The Best Christmas

There can be nothing better than spending Christmas with family and this year being in Calgary with the offspring and three of the four grandchildren was the best.

Christmas Eve, the offspring between dinner preparations. We had tortierre for Christmas eve, which is a pretty traditional French Canadian meal. On Christmas Day of course, a big juicy turkey with all the trimmings. It was nice not to have to cook and I felt totally spoiled.

Youngest Grandson Cassidy and Steve putting together Elliotte's Christmas Present.

Elliotte gets her very own kitchen...

Celebrating Cassidy's 18th birthday with a game of poker. He was born in Yellowknife on the Winter Solstice and it was about -40 C. We were visiting there when he was born and I have to say it's the coldest place on earth, at least to me.

Bradyn the middle grandson at 21 was just supervising everyone. Missing from this Christmas was eldest grandson Justin who is currently bumming around Cambodia somewhere with his girlfriend.

Another brief Chinook rolled in Boxing Day and I did get a better photo. It's pretty much over now and we had snow this morning. The temperatures are hoovering around -9 C and are expected to hit -24 C by Tuesday.

If you look closely you can see the mountains in the distance...

I'm still down with my cold as is Tina and Elliotte. My offspring is getting over his and only Steve is not sick, so far. Hopefully I will recover soon so we can go to Banff.

A Chinook In The Making

We were incredibly lucky to get out of Toronto between snowstorms. Fate I guess...flights were canceled and delayed all over Canada but our flight was reasonably on time. We were met at the airport by the offspring and quickly whisked to his new home were Elliotte and "the girl' were waiting for us. It is cold here, that's the first thing that hits you in Calgary, the cold. Not as cold as Yellowknife mind you where we spent a Christmas 18 years ago at around -40 C , but still cold.

There will be a Chinook, the clouds said so. The sign is in the clouds. I did ask for one and I'm happy to be obliged. It was in the -16 c range when we arrived on Tuesday and by Saturday it's mean to be 0 C. My camera limitations make the classic arch not visible, but it was there.

This is what the sky looked like Christmas Eve and by Saturday the temperatures will be 0˚C from -16˚C.


This is one of my offspring's photos of a classic Chinook sky.

One of the most striking features of the chinook is the chinook arch, which is a band of stationary stratus clouds caused by air rippling over the mountains due to orographic lifting. To those unfamiliar with the chinook, the chinook arch may look like a threatening storm cloud at times. However, they rarely produce rain or snow. They can also create stunning sunrises and sunsets.

I have been sick since Christmas Eve and spent most of Christmas Day in and out of bed. I appear to have caught some really bad virus somewhere that has laid me low.

This has been such an amazing Christmas but because I'm so darn sick I can't even describe it right now. Hopefully in a couple of days I'll feel better...

Last Minute Rush

I suddenly found myself looking at the calendar and realizing that it's just a little more than a week until Christmas and I hadn't done a thing about it. Considering that I needed to come up with SIX neighbour gifts plus the personal stuff and had about a week left put me in panic mode. I also have to pack suitcases and figure out if we even have clothes that will serve us in -35C weather. Where the heck are those long johns...yes it is that cold there right now.

A week today we will be on a plane winging out west to Calgary for a couple of weeks in the "deep freeze" and I've ordered a Chinook. I just hope someones listening.

Meanwhile I'm did a little baking for the gift bags with more on schedule today.

So I turned this...



Into These...



And since I was at it I made these...



I'm going to spend the rest of the day baking...