New Year's in the Snow

We went to the cottage for a few days over New Year's and ended up staying a day longer because of a snowstorm. It is lovely to be snowed in (or even only semi-snowed in) when you aren't in a rush to get home.

Over the course of three days we went from having only a little bit of snow in the bush

to a lot of snow everywhere.

There were crazy snowsqualls

with wild yetis wandering about on the lake and through the woods. The yetis do look vaguely familiar, I have to admit. They carried sticks for safety on the ice, but then became crazed circle-making machines.

We also had calm, sunny weather as well.

Most days began and ended with gentle sunsets and sunrises.

There were frozen puddles with oak leaves suspended in the ice

and snow dusting the dry oak leaves making them look like Christmas cookies

and shimmery ice crystals in the air

and a warm and cozy cabin to come back to

with the best view to admire while eating.

Our days were spent reading, chatting, and walking through the woods or on the lake.  

  
We welcomed the new year with a meal of Nigerian Curry and an evening playing a murder mystery game and a toast of champagne at midnight.

And after we had eaten every shred of food we brought, we left pulling our bags on the toboggans.

  

  
 The end!

 

Christmas 2014

I'm just emerging from the family and food frenzy that is Christmas.  It is always a fun and intense blast of activities and feasts and treats and traditions. Here's how it went down this year.

Christmas Eve

The fun starts on Christmas Eve day with our annual family outing. This year we decided to go to the Royal Ontario Museum as we hadn't been in awhile. There was a special exhibit of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year which was wonderful (and in case you don't live near a museum hosting this exhibit you can see the photos here). 

An addition was put on the ROM several years ago which serves as the main entrance. I still have a soft spot in my heart for the old entrance, though, with the grand doors and beautiful windows and inside the gold mosaic ceiling in the rotunda. I don't love the new addition - commonly referred to as the crystal - but it sure makes interesting photos with reflections in it of the city - old and new.

  

We always have tourtière for Christmas Eve dinner and this year it was made by my dear friend Kim (we did a trade-off - I made Christmas cookies for her and she made a tourtière for me).  It was delicious and just the right amount for all of our hungry selves after the museum. We had the tourtière with salads and pickles and relishes so it is a pretty simple meal, but oh so delicious.

  
Christmas Day
Santa visited and left some beer for all (well except Ruggles and me as we don't like beer - well, truthfully Ruggles has never tried it). Ruggles had some special dog food in her stocking instead.

Does your house end up looking like this every Christmas morning.  I thought it would be a little tamer as everyone got older, but there are still eight of us congregating for gift opening so that makes lots of mess. Everyone got stacks of books this year along with loads of chocolate (and beer!)

For Christmas lunch we used the tablecloth I bought in Bangladesh. It is hot pink with an orange and black design that certainly deviates from the Scandinavian look I was going for this year, but I love it so we use it anyway. 

Christmas lunch consists of fancy breads and cheeses and meats and we make the best sandwiches of the year. Of course, we start off the meal by popping Christmas crackers and then wearing silly hats and telling bad jokes in English and French.

We have Christmas dinner at my aunt and uncle's house in Toronto with all my relatives, but I didn't take my camera so there are no photos. I always take a cookie tray for dessert and my mom brings the Christmas pudding with its requisite hard sauce and hot brandy sauce. Dinner is followed by a magic show (my uncle is a magician ... and a lawyer) and a gift exchange.

  
Boxing Day
December 26th is a pretty quiet day around our house. We don't partake in the shopping frenzy, but instead just relax for the day. We did go for a walk at a nearby park and then came home and made sushi for dinner. 

  

How was your Christmas? I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends. We are getting ready to go to the cottage in a few days time for New Years. We've had a warm Christmas this year so even up north they don't have much snow left and the lakes are not fully frozen.  It is supposed to get colder just before we go up and snow is predicted so we shall see.

Life Right Now

Let me introduce Ruggles. She's our new little dog that we have had now for two days. We are only beginning to get to know each other and figure out each other's language.  Ruggles is a Yorkie mix although I do find she looks a lot like Juno so the Yorkie part must be pretty strong.  She ... and by 'she' I mean 'he' because Ruggles is a male and having only had a female dog I'm finding I have huge pronoun problems .. he is smaller than Juno and is underweight so we are doing our best to feed her and love her up.

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Today we went on a winter cookout to a nearby conservation area. We were looking for a good way to remember my father as this is the one-year anniversary of his death and a winter cookout seemed just right. My dad loved the outdoors and we often went on hikes and cookouts all year round when I was growing up.  

We went to a place called Rattlesnake Point which is much prettier than the name might suggest. It is on the edge of the Niagara Escarpment with huge limestone cliffs and a forest along the top that we hiked through. There was a dusting of snow which is more than we have at home now since it melted last week.

  

We had a bit of a time lighting the fire and almost went through the entire Sunday New York Times newspaper trying to get it lit. Thankfully it finally caught and we were able to cook our hotdogs. It was nice to sit around the fire getting warm and drinking hot chocolate.

 

 

 
Ruggles did very well walking through the woods and then while we had the campfire, I carried her in my jacket so she didn't get cold (or into trouble). It was quite an outing for her second day with us.

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And in other news we finally have our Christmas tree decorated which I will show you pictures of very soon.  We made some owls to go on it as we wanted a Scandinavian woodland type of tree this year and they worked out really well.  All those toilet paper rolls finally came in handy!