’ll be skating.

I don’t think its possible to wear Papa out, but I did catch him relaxing later (a rare moment)!

We saw Papa and Mary off verrrrry early Monday morning and we settled into the last week of school before break. An uneventful week all told, with the usual basketball practices and back and forth’s to Fernie, doing our best to combine all of that with prep for Christmas.

We made it through the week unscathed and Friday dawned dark but warm (ok warm for us). I woke the girls up, we loaded the thule, dogs, pillows and all of us in the truck and pointed its nose towards Langley. We were in. There were no storms in the forecast and Mom was all set to enjoy some quiet time without our houseload of chaos.

The trip was quick, really quite uneventful, with not much in the way of weather or road conditions to contend with. We hit some fog in the passes and a bit of ice and snow coming through Manning but otherwise good, only stopping a couple of times for gas, a bit of breakfast in Creston, and a stretch for the legs. This trip is familiar now and it goes by fast. The girls plug in and listen to music, the dogs sleep, and we drive, swapping off to break it up.

We arrived to Mike and Chrissy’s on time-ish for dinner after making a couple of drops in Langley for Lizzie and Margaret to visit with dear friends. Lizzie’s evening turned into a sleep over and we fetched Margaret after a few hours so she got a quick visit in with her cousins before we packed up and headed for Roy’s. I love these visits and it makes me wish we lived closer. But we were all pretty tired so it was definitely time to call it a night. It was quick to bed so we could get a jump on our day in town. There was still a bit of last minute shopping to do, a coffee date with a friend of mine and a few minutes of rest before the party (no!). Mary had acquired a sore throat and stuffy head since we arrived, so a trip to the pharmacy to get some cold medicine was also on the list. There was no staying home this evening, and before Jeff and I left that morning, she had a cup of tea and was sent to bed to sleep some more. If all else failed, she would find a quiet room to rest at the party that evening, but she would be gutted to miss it all. Lucky for us, a dose of NyQuil had her back on her feet, and true to form, she doesn’t stay sick for long.

We ended up in Fort Langley for a short visit and went to my old favorite coffee shop, Republica. They had remodeled a bit since the last time I was there, but I was happy to see Max and Gus and their walking buddies were still being honoured on their dog wall.

We haven’t been to a Thorpe/Monk Christmas party since we moved to Fernie. A long four year hiatus had us unprepared for the exponential growth that is a family growing up. The babies have become littles, and the littles have become teenagers and some now adults in such a short time. All joined in the merry-making and Mike and Christine’s house was packed to the rafters with laughter and conversation. The girls soaked it all up and so did we. I think Lizzie hit the nail on the head later, when she said she thinks she got a hug from everyone there. Never has there been a better collection of humans than these and when we left that party our buckets were filled to overflowing. As if there was any doubt, this trip was worth every minute of travel to get there.

A visit too short for sure, we were saying our goodbyes and getting ready for the trip home. Christmas eve was upon us and we were due back home to celebrate with Mom. Another early start with sleeping kids and dogs packed back into the truck, we said goodbye again to Roy and Mary and pointed our noses eastward towards home. We were treated to a spectacular sunrise (once the sun rose) and settled into the long drive.

Roads and weather treated us well again and we were home in time to keep up with some Christmas Eve traditions at our house. We quickly unpacked and got on with watching A Christmas Story, reading the Cremation of Sam McGee, and the flashlight telling of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. The girls, tired from the trip and anxious for Christmas morning were off to bed quickly, and Jeff and I set about doing the last of the wrapping. All set, except…

Before we had left the house for the coast I took the turkey out of the freezer and put it in the tiny bar fridge in the basement to thaw. Usually I put it in a cooler with freezer packs but I didn’t want to saddle Mom with babysitting the turkey so I opted for the fridge. Before heading to bed, I thought I should check on Tom’s progress and was shocked to find a turkey that was still rock hard. Visions of Dave Cooks the Turkey ran through my head so out of the fridge he came and onto the counter for the night. The next morning he was still frozen pretty solidly and went swiftly into a water bath to try to speed things up a bit.

Meanwhile, Christmas morning came in a very civilized way, except for when Mary got up and decided to wake Lizzie up with a flashlight in her face. It was still feeling early, although by all accounts 7:30 could be the latest Christmas morning in this family’s history. We made coffee and set about opening stockings. A couple of hours later it was all done and dusted and smiles all around. Success, despite the whirlwind that preceded it.

After some humming and hawing, Mom and I decided to forge on ahead with making all the sides just in case we managed to get old Tom defrosted. Like Dave, I should have renamed our Turkey Butch. He was looking a bit rough. Despite his weathered exterior, he would roast just the same so we kept on the path, making stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potato and yams and roasting brussels sprouts with some maple syrup and pecans. I remembered this time to make the cranberry sauce, which I am notorious for forgetting and rushing at the last minute. Alas, there were sides to be had, but no turkey. We called it around 130pm coming to grips with the fact that there would be no turkey on Christmas Day. All told, the reception was good, the girls did not mind the day’s postponement and with Mom’s birthday on Boxing Day she gracefully requested that her birthday dinner be turkey. Done. Instead, we made some sausage rolls with puff pastry from the freezer and finished off some appetizers and salad. Unconventional Christmas as it was, it seemed just fine to all of us that we could wait a day for turkey.

So today being Mom’s 76th birthday we will be making a cake AND a turkey. Somewhere in there we are heading to our now properly frozen pond for a bit of a skate and will be lazing about playing board games and reading some of the many books and magazines that made it under the tree this year while we breath deeply the smell of roasting turkey. We might get the pudding in a pot too, but could decide to save that for New Year’s Eve.

