Our 2011 Christmas

Our Christmas begins with the greatest decoration suggestion of all time. At least for me that is. Look closely and you will see what I mean! Who knows what the garland will look like next year but it doesnt't matter. I will worry about that later!

Every year as far back as we can all remember, we have always had finger foods for our Christmas Eve dinner (although this year we had our dinner the day before Christmas Eve). It's always a favorite! Here is Chris making Jalapeno Poppers from PW's (Pioneer Woman) cookbook. They turned out spectacular!

Here is our spread. We also made stuffed mushroom caps, bacon wrapped water chestnuts, barbequed beef tenderloin and then had our usual crackers, meat, cheeses, shrimp, vegertables and a fun drink. The last few years we have had coca cola in ornament shaped bottles.

On Christmas Eve we drove to Lee lee's house for a Ham dinner and games. This round of the game "Pounce" was for mothers and sons.

Chris lounging......that's part of Christmas isn't it? It sure is! Actually if truth be told......he had just woken up from a little snooze.

For dessert Lee Lee had made chocolate haupia pie. It never disappoints! See that fork? That's a fork from waaayyyyyyy back. Like forever! I love a good memory!

This is Christmas morning. Every year we wake the kids up and they have to wait for everyone else to be ready before we let them downstairs to see what Santa brought. This is typical Caleb. Not quite ready for the festivities but always has his duvet with him.

This is the very first gift we opened this year. It was the gift from Sean and his girlfriend Andrea. They had made 3 types of seasoned nuts and they were delicious!

Caleb opening up the gift from the Cahoon's. They gave us jars of Lee Lee's homemade Utah peaches and salsa. Talk about more delicious!

Kelly gave me this infinity scarf!

Caleb gave me this book!

Chris gave me these boots!

And here are our cinnamon rolls! This goes back even further than that fork you saw in the above picture. This tradition goes back generations. The recipe may change from year to year but Cinnamon Rolls Christmas morning doesn't! I don't dare not make them.

Since moving here to Southern Alberta we have started another tradition.  We drive down to Great Falls, Montana on Boxing Day to go shopping. We give the kids a chunk of U.S. money and they get to spend it however they want! This year sadly it was only Seth who was able to come but we managed to have a great time anyway. The reason for this not so Christmasy  picture is to show that the Coutts border actually had 3 lines open for us Canadians crossing the border. They usually only have one line open and you have to wait for a long time!!

We went to Cafe Rio for the first time and it was pretty darn good!

Seth had bought himself a nice sweater at Ross. He looks very sharp with his new hat and new glasses don't ya think?

After a day shopping we ate at this Asian Noodle Bowl place down the road from our hotel.

The next day before heading home we stopped at Sonic for lunch which like Cafe Rio we had never eaten there before either. Thier milkshakes were unbelievable. The creamiest one I have ever had!

And.....well.....after all that yummy food we had in Great Falls and all the yummy chocolate I got for Christmas this is what I will be doing for awhile.

But how can you say "no" to this right? Santa brings this box of chocolates to our family every year.


We had a great Christmas and missed only one thing. Sean. Hopefully next year will be different because it's been 4 too many years without him!

My "little boy" is 17!

The tradition in this is house when it comes to birthdays is that the birthday guy or gal gets to choose whether they want me, the mom to make whatever they want for dinner or pick a restaurant of their choice. This is Seth's day so this is what he chose!

HIs favorite place to eat out is Montana's. He loves it here because of the ribs.

The birthday boy!

Seth had drawn a riddle on the table and so this is Caleb and Chris trying to figure it out. I kind of think it was an impossible riddle but later Caleb re-drew it to see if he could solve it. I think he did. Caleb can figure just about everything out like that.

This is the rib dinner. It did not disapoint let me tell ya! Seth couldnt finish it all so he ate the rest for lunch the next day. That was actually the plan.

Kelly wasn't able to join us this year.

And to end the evening off right....we came home to this chocolate cake. Our waiter at Montana's asked us if we wanted dessert and I told him that we had a homemade chocolate cake waiting for us and I am pretty sure he was a little envious.

The Busy Month Of October!

October is always a busy month for us and this year was no exception. Birthdays, Thanksgiving and a Visit!!

The month begins with Chris' birthday. The chocolate cake that you see is a standard at EVERY birthday in this house. Only the decorations and ages change of course. Seth decorated the cake this year. The meal that Chris requested his birthday was Chicken Enchaladas, Mexican Corn, Tortilla chips with Guacamole & Herdez Salsa and Mango juice.

