Wasting Time...

Hello,

I found myself with some rare, uninterrupted, alone time today and decided to play around with my scrapbooking. I didn't get a lot of good pictures this year. For some reason most of them were fuzzy looking, or the kids were making funny faces, or it was too dark (lack of electricity might have contributed there). Anyways, here are some of my results.

This one is of Frank teaching Mackendra how to ski at Mt. Baker.
Here is one of my favorite pictures of Aislinn when she was a baby. She had the most amazing eyes!


Here is one of Mackendra and her eyes. She's pretty cute too.



Here's another one of my girls. Just fooling around with some color.


And a final one that is mostly a photo save. The picture was all fuzzy and dark and kinda ugly. I'm not sure what I think about the final product. Oh well.

Anyways, that is all I have completed today. I still find myself alone as the kids are over playing at the neighbours and Frank is at work. I might try some more, but my butt is getting numb.

By the way, if anyone know my sister, Ting...tell her to call me.

Love Tanya

Holly Jolly Christmas

Hi Guys,

So, what a Christmas. It didn't go as planned, but it turned out just fine. The Konig family stayed home this year. No travelling, (thank goodness...did you guys see the airport lineups and those poor people stranded in bus depots for days?) And only my youngest brother and his girlfriend were over for Christmas dinner. It was relaxing, stress free, quiet, and quite enjoyable. The only glitch came on Christmas eve day. We had a power failure for 4 hours. But even that wasn't too bad. Luckily, I had started cooking at noon that day and by the time the power went out, my food was pretty much done.

Here is how our Christmas went.

We had a lot of snow for Vancouver. People were saying that it was the most snow since, like 1968 or something crazy like that. All I know is that I was pretty excited about it. I like snow, and as long as I don't have to shovel too much of it, I don't mind if it snows and snows and snows. The kids and our dog, Tuck, had a blast. Their friends from next door decided to not use their driveway and they built a "snow-wall" at the bottom of their driveway so the kids spent hours upon hours sliding down that hill and building forts, having snowball fights and creating snowmen. Here is what our front yard looked like on Christmas eve day.


It snowed most of the day. We cleaned off that little orange car twice that day and shovelled at least 4 times.

Darren and Auria were planning to come in on Christmas day for Frank's famous Christmas breakfast brunch, but after looking at the weather report they asked if Frank could come out in our SUV and pick them up a day earlier.

I was planning on making a lamb roast or our little family that night, but added a pork roast to the slow cooker so we would have more food. And because Auria doesn't eat red meat, she started a whole chicken at her place to bring in and finish cooking at our place. The roasts went in a noon and I started the potatoes soon after. I was going for a Greek theme. The lamb, the lemon roasted potatoes and a Greek salad. Just after Frank left to pick up the family, the lights went out. We were out of power from 4:30 to 8:30 that night. But it was ok, because my meat was cooked enough and the potatoes were done and we only had the salad to make. We finished cooking Auria's chicken on the BBQ and everything was delicious. We also invited the neighbours over as their original plan of going to relatives for dinner was canceled due to the weather and they hadn't started cooking before the power went. So, this is us eating our delicious meal by candlelight.


When the lights came on at 8:30 pm we rushed around shutting off all the lights and continued our meal by candlelight. We all agreed that this was better.

The evening ended with some movies, some yummy Christmas chocolates and "special" eggnog. We readied everything for Santa's visit that night and went to sleep.

In the morning, the kids were so excited to see the presents and stockings.


Santa was good to us this year!


Those stockings were certainly stuffed with some choice gifts.


And here it is...that look that we as parents are all looking for:


A little girl and her brand new barbie doll. Could anything be better?

As soon as all the presents were opened and the wrapping paper was taken care of, Frank went into overdrive. He had his famous Christmas breakfast buffet to prepare. The menu included Eggs Benedict (Frank even made Hollandaise sauce from scratch, for the first time ever, 4 times! The eggs curdled and we ran out of butter and it still tasted wonderful), homemade crepes with berries and whipped cream, European cheeses, sausages, cakes, and cookies, buns, coffee, and champagne mimosas. Yummy!!! We had so much food that we had to invite our friends over to help us eat it all.