Merry Christmas to all!

Every year we begin December long before December ever arrives. The planning of our advent calendar seems to grow with each passing year. It is a lot of fun, but packs an awful lot of fun into a short period of time. We combined this year’s advent with an unexpected business trip for me where Jeff had to hold the fort and some welcome visitors. Jeff loves the chaos of Christmas. I am less in love with the chaos, but am the ring leader so I have no one to blame but myself!

This year’s advent began with putting up the tree on December 1. We are living in a rental house in Jaffray right now which although spacious is most definitely NOT on the same level as our Fernie house was. We are missing the high ceilings that made it perfect for oversized trees and lots of twinkle lights, but are content with a slightly different experience. Jeff’s old tree (now close to 20 years old) is hanging in there like a champ and is the star of the show this year. We cleared a space and dug out a box or 10 of decorations to get all festive’d up. As is tradition, we laid out a spread of appetizers, put on some Christmas tunes and set about decorating.

We had a lot of fun digging out favourite decorations, getting goofy with garlands, and since we moved and didn’t unpack a lot of things, there was some puzzling about where some things have gone. I’m sure we will find them again once we move into the new house.

Day 2 of advent had us foraging in the woods for materials to build a wreath for our front door. The house we are living in is up on a small rise, but overlooks a large ranch. There are cows and horses and a couple of bulls to keep us entertained, but also a trails that make for great dog walks. We had the good fortune of having a fresh few inches of snow so we bundled up and grabbed the sleds and dogs and headed down the trail with a bag or two to bring home treasure.

I have an old brass 70’s-ish door ornament that gets repurposed at Christmas to make our wreath and this year was no different (sooo happy I found it amongst all the things crammed into our storage room!). I think we did pretty well putting it together with Margaret and Lizzie leading the effort and Mary (who doesn’t get as much joy from crafting) was lending her support in the form of hugs and cheer leading.

We wrapped up weekend #1 of December with a baking day (which I can’t seem to find pictures for). Baking Day was filled with baking an item of choice by each of us. Lizzie chose Candycane Meringues, Mary made Church Window Cookies, and Margaret made Rocky Road Squares. With all the extra egg yolks it became necessary to make a lot of shortbread, so that became my baking adventure for the day. It was a good thing I was heading out of town and missed the days that followed. I’m sure more than one meal was missed as a result of eating too much baking!

The next day I headed off to sunny San Diego to attend a conference. Travelling from Jaffray to San Diego takes a good long while but the trip was worth it. I worked, gorged on seafood for a few days, learned a few things, met a few new people and scratched an itch to engage with other professionals other than through my web browser. I won’t lie, it was also kind of nice not to be “Mom” for a few days (even though that never really happens, i didn’t have to get anybody out of bed for school for a whole 4 days!)

Returning from my trip we dove right back in with Lizzie participating in her first basketball tournament with Fernie Secondary’s Junior Girls B Team. She was gutted not to make the A Team this year, but volleyball is really where her heart is so she is content to be playing with a great group of girls and a less demanding schedule. And speaking of volleyball, we had a roller coaster ride with tryouts in Fernie this year with Mary and Lizzie both not making their respective teams. Lizzie had an opportunity to try out for the Cranbrook team though and has secured herself a spot there. She’d rather be playing in Fernie, but the competition there for just a few spots was hard to beat.

We jumped into our 2nd advent week with a colouring date and gingerbread houses. The coloring date is one of our favorites and forces us to settle into something slow and deliberate. We make tea and and some room to enjoy each others company. It is low stress time for all of us and whether we only manage to carve out a short time, or get the bonus of having a longer time together it is nice just the same. This year we convinced Grandma to join us.

I think Gingerbread house day is the height of our Christmas advent. It is usually long and there is some stress involved (expectations are high). This year, something went wrong with the gingerbread and it wasn’t as sturdy as usual which meant I was fussing with the dough for a while before it came together. I’m going to blame the brown sugar (which really isn’t brown sugar right now because we can’t find any in the stores). Long story short, we pulled it off in the end, crafting three little houses, adorned with jellybean twinkle lights and cookie crumb walkways and waaay too much icing. They already eating them here and there. Good thing I remembered to take pictures this time BEFORE the night was done. As you can see, it also creates next level disaster in the kitchen, but its worth it!

And so that brings us to this week. Back to work and school for the duration and counting the days until Christmas Break. We have planned/unplanned visitors with Roy and Mary arriving for a short visit after returning from Mexico. We’re thoroughly enjoying their company so far with Jeff taking on the role of 1st host while I continue to try to catch up on work missed while I was in San Diego. I’ve also joined the Board of Directors for the Fernie Volleyball Club, so there has been some work on that front – all good and for the benefit of the athletes so I am happy to help.

We have a big day planned today with an attempt to wrap up our Christmas shopping in Cranbrook so we can be ready for a very short trip to the coast in the days leading up to Christmas. It’s going to be a wild ride and just a quick in and out so we can attend a family party…fingers crossed the weather and roads stay clear.

This past year was tumultuous and full of change. It’s taken a good long while to get ourselves sorted out and one of the causalities of all that change, was keeping up with the blog. When I finally returned to it in November, we found we were unable to continue on our original blog site which has inspired the creation of our own domain and as such, more control over the destiny of our content! Welcome to Cabin8.ca! Bonus points to anyone who can guess where that name finds its roots.

I’ll be doing my best to get a regular stream of updates coming both for the build of our house which finally got started in October, and for the happenings of our family. Please visit us often!