Christmas Cards!

I tried to make all of my Christmas cards this year. If you're lucky, you just may end up with one of these lovely creations :)

ps - none of the cards have money in them... just so you know.

pps - I made duplicates of most of them so there are lots to go around!

Scrapbooking Again

I was not gifted in life with artistic skills. Drawing, sketching, painting, scultping... I am awful at all of them. Scrapbooking is my only artistic outlet. I don't know why I enjoy doing it so much. I find it very satisfying to keep a book of the finished products though. I recently got into scrapbooking again after a somewhat long hiatus.

Here are the pages I've done recently:

This one is a page of pictures from my mama and grandmama's visit to Grande Prairie! We had a great time :)

This is a page of some pics of my manfriend and I. The colours are a bit brighter than in the picture. I pictures make me smile and the owls that we made look amazing.

This is a page of Joopers! I can't believe I haven't made a scrapbooking page about the pup yet. Watching him run around with his boots on outside had me laughing so hard I was snorting. So I decided to make a page of his cute pictures!

If anyone ever wants to scrapbook with me let me know. I think the dog one is my favourite of the three pages I just did. Fun, easy, quick, relatively inexpensive hobby. Maybe I'll post some more pages as I make them :)

Three Generations in Grande Prairie All At Once

This past week I was lucky enough to have some visitors in GP. Not only one, but TWO of them! My mom and her mom (my grandma) both risked the long layovers to see where their long lost daughter was hiding these days. It was a great week and I'm so happy that they were both able to come.

We stayed busy each day and I finally had the chance to show them around my world. I think we did everything we could have in one week, except maybe visit the dinosaur tours in pipestone.

I can just hear my mom on skype now... "Oh! Muskiseepi park? That's where we went right?" or "Beaverlodge! That's where we saw the giant beaver, right?" Oh she makes me laugh. But it really will be great to talk about people and places and to know that she actually can picture those things. It feels like they are much more involved in my life, even though they may be

4000 kms away.

So glad they came :) Here are some pics from our adventures!

Chillin' out with the giant beaver.

Standing in front of the roller coaster she conquered!

Some rickety old houses at the McNaught (mom's maiden name) homestead.

Hanging out by the bridge at Dunvegan

Waiting for our turn to lose at the horse races at evergreen park :)

Clearly it was a pretty great week!

Coming Home

I'm just sitting in the Calgary airport, waiting to board my plane for London, Ontario. It's so great to be going home. Yesterday I was busying myself all day:

- cleaning

- packing

- getting Joop ready

- throwing out all my trash

- saying Good-bye

Mostly, I was trying to keep myself from going stir-crazy waiting to head home. I'm so excited to get back and see all the people I love in Ontario (and even a few that aren't from Ontario, but will be there at the same time, lol). I'm so excited!! And one of my very best friends is getting married :) I'm so happy that I can be there for her special day too.

This is a little something I'm bringing home with me too. My good friend has been waiting quite a while for this gift and I finally will get a chance to see her and show it off! YAY!

It's gonna be a busy couple of weeks!! CAN'T WAIT!!!

Hockey = Home

It's that time of year again! The time of year when there is so much good hockey that you can't possibly see every game. I've always enjoyed sitting and watching hockey with my family, even my mom was into watching, and occasionally Nate was up to pretending he cared.

I definitely enjoy watching the hockey games. They are seriously action filled and exciting games - I get so into them! But mostly, there's something about being at home watching the game that brings me back to growing up and watching it with my family. Watching my brothers yell and the screen and not knowing why. Lying down on the floor with a bowl of chips (CBC hockey night was also chip night!). Listening to my dad and brothers debate the best teams and players. Having all my family in the same room. There's not much that can beat a feeling like that. Even though I'm watching the games alone here, I still feel the same comfort. I will always love watching hockey games!

For those who care... my stanley cup pick is the Canucks!!!! Go Van Go!!!

Three Years Old!!!

So, when I moved out to GP all I knew was that I had a mysterious "second cousin" relative. She's actually my mom's younger cousin, but she's closer to my age. Anyhoo... we had never met before I moved here, yet she and her family were amazing at welcoming me to the city and helping me feel like I wasn't so far from home. She has a 3-year old, that I will refer to as Spiderman, and he is SOOO cute! I friggin' LOVE him! They invited me to come to his 3-year-old birthday party and it was great fun. Here are some pics of the big guy!

Spiderman is all grown-up :) Wearing such grown-up clothes too!

Blowing out the candle! He was very excited about this part!

The amazing Shrek cake! Seriously, isn't it awesome??

All his presents... this is just moments before the chaos began...

He knows that his picture is being taken, lol. Isn't he adorable!

I can't wait til my next sleepover with this kids. He plays and listens so well. Plus, I think he loves me as much as I love him, haha. And he's soooo cute!!!

Thanks for letting me be a part of your family GPers!

I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

I don't really want a hippo, the song is just stuck in my head. Besides... I can't afford one even if I did want one, lol.

I've been getting some Christmas cards for Christmas from friends and family. It's been such a blessing. I love reading stories and messages from home. Makes me feel very loved and remembered even though I can't make it home for Christmas. I've been trying to do some things to get into the Christmas spirit although I can't make it home.

These include:

1) downloading the wonderful Vince Vance Christmas album. Family traditions will never die while I'm around! I just have to figure out how to get that old, non-stop rock n' roll Christmas album from my parents. I'm positive the boys aren't listening to it!

2) Baking. I made Christmas cookies obviously (see above), but I only had one hand so I couldn't do fancy cookie cutter shapes, but they tasted great! I also made a Lindi-sized batch of nuts and bolts for the pure deliciousness of it. Thanks mama for the recipe!

3) I didn't buy a Christmas tree, but I put lights on the balcony. Very festive.

4) I've been displaying all my Christmas cards and letters.

5) I bought Christmas presents!! I love buying gifts that I know people will like. Brings me joy. Wrapping and bagging them helps me get into the Christmas spirit most.

6) I'm watching made-for-tv Christmas movies, lol. They're all so lame, but it's one of my guilty pleasures. Don't judge me...

I love this time of year and despite the fact that I'm still working for a couple of days, I'm finding time to enjoy the holidays.

P.S. - only a hippopotamus will do. No croc-o-diles, no rhi-no-cer-os-es, I only want HIPPOPOTAMUSES!!

No Family for Christmas

Something made me think of this song tonight. My brother Matt use to play/sing it all the time around Christmas.

The lyrics and the memories make me sad that I won't be home to celebrate Christmas with my family. I'm sure I'll have a great time with other relatives, but it's not the same as being with my parents and brothers. It's the first time that I've felt sad about the idea of not being home, but the good memories will stay with me! Love my family :)