Barry and I went out to his office Christmas party the other night and took his new hip for a test run. It did very well on the dance floor, it was great to be up and dancing with my MAN!!! We had a very nice time and I think the last time we went dancing was in Tonga at a feast at Big Mama's Yacht Club, over a year ago. It actually, crazily enough, kind of reminded me of that place because it was big and wide open and there was a feeling of space there.
We had the grand kids over this afternoon and made some Christmas cookies. These ones involved baking the cookies and then dipping them in chocolate and then in crushed candy canes. The kids had great fun smashing up the candy canes with a hammer I wrapped in saran wrap. We put the canes in plastic bags and then smash away, great fun. I really enjoy seeing them every week. We have signed up with them for the Boxing Day Bonspiel and hopefully we will be able to have them come and sleep over when we are house sitting.
Our friends Janet and George Diveky will be in Mexico on their sailboat over the holidays and have asked if we would look after their house. It will be nice to have a little extra space and have some dinner parties, where we can seat more than 2 people at the table and not worry about running out of spoons or forks.
It has turned cold here and the car did not want to start today when I headed off to the rink for practice. The coach keeps finding things about my delivery that I can change to improve it so I have lots of stuff to think about. Nice to have a coach that has the knowledge to do that for you.
Anyway, where ever you are I hope you are keeping warm, and to all you sailing buddies in the warm part of the world, enjoy!!!

A trip to the Hotsprings was undertaken and enjoyed by all. Graeme was able to join us and it was a good thing. 4 little ones under 2 1/2 are a handful.
Grannie was resurrecting her lifegaurding skills, neither one looks very impressed with the process, but they loved the experience.



Fun was had by all.

Jen trying to figure out what having twins would have been like.



The train set provided many hours of entertainment, not always harmonious, it went exponentially better after Trish made a trip to the train store and added engines and tracks so each 2 year old could have their own train. We figured that this was the time of their lives where they would have the most difficulty sharing with their cousin.

That's June I am bouncing on my lap.

June and Leeland were mostly quiet observers, they were just hanging around here, quietly cutting teeth.

William with his second cousin, Chantel, building Lego in Innisfail

Jen's trip out west was a success, we got to see almost every relative that we have in Alberta. It was great. I am just going to load up a bunch of pictures. I had a wonderful time and want to thank Jen for the idea of doing the trip and for having the energy to go through with it. I saw all my daughters and my 6 grandchildren in a week, it was super. THANKS JEN.
Visit with the Shanks clan in Calgary.







The cousins walking Mooch on the way to the playground.


The tribe, Trish put us all up for four days, thanks for doing that sweetheart. We all pitched in and created lots of memories.



The boys had a blast at the playground.
















































The time honored tradition of throwing rocks in the water. I used to do it as a kid, we did it with our kids, I had so much fun doing it with my grandkids. We have thrown rocks in some beautiful spots but this has got to be right near the top of the list.

We had our car stolen last Sunday morning. The police called at 0600 hours on Sunday and Barry went out to get the car. I was oblivious, sleeping away. Barry had been trying to perfect our plug in routine and had left the car door unlocked. We have always left a key in the car because it has a key pad entry so we get in that way and just start the car with the key we leave in the ash tray. I guess the car thief found that very convenient as well. The guy took the car and drove away after just putting on the windshield wipers. The rest of thee windows had about 4 inches on snow on them, over 10 cm for you young guys. I guess that was a dead give away, the cops being the observant people they are became suspicious to see the car driving around with only the windshield cleared and gave chase. The thief put the car in the snow bank about 2 km away and took off. The police did not catch him and we were only out the price of a tow out of the snow bank. Luckily he didn't wipe out the fence he got close to. Needless to say we no longer keep a key in the car!! A relatively cheap lesson.

What I can't figure out is how the guy could see when he was driving???

William was wasn't sure what was going on but he didn't want to left out of anything.
I am back at home after a whirlwind trip to visit Jen, Trish and their families. I managed to see all my children and grandchildren in one week, that was pretty special and well worth putting up with the cold weather and snow we have been having in Yellowknife. I have a ton of good pictures of my trip so I may do several blogs to share some great pictures with you. Leeland in his Hallowe'en costume, William refused to wear his dinosaur costume and was frightened by the scary costumes.
























The modern female physician, Jen is ready to take her children Trick or Treating, but managed to get a few minutes of work in before we left, notice the soother hanging off the baby carrier, classic.

We had the kids over on the weekend and carved a Jack O'Lantern, It has been a while since I have done it and it was so much fun with these kids. We managed to get through the whole process without slicing off anyone's finger or nose, inspite of Grandpa's dire warnings. A pictorial journey follows......


Assessing the possibilities








Sketching the face












This was the tricky part, but safety measures were observed and all fingers and noses were accounted for!!








The creative carvers








The finished product, designed by KID POWER

The ground is white outside and I have a cold so I am laying low this weekend.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. I think we used almost every pot and plate in the place. It was a feast. Everyone lent a helping hand, including Elijah who we put on KP duty. It was great to have Heather and her partner Brad for dinner, as well as the kids. Thank you Brad, he flew Heather up from Fort Smith and he flew down from Tulita. It was so nice to have family around to celebrate and give thanks. Cassidy was busy downloading music for her new IPOD which she got from her Mom for her birthday which is tomorrow. She will be eleven, it is interesting to here her views on the world and find out what that generation is interested in listening to and doing. She can make videos on her IPOD and that was a big hit, she is not sure how to erase them, but that does not seem to concern her. She is going to have dinner with us tomorrow and she wants, grilled cheese, hard boiled eggs and French Fries! I should be able to manage that.

Elijah did really well in his race and he had lots of fun with his buddies. Unfortunately he had an equipment malfunction. His pants weren't done up tight enough, or perhaps they were just too big and he had to hold them up for quite a bit of the race. He finished fourth out of about 20 kids and Barry said that as soon as the 2 kilometer race was over he went off to play with his friends. Apparently he fell asleep on the way home so all that activity must have tired him out.

Barry took these shots of the kids in their swimming goggles! Cassidy was reading one of her books to me and she said she needed to put on her reading glasses.














Barry went to pick up some groceries the other day. I asked him to get some pine nuts. BIG MISTAKE, I did not specify how many pine nuts I wanted. I was thinking, you know maybe a hundred grams, to put on salads and fancy appetizers, well look what he came home with. His excuse was that he was too busy looking at the horrendous price of the bulk almonds and besides when you open the bin, they come out REALLY fast. Can you guess how much he got. We figure there is over a kilogram of pine nuts in the package and they cost, wait for it, fifty-three dollars. Guess what will be included in all of our Christmas packages, maybe we could foist them on some unsuspecting Halloweiners!!