After we ate ourselves into a coma, people drifted away to do their own things. Naps were high on that priority list. Finally, around 2pm, Auria and I shook off our food induced high and started making more food. The turkey was stuffed and placed in the oven and the vegetables were prepared. By 8:00 the night, a not so hungry crowd (Frank's famous Christmas breakfast buffet [I'm gonna trademark that saying] gets left out all day and nibbled on) sat down at our groaning table and began to tuck into yet more food. I forgot to take any pictures through my "mashed potatoes and turkey with gravy" haze.

All in all, it was a lovely day. One that we will be recovering from for the next week I'm sure.

Merry Christmas everyone.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!!!

Hi Guys,

Just a quick post about our snowfall we had yesterday. I don't know what the official depth is, but Frank had to go and shovel 4 times in the last 24 hours!

I'll try to post more later.

Love Tanya

Yippee! Good Times, Good Company

Hi Friends,

So, we went skiing today. It was wonderful. Cold, but wonderful. We headed down to Mt. Baker in Washington state and were treated to the deepest snow in a 100 mile radius. My brother Darren has been dying to try out his new snowboarding gear and has been calling us since it started snowing last week. His beautiful girlfriend, Auria would be hitting the slopes for the very first time in her life.

The morning started at 6. The snooze button was hit several times and we finally rolled out of bed at 6:50. A hearty breakfast of fried eggs, toast and coffee set us up for the hour and a half drive down across the border to the mountain. The drive up was spectacular. We were a little apprehensive about how windy it was, but Mt. Baker was protected from that chilly wind and we just had to deal with the -12 degrees celsius weather. The only mishap happened as we pulled up to the lodge. Mackendra was feeling a little nauseous from the windy drive up the mountain and proceeded to puke out the window. Yuck. At least I only had to help her wash up her face and mouth, Frank and Darren had to take care of the mess freezing on the side of the car door. Mackendra rebounded just fine from the nausea and we proceeded to get her set up with rental equipment.

Frank and Mackendra hit the bunny slopes.


Oops! This must have been early in the lessons with Dad.

Darren and Auria signed up for snowboard lessons.

Aislinn and I jumped on the closest lift up the hill.



Whee! What a view! And the snow! It was awesome. The powder was just over my knees and there was hardly anyone on the slopes. I guess that is how it is on a weekday.

Aislinn and I were a little rusty but we quickly got back in the grove. Check her out.



We caught up with Mackendra and Frank and I was stunned to see Mackendra skiing on her own. She has taken lesson up at Whistler a couple times but she had never skied like this before. The next thing I knew, I looked up and Mackendra was on the lifts!


I was so proud of that little girl. She handled it like a pro. Frank was having so much fun with her. He said that she was so optimistic, she never quit, she didn't want help and he couldn't keep up with her. By the middle of the day she was skiing down the easy, green runs all by herself. Frank even reported that she took a jump, and got air! after she watched Frank take the jump just ahead of her. She was so mature and her concentration was amazing. I took over for Frank, so he could go do a couple runs with Aislinn later in the day. It was such a hoot riding up the lift with Mackendra. She tells the bests stories.

Darren and Auria caught up with us and we got a picture taken of all of us. Auria was rockin' the slopes! Good job.


It was cold up there. Frank, Aislinn and I are going to have to get some warmer gloves. Too bad since these ones have only been worn twice now.

We even brought Tuck up with us and he was great. He spent most of the time in the back of the SUV but when he was let out he pounced through the snowdrifts with wild abandoned.

We had a wonderful time. All us girls fell asleep on the drive back down.

We finished off with a super awesome meal at "The Old Spaghetti Factory". Then crawled into bed for a couple hours of rest and warming up.

Frank was so right when he whispered in my ear: "This is one of the best days in my life. I love you."

Fa la la la la....Christmas Preparations

Hello Friends!

