An American Christmas - Part 2

After recovering from Christmas day feasting it was time to make a bit more merry, so on Boxing Day we all headed up to a friends place to eat Mexican. They are my surrogate family and are always a ton of laughs. I think my real family came away with a sense of why we love living here so much.


Then off to Schweitzer Mountain Resort for 3 days of skiing and snowboarding. I managed to take a total of 2 photos while we were up there....hopeless I know.  Here is the first one...



And here is the second.....



This is what happens when you have your camera set on continuous shooting mode and it continues to flash and take photos long after you have finished...sheesh!


Now that I think about it this did sort of set the tone for the next few days.  Fun and silliness. So when we got back from Schweitzer and NYE was upon us I guess we just figured we would continue that theme through the new year.
More on that to come!

An American Christmas - Part 1

Some Aussies came over to celebrate Christmas with us...my 2 brothers and their families.   I can't tell you how excited we have been waiting for them to arrive.  And then all of a sudden they were here...and we had a million things we wanted to do.  So we did our best to give them an American Christmas.


First thing on the agenda was going to the property and cutting down our own Christmas tree. My SIL wore her slippery shoes and good naturedly allowed us to drag her up and down the mountain looking for the perfect tree.



The 3 girls showed off their logging skills.



The boys,( not to be outdone), felt the need to cut something down themselves.



Then of course we had to get it home and decorate it.





There was a gingerbread house to be decorated too!



We went on a Christmas cruise to CDA to see the Christmas lights. A little chilly but by this time the Aussies were getting used to rugging up against a Pacific NW winter. Look how tough they are standing out there in the snow.



Lots of last minute Christmas shopping and then Mother Nature played a hand on Christmas Eve.



She delivered a white Christmas....along with lots of sledding and playing in the snow. Some crazy people felt the need to semi-disrobe and roll in the snow. Now I may be crazy...but I'm not THAT crazy.





Christmas was a lovely day of drinking, eating and making merry. It took us several hours to all pitch in and make possibly the most delicious Turkey baked dinner ever and then it took us about 30 minutes to devour the whole thing. The kids loved having their cousins here to hang out with. Truly it was the most wonderful family Christmas.  I really feel blessed that they decided to come all this way.

The Off Season

During the spring and summer I admit that I spend a bit of time training. Somewhere between 10 and 12 hours a week. Not a lot compared to some people, but between juggling homeschooling, my printing business and the rest it sometimes seems like there is no time left over for another else.


So now that its the off season it has been nice to have some down time. I don't follow a structured swim/bike/run schedule over the winter. I just do what I want when I want, so that I stay in shape but prevent burning out and over training. If I feel like swimming I swim. TRX...sure why not. Doing nothing...yes, well actually no...truthfully I'm not very good at doing nothing. ( Except of course I amvery good at doing nothing if it involves a tropical beach and a cocktail but that is for another blog post)


So if I'm training less over the winter then what may you ask, am I doing with all this extra time?????


Well there has been some of this...





And a bit of this....





And this....(AKA the disco wreath)





And this one for Ciara....



And my personal favorite....





If you are noticing a particular color scheme here it is purely coincidental and has nothing to do with my A type personality :-) Now you understand what Matt has to deal with!

A Big Moment.

Life is truly filled with landmarks. Today was one of those for Jack...and Matt and I.  Jack made his First Communion and Confirmation today. He is now considered an adult member of our Church community.  A big honor and a great responsibility. 

It was a really special day for him.He asked our neighbor Natalie to be his sponsor.  She was gracious and lovely as always.



We were lucky enough to have the Bishop at the service...so lots of photo ops with the big Kahuna.



This was really one for the books.  Our last child is now a fully fledged member of the Catholic Church.  I'm happy and a little sad all at once :-)