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.
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