Have you got that Holly Jolly Christmas spirit yet? I'm almost there. We finally got some snow today, and it was a pretty good dump. For those who grew up in the North and are used to measuring snow by the feet, a few measly centimeters make us chuckle. Watching drivers in the Lower Mainland try to navigate slush-covered hills is almost a sport here to us wily, (smug?) snow-experienced drivers from colder climes. Don't they realize that "flooring it!" will not get them up that hill? And seriously, you can't stop like you usually do. You need to give yourself at least a 100 feet to that stop sign. But, I'm not complaining. I have a 4WD and I love the snow! Here is Aislinn cleaning off that 4WD this morning so we could go to school.


And Frank, although he grumbles a little, I know he secretly loves shoveling the driveway. In his fancy, schmancy dress shoes too!

He had to shovel two more times today. Cool! I of course took these pictures from our front window, where it was warm and dry. I love snow, but I'm not stupid.

We also put up our Christmas tree last weekend. It went very smoothly. I think back to those warm and wonderful childhood memories when my Dad would take all us kids out to some forgotten corner of the farm and we trudged through four feet of snow looking for that perfect tree. Actually, it was usually 3 trees. One big one for our living room, one little one for the kids' room, and one medium sized tree for Grandma's house. Everything started off great. But after 2 hours of dragging freezing feet through 4 feet of snow and realizing that the "perfect" tree was quite hard to find, someone always started crying. But we prevailed and we brought home 3 perfect trees. Then the fun really started. Because I was the oldest, I was expected to hold the tree straight for my Dad while he set up the tree stand. It never stayed straight. There was some yelling and some cussing, but eventually, the tree, with some strings tied to nails in the ceiling or the wall, stood proud, and tall and straight (that was the most important part). But wait! More fun was on the horizon. We pulled out the box of Christmas ornaments and with trepidation, we started in on that huge, rat's nest, Gordian Knot, known as "the Christmas lights". That was an hour long practice of frustration, and more cussing. Finally, Mom, while yelling at the kids to "leave the ornaments alone!!! If you touch that one more time, you won't be allowed to help decorate the tree!!! I mean it!!! Stop touching those! No, you can't eat the candy canes!", was able to untangle the mess (always swearing that this year she would put the lights away so this would never happen again). It was torture waiting for those lights to get untangled. And we still had to wait while Dad put the lights on the tree. And then....we were allowed to decorate. And decorate we did. Our ornaments were an odd assortment of kitsch that we had collected over the years. I always looked at other peoples' matching, beautiful, designer, heirloom decorated trees and thought our mishmash of half-broken ornaments were much more beautiful. So many memories were attached to those ornaments.

Anyways, as I was saying, our tree decorating process seemed to go very easily. The tree went up straight, first try. The lights were not tangled and Frank and Aislinn had the honour of stringing them up, and our ornaments were handled very calmly (without fighting!!!) by Mackendra and Aislinn and after about an hour, we were done. There was no cussing, no tangled web of Christmas lights, no tears. It was weird. Not very Christmas-y. But it was beautiful.


And Makendra was giving the honour placing the star on top of the tree.



Another Christmas-y event that has helped me get into the mood. School Christmas concerts. This year, the school decided to have two casts who would preform on two different nights. Of course, my two kids were on those two different nights. They had two performances each. That's 4 concerts people. I made it to two of them and Frank was roped into going to the final one tonight. It wasn't too painful. The kids sang beautifully and the program was short and sweet. Here are a couple of pictures.

The Glenayre School Choir.

Aislinn won the part of "window painter" for the play that ran throughout the concert. That's her in the middle in the red sweater. She did a great job.

Here is Aislinn singing her solo. I didn't know she had such a sweet voice! I am a proud Mama.


And here is Mackendra, in her new Christmas dress (thank you Pau Pau). She told me that she had the "twirliest dress ever!" She was so proud of herself and she was so sweet singing her french "Fa la la la la" song.



So sweet!

So, now we are looking at just 1 week to Christmas and we have crossed off decorating the tree, Christmas concerts and snow off the list. Now I just have to finish the shopping, wrapping, baking, cooking, and cleaning. And that's just for Christmas morning. You all know what I'm talking about. Let me know how your Christmas preparations are going.

Happy Holidays.

Saint Nicholas Day and Other Thoughts...

