Catching up...

I hope you all had a great Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. I seem to have now regained energy and am ready to share with you some of my Christmas!

I will say that this was one of the best Christmases my family has had. It started early Christmas Morning with my Ma, and Zach and Si. We all slowly opened gifts...

Then my dear brother cooked us all a delicious breakfast and I began cooking supper.

Sometime in the afternoon our people began to arrive...

And somehwere in between all that I got changed into this fancy-shmancy outfit...
Dinner went perfectly. This was the first year that I didn't stress out at all...this school thing is really paying off!

I don't have many pictures of the dinner, except this blurry one...

It was a wonderful day. And Boxing Day was just as good. A little shopping, yes, I do go to the mall, and then more time with some of my favorite people.
Here's to many more Christmases as sparkly and happy as this one!

An ice cream maker with sprinkle shutes...

This time one year ago my Ma's friend, now mine, Earl, was very, very sick...and so I told her that if she lived we would buy a soft ice cream maker with sprinkle shutes. Well, she did, thank goodness! So guess what we went and bought today....a soft ice cream maker!!! We were celebrating that Earl was alive! Yup, we braved the stores on Christmas Eve! But it gets even more complicated...the first store we went to, Home Outfitters near Polo Park: But alas, they didn't have one! It was quite a traumatic thing. But they located one for us in Transcona. Yup, all the way across town...practically across Canada!

But even in the slushy, not-good-for-driving weather we went to Transcona!When we got there we were so happy! Any of you who went out today will know what we are talking about!

And when we saw that ice cream maker sitting on the shelf...We couldn't contain the excitement!We made sure it was what we wanted...Ha! Of course we wanted it! We hadn't travelled across the universe for nothing!

So, we left Home Outfitters...but not before having a mini photo shoot with the new purchase!

As soon was we got back home we started putting it together.

Not without a few head scratches though....

and a few hearty laughs...But we got it together. And we realized that the ice cream bowl had to be frozen for 12 hours...we froze it for 2 hours. We were determined to eat ice cream today...even if we ended up kinda drinking it.

And in between all this ice cream making...the fries for our chili fries fell out of the oven, yup, fell...I was helpless with laughter!

Thankfully Earl rescued them from the clutches of the oven...and they tasted pretty good!

Our ice cream was drippy since the bowl was not nearly frozen long enough...but the skor bits (that came out of the sprinkle shute) made it delicious.

Even Ma, who never ever has ice cream, had some...it was very special ice cream!

Cheers to Earl and to Christmas Eve!

Oh Christmas Tree!

This year I had a very special helper with decorating! She is an excellent light put-er up-er!It was quite festive and it was so fun listening to Christmas songs and putting up old and new decorations...
...while these two hooligans played cards on the floor.

Busy! Busy! Busy!

It has been a busy past couple of days...so I'll do a quick photo recap!

My welcome committee at the airport. Boy was I happy to see these folks!

Making Cupcake Bites with some of my favorite people... Making meatballs with a loved one. It's says alot about our friendship if she is willing to stick her hands into freezing cold ground beef for me....

Singing Christmas songs with Nate....

Putting up the Christmas tree...

*Post to follow about decorating the Christmas tree!

It has been a busy time but I must say I am enjoying every moment of it!

I made it...

I'm here...back at home. It made me so happy to see the lights of Winnipeg from the plane...a sigh of relief and a tummy flip of excitement.
More posts to come...

Giggles

Some days all you need is a good laugh. These last couple of weeks have been hard as Christmas nears and my departure date gets closer and closer. I just want to be home already! One of the ways I remedy this (other than baking and watching Christmas movies with my roomie!) is visiting this site. It's called Awkward Family Photos and its just that. Let me tell you, before visiting the site empty your bladder. The first time I came upon it I laugh so, so, so hard. I now check it regularly and it makes me so happy! So check it out if you need a laugh!

Here are some of my favorite photos.Now, there is only one thing to remember when looking at these photos....there are real! People have sent them in!!

• This one is one of my favorites. Try and spot the funny part...
• This is just funny!
• Mahahaha!
• This one just doesn't make sense....
• Oh my...

Are you feeling giggly now?

2 more sleeps...

There's nothing like...

making cookies in your pajamas!

Have I mentioned I love Christmas? And pajamas? And making things for special people?

See ya'll in 7 days!

Winter Wonderland

It really snowed here yesterday....It made both Tracy and I feel quite Christmasy!And there is only one thing to do when you feel Christmasy (who am I kidding there are tons of things you could do...I can think of 30 right off the top of my head!).....make Christmas gifts!

So we made filling for Peppermint Patties...
We made Marshmallows.... Tracy snapped this picture of me to document my outfit. I had been wearing jeans and was matching nicely (I think) but then I spilled oil on my pants and had to clean them and these PJ bottoms were the first thing I grabbed. I think I look quite festive!
And we also made Gingerbread Caramels....
Then we watched a Christmas movie....what a perfect way it was to spend a snowy Sunday evening!

P.S. If you were wondering (I used to) how easy it is to make marshmallows, let me tell you, it is really easy. This could take smores to a whole new level!

It's done!

Here is the finished sculpture!

Here are some close ups...

Something fun...really fun.

At school right now I'm on the evening rotation I go to school from 2:00 till 9:00. Just until Christmas my class runs the evening service. We have 16 people to do a 5 person job. There is lots and lots of spare time. Chef Andrew will let us do anything in that spare time, in fact he encourages us. Any ingredient and any piece of equipment. And my class takes full advantage. There has been a smoked duck, a scallop terrine, popsicles made on the anti-griddle (a griddle that freezes instead of cooks), cucumber sorbet with ice wine, salmon cured in beet juice, oh the list goes on.Yesterday Chef Andrew asked if I wanted to make a fat sculpture and of course I said yes, even though I've never made a sculpture let alone a fat one. He had been making them for years and showed us a few he had done with a student last year. They look so cool.

So, I'm going to show you the process but I'm not going to tell you what it's of. It's going to take a few days but hopefully by the end of it you'll be able to tell what it is. One clue: It is Christmas-y. Of course!!

Here the block of shortening before I stick my hands in it...

And this is what the sculpture will be built on....
After 2 hours this is what it looked like...

Can you guess what it is? Just kidding, don't guess yet. It's missing vital parts.

It is so fun and relaxing. Who knew that you could do this with fat! I love it! I'm going back in today to work on it some more...I'll keep you posted.

It snowed!

Just a little. But I was excited!

It's gone now though. And this morning I woke up to pouring rain. At least I have my Christmas songs!

Anyone have snow that's staying?

I'm back!

My computer is finally fixed! Thanks to my handy dandy computer man and Canada Post my laptop is safely back in my arms. And I am so happy...I've sure missed writing to you guys!

Guess what happened this week?

The tree went up!

And we had two special visitors that helped decorate, Tracy's husband and grandson!

Brody did most of the decorating...at least for the bottom of the tree.It was a very serious job....

But I think he was pretty happy with the results!
It was so much fun hanging out with Brody. Definitely got my toddler fix. Even though I got the "Go Away, Tanna" a couple of times. Ha! He is far too cute for his own good!
It is starting to feel a little like Christmas here, with the tree, the Christmas presents stacking up, and the chilly weather. All we're missing is some snow!

Oh, and in other exciting news...I'll be home in 16 days!!