Here in Canada, Thanksgiving is always on the second Monday of October. Usually the day after Chris' birthday. Kelly set the table this year and did a magnificent job with paper plates from Walmart! (our good china is still packed away somewhere in boxes in our garage) Lee Lee's family joins us every year for Canadian Thanksgiving and then we join them for American Thanksgiving.

Just a candid shot of some of the preparations. The turkey was perfect this year! Last year it was a little pink on the inside.

Just me doing my thing....."Nanny's Potatoes" are in that pot!

Neal, Kelly, Laurel and Seth waiting very patiently. Not quite sure what the look on Seth's face could be.....seems each one has something different on thier minds.  Kind of funny isn't it? Oh, and Caleb did join us for the meal but he kind of makes himself scarce until just before the food is on the table.

Here is Lee Lee preparing part of her part of the meal. The whip cream for the pumpkin pies she brought!

Once again my father drove aaaaaaalllll the way up from St. George to visit us! He drives 12 hours to his sister's house in Bozeman, Montana and then a day or two later drives another 7 or so hours up here. Here we are at the Cardston Temple.

I stayed overnight at Lee Lee's house one night while daddy was staying there because he LOVES to see us together. He says it's like time goes back to when we were teenagers. Guess he is right because here we are acting like teenagers making a blanket for our sister Susie for Christmas. We can be a little silly ......but only sometimes!

The next day we drove to Waterton for lunch and this is just some of the great scenery we saw. The day was perfect. This was taken just as you enter the park off to the right (for those who may be familiar with Waterton).

I am really disappointed at the blurryness (if you click on the picture to enlarge it) of this picture but decided to add it anyway. I had the camera sitting on a fence with the timer. Anyway, the gal you may or may not recognize in this picture is Dixie, a good friend of  both our families.

On our way back to Lee Lee's we stopped so I could get a picture of myself with this Bull. For some reason, this past year I have decided that I am really enjoying the look of a Bull and perhaps one day I may even own my very own! But a real one of course.

Also on the way back we saw this! Random you say? Not so much in this part of Alberta. It is just the coolest thing to see in "real life".

And the last of the celebrations for the month of October. Kelly's 22nd birthday. I don't have a picture of her chocolate cake but this year she wanted it decorated with big pink flowers. So big pink flowers and 22 pink candles it was! The meal she requested was Teriyaki Chicken, Rice, Fresh Green Beans, Steamed Broccoli and Mango Lemonade.  PS. The boy at her side is her boyfriend, Kyle and Caleb was in the shower at the time of this photo.

PS. Seth's 17th Birthday is on November 2nd so be on the lookout for another post!

The Story Of This Gun........(in my father's words)

"The gun, a Model "Remington Nylon 66" came out in the '60s. The "66" was a designation for the nylon used in the stock. I bought it for $39.95, which in today's money would be about $400.  Inflation, you know.  There was a magazine article about a shooter who set a record by using the same model gun to hit 10,000 small blocks of wood thrown into the air.  That convinced me ". 

"The case is a Christmas present I gave your Mother in about 1956-7 for her to use with her .22. A remington 513 (I think). We had a contest to see who could wrap the presents the best. I included an aspirin tin with a couple of B-Bs to confuse her when she shook the gift. I won the contest that year".

"Enjoy".


This gun and case is now ours to use. I am so glad that I know the story behind it because now it isn't just some gun that we bought somewhere.  If only guns could talk because my parents have lived in many different places! And..... if you could smell the case you would know it must have many stories to tell because it smells old and familiar!

Thank you Daddy for letting us take care of it now!

We Love Regina!

Chris had a conference to attend in Regina last week and asked if I would like to go and I said, "of course I want to go"! We were there for 5 glorious days and enjoyed every single minute of it.  I shopped, we visited good friends and we both just enjoyed being back "home" again for awhile.

Years ago the Mayor of Regina really wanted to get Reginans excited about living there so he came up with a program. There were t-shirts, posters, pins, tags and a bunch of other stuff made and this is where my tag has been for many years. On my backpack. I use this whenever I travel anywhere because I Love Regina!

PS The little lady bug buttons on my backpack were one of my mothers favorite things.