Hi Guys,

So, tomorrow is Saint Nicholas day. Dec 6th. I never celebrated this as a child. My Mom is Chinese, and they are officially Communists which means there is no God, only Mao, or something like that. I think it has changed since the Cultural Revolution, but the Chinese still aren't nice to religious folks. Look at what they did to those poor Tibetan monks. You should ask my Mom and Dad about that. They were in China last year and had first hand experience with the Chinese intolerance of free...well...free anything, speech, thought... being. Anyways...my Mom isn't a communist. She grew up in Hong Kong which is so far from communism that it is on the totally opposite side of the political scale. So, my Mom attended a very prestigious Catholic school there. Now, I'm really not religious and I find it kinda weird that my Mom was taught in a Catholic school because she is not religious either. She has told me all sorts of funny tales of the nuns in that school, and how she was a rebel that skipped her baptism and various other ceremonies and how she always got into trouble for saying that God was a polygamist because he married all the nuns. It really is funny to think of your parents as anything other than your parents. They didn't have lives before you were born. Of course not! Mind you, I pine for my pre-kids days. Those were glorious days! So maybe my Mom was a different person before she had all 5 of us kids...hmmmmm....





Anyways, Saint Nicholas day. It's a European thing and they stole all the ideas from our North American Christmas thing. Really! The guy's name is "Sinterklaas " or "St. Nicholas". He goes around and checks to see if the children have been good that year. Sound familiar? And he uses a sleigh, but he uses horses, not reindeer. That's silly, cause horses can't fly. Rudolf makes much more sense. And he comes down the chimney with a little, dirty sidekick called "Zwarte Piet" or "Black Peter". The children are instructed to place an empty shoe beside the fireplace on the eve of Dec. 5th and in the morning, if the child has been good, they would receive chocolate and coins and taii taii, a yummy gingerbread cookie, and various other little presents. If the child had been bad that year, a lump of coal or rocks would be left in the shoe instead. Sounds pretty hinky to me. I think Santa Claus should sue for trademark infringements.


I've looked up Saint Nicholas day on Wikipedia and I did find some other practices that I think we as a family should start to implement as a annual tradition. You know, just to keep the brats in check. Apparently, in central Europe, round 'bout the Middle Ages, Saint Nikolaas was accompanied by an especially nasty sidekick called "Knecht Ruprecht" who would threaten to beat the children if they had been bad that year. No wimpy lumps of coals for those Medieval Germans. Some stories said that he would even EAT the really bad children. Whoa! That's venturing into Hansel and Gretel territory. That's a German thing huh? Eating children? Reminds me of Jonathan Swift and his "Modest Proposal". He was English, not German, but I think he must have had a German nanny or something. Mind you, might be a way to get through this time of economic troubles. Anybody have a good recipe for baby back ribs?

Have I gone too far? Sorry.

I love my kids and I love the idea of giving them presents for Medieval reasons I don't really understand. Frank is the German in our family. Actually, technically he's part Dutch and the other part is Austrian. Same thing I figure. Those Western European tribes have some pretty yummy food that they serve on holidays. Lucky friends and family have experienced a traditional Dutch/Austrian breakfast buffet that Frank lays out on groaning tables on Christmas morning. I love all the delicious pastries and smelly cheeses. Last year I even tried a little of the smoked horse meat. Sorry Ting. I know you think it is an abomination to eat horse meat, but it was kinda good, if a little salty.

Anyways, Frank directed me to a local Dutch deli and I went this morning after dropping the kids off at school. It was so cool. So many packages with funny writing on them. The umlauts abounded in that store! And the licorice. The awful, double salted, hard, icky black as tar licorice that stains your teeth, tongue and makes my mouth pucker and eyes water. Frank love them. He's German! What a contrary race!

So, we are celebrating Saint Nicholas Day tomorrow and the kids will be receiving some yummy treats (they've been pretty good this year). As a bonus, their friends from next door will be staying the night. Yah me! Last time we had a sleep over, Frank and I fell asleep at around 1 pm and the girls were still giggling. I think we are going to have to be tougher this time. Maybe remind them that "Knecht Ruprecht" could still make a visit.


Look at that guy! Kinda freaky huh? I wonder what he charges per hour. I'm looking for a babysitter.