:)

Yukon's Wildlife

was caught

frolicking in the snow...

while

Sarah & Adelaide
lost their hats
as they celebrated an
unseasonally warm day


Apparently, we were ALL greatful
for a warm day in the
Great Canadian Outdoors!

This weekend...

:)

The fruits of

my labour

&

The fruits of

Mother Nature's

Time for an update...

Mighty Machine Backhoe Drivers eat

Hot dogs smothered in,

mayonnaise

crunchy peanut butter

smoothy peanut butter

ketchup (from two different bottles)

mustard

relish

&

cream cheese

and they LOVE it!!

(While the Mum, I might add, is grossed out!!)

Durham, a rather adorable & some what shy fellow,

wiggled his way into the cabin

with a mysterious limp...

I think he was just faking it

to get closer to Teddy!!

All is well after a few days on a cozy couch ;)

Christmas parties never slowed these two down

and they looked beautiful!

In fact, they both looking like little girls :)

Christmas Eve finally arrived & they had a grand time...everything was ready
& Santa was on his way!!

Even Wellington wasn't about to be
caught awake when jolly old St Nick arrived!!

And it was a good thing...
because when Santa slipped down our chimney
he was carrying a rather large sack,
or so it appeared when we rose the next morning
to a tree buried in wrapped boxes & things!


With all that Santa left under the tree,
the snow globes were from me (Mummy) ...
and they created magical moments
that warmed my heart!!

Dyson sent the girls boxes full of
colourful letters & numbers!
I'd bet he didn't expect a dump-truck would be the
back drop for his wonderful gift ;)


Zio Marci & Zia 'Leen seem to know a thing or two
about 3 year olds!
These awesome kaleidoscopes
were a smash hit
(in fact, the girls had to wait their turn while Mum & Dad played first!!!)


Now, can you believe Santa knew that
Adelaide loves to bake muffins??


Heck, he even knew that Sarah loves princes crowns!
What a mysterious little elf he must be!

Now this was precious!
The girls wanted to give Daddy a
SLEEPER
and so they did ;)
He was a good sport & put it on right away...
I honestly thought the girls were going to burst
when they saw him in it !!
I can't imagine Christmas ever being
this much fun again!!
But hey,
with Adelaide & Sarah in my life
everything just keeps getting better!

& from his new Christmas bed,
Dear Old Wellington
couldn't agree more
:)

...............................................................

Some Other

Favourite Moments...



Reflections
(My Dad took this very same photo of me some 43 years ago!)


Friendship

Boxer's First Aid Providers

Alex (15 years & 10 months)

having just received two thumbs up

from Dr Michelle

I live with two little ones, in a somewhat remote locations. There is no Globe & Mail or other informative paper thrown at my door step, nor is there one available in town. Lately our radio towers were knocked out for over two weeks, leaving us with no radio at all...Truth be told, I rarely turn it on anyways. When I get time to be on the computer it is to email or to prepare a new Blog Post! The Treehouse Network seems to be the only station that my TV is ever tuned in to...In a nut shell I tend to live in a "news shadow", somewhat self imposed, somewhat geographically imposed. Understanding that, today, lightswitches are still relatively new and running water is still hit and miss, it becomes easy to imagine life, just a few years ago, when we had no Internet access at home, no radio (heck no CD player) and the phone was still a new toy for Sean!! Event's were happening around the world that I knew nothing about and only, eventually, heard about through chatter at work some weeks later...like hurricane Katrina, for example...It went right passed me...

Just last week my Dad and I were talking about the changing patterns in climate and how he & my Mum took down a hand full of old trees from around the house as a precautionary measure. I was saddened a bit to think of the old trees gone...I can't imagine what the house looks like with out them. I think the conversation was sparked by me telling Dad that we went from -42'C to +2'C in 36 hours & how odd the wind felt as it blew in. During our chat I learned that there has been mass flooding in the State of Queensland in Australia. That this flooding is on a catastrophic level. I had no idea. There was that news shadow again. My mind jumped to a woman named Betty...I don't know Betty, well, not really but she is a fellow blogger who stumbled across me one day & send me a comment about one of my posts. She & I have been chatting back and forth, through our blogs, ever since! I'm sure you have seen her name if you read the comments that people post here! If you ever took the time to see where these comment makes live (by clicking on their names), you'd see that Betty lives in that mysterious & magical place called Australia!! So now, I worry....you see, I may not have MET Betty & I may not really KNOW her...but I read her Blog & we have made a connection that has continued for some months now so ,I FEEL like I know her, & maybe I do, even if just a little bit. So now I worry. And now I have to figure out the geography of a massive continent that I know nothing about, to see if she is going to be OK. Did you know that Magpies are one of my favourite birds in the Yukon, and that I love to garden? Betty has a beautiful garden & she love to spend time in it with her grandchildren!! Funny, Betty has Magpies in Australia too...they look a bit different, but, she has magpies.

Here is Betty's blog address: http://gumleaves.blogspot.com/

(here you will find a flood update)

Betty, I hope that your family and friends in Brisbane are going to be fine! I hope that if they are affected, that it is, at the very least, manageable and that they are able to pull together and weather the storm. From someone that enjoys reading your thoughts and stories...from very far away.

The Christmas Tree

We drove down the road a ways until we found

a patch of pretty trees...

This is the one that Sarah picked out!

She thought it would make the

perfect indoor Christmas Tree!

Thankfully we were able to interest her in something

a bit more manageable !

Being the handyman that he is...

Daddy was able to get it into the cabin

and secure it just so :)

Being the three year olds they are,

the girls went straight to work decorating!

Ornaments from Aunt 'Reen were unwrapped &

hung with care

Ornaments from Grandee & Grandad
found their way onto the tree too!!

After a time, we were all able to stand back &
admire the world's most beautiful
Christmas Tree!!

It was all so much fun that we couldn't stop there...
SO...up stairs we went :)
We found the perfect spot for
a second, perfect & slightly smaller, tree
at the foot of their bed,
on top of Grandma FitzGerald's cedar trunk!
Adelaide & Sarah could not have been more pleased!
They had their OWN tree!!
And if they were really very good...
maybe Santa would even leave something under IT!!!

So...
this was the beginning of our family
Christmas
:)