Now this place is a true landmark in Regina. It's on Victoria Avenue and it's very popular! It's been there for as long as Chris can remember. It's only open for maybe 6 months of the year but everyone who is anyone knows the best ice cream in Regina is at the Milky Way. (This picture was taken at 8am in the morning so that's why there isn't a line up around the building.)

This picture was taken while driving down Albert Street. Again, it's early in the morning so it's pretty quiet. Albert Street runs North-South and divides the city right down the middle. It's lined with trees as you head south. All along the right side of the street are most of the historic homes in the city.

This road is called Gordon Road and it runs East-West. We lived down this road about 1/4 mile and to the left. I have driven this road hundreds of times in the 18 years we lived in Regina. This is another road that has huge trees and is so pretty in the summer. There is nothing like Regina in the summer months! The very last tree you see way down at the end of the road used to be the edge of the city but right beyond that is now developed into houses and a shopping center. It just isn't he same anymore.

Okay, now this was a real treat for me. Room service! I felt very spoiled and enjoyed every bite. Yogurt and granola with fresh fruit. Our room was pretty sweet too because we had a corner room on the 24th floor. Seeing the view of the city from that high was really fun. We of course were right downtown so we were able to see 3 of the buildings that Chris built years ago.

This place is not in Regina. It's in Medicine Hat, Alberta but we stopped there on our way to and from Regina because a friend of Chris' from the College raved about it. And now we know why. It has probably 40 different flavors of milkshakes with one of them being called "I don't know".  I asked the lady at the window what the flavor was and she said, "I don't know, but that boy over there just ordered one so you can ask him".  So I did.  He said, "well, it kind of tastes like grape (pause) and kind of like mint". I think I will have to try that the next time we drive thru.

This is just a typical picture of the prairies that you see for kilometers and kilometers and kilometers. It's so nice though because you can see forever and forever and forever!

And this is what we came home to. Everytime Chris and I go somewhere we are always greeted with fresh flowers from Kelly!

Summer Snaps!

I thought I would do a post on random things about this summer. These pictures are not in any particular order because how could I possibly choose just one favorite snap of the summer of 2011?

This bunny appeared in our yard every so often throughout the summer. Guess he liked the clover in our grass!

I guess if someone was to ask me which of these pictures was my favorite I would have to go with this one. I love this Maui Babe sun lotion. I get so brown! Love it.

This is the river that Kelly and I floated down a few times. Really, really fun and relaxing. We float under Whoop-Up (in another picture below) and also the train bridge which just had it's 100th birthday and is still used today.

Every year the town of Cardston hosts the Mini Chuck Wagon Races. They are alot of fun to watch and can get pretty exciting!

These are the huckleberries that I picked at the huckleberry festival last month. I made a crisp with them and it was delicious!

This is Whoop-Up. This road divides Lethbridge from the west side which is where we live so we drive this road alot. At the bottom is a bridge and that is where Kelly I float under. The river is down in the coulies.

These are some of the strawberries I picked and made jam out of for the winter months.

Okay. If someone was to ask me what my second favorite thing about summer was I would have to say the sunroof in my car!

This is the map of Alberta. The 4 pennies are placed on certain cities. From the bottom: Lethbridge. Calgary. Edmonton. Fort McMurray. Caleb drove waayyyyy up north to Fort mcMurray this summer to install alarm systems for Vivint. He also worked in Winnepeg, Regina and Red Deer. I asked him yesterday if he minded all the driving and he said, "no, I am used to it from all the road trips we took growing up". :)

I took this picture from the car on our way to Calgary. Don't you just love a good summer storm? I have got to say though that the summer storms in Saskatchewan beat the summer storms here by a long shot.

This picture is hard to know what you are looking at. You will have to click on it so you can see it better. But set back into the coulies is the University of Lethbidge which is where Chris started working at the beginning of June.

New favorite CD of the summer. It seems to be "very California" to me.

I am very excited about these blueberry bushes that we planted in our yard. I have blueberries almost every morning on my cereal. Can't wait to have fresh ones next summer!

We have a VERY wet corner in our backyard that kills everything we plant. So Chris thought it would be really neat to plant some cat tails there. Early one morning we drove to a spot not too far from our home and dug some up out of the ditch. They are thriving!

This is a picture of the "beach" we go to so I can use my Maui Babe. It's called Park Lake and is only about 10 minutes from our house.

This picture has nothing to do with summer. Not really. It is something I am going to have fun with since Fall is right around the corner. Beatles Rock Band! Boo ya!