Holidays

We spent Christmas Eve by ourselves, we have never spent Christmas Eve by ourselves in the 22 years that we have known each other as it was always spent with family.  We called, emailed and did some facetime with our families and friends as Craig was working on Christmas day.  Jim and Sheila stopped by with a beautiful gift, a set of three prints of Inuit life for us and some very squeaky toys for the dogs...thank you, I will get you back! haha  Oh yeah and a furry mouse for Mocha which Blitz just loves. We opened up our gifts to each other that evening and left the rest for Christmas day.  I bought Craig an IPad and the animals bought him the cover and the camera adaptor.  I received a stocking full of goodies and a great pair of Arctic mitts and a trapper's hat to keep me warm.  Of course my new lens was also part of my gift from Craig. 

Christmas day started off with a bang in Cambridge Bay with a blizzard and Craig managed to get to work for 8am but much to my surprise was home at 10am.  They sent him and Jack home so that they wouldn't be stuck on the site for the holiday.  The rest of the day was spent hanging out and then getting ready to head over to Jim and Sheila's for Christmas dinner.

Dinner was great with all of trimmings.  Ryan and Terry dropped by to wish everyone a Merry Christmas before heading over to a friends home for dinner.  They also invited Marg and Cat and the new RCMP officer Jason over for dinner.  Jason was still on duty but made it for dinner and returned once off duty for some games and cheer.  Sheila put together a stocking for all of us with some goodies and a game inside, what a sweetheart.  We headed home in the blizzard just past midnight with a bag full of goodies and some turkey leftovers to make some homemade soup.

Yesterday was spent playing with the new IPad until I received a call from a couple in town, Stewart and Amanda.  I vaccinated their puppy a couple of weeks ago and Oreo had been ill since Christmas night.  She was a bit dehydrated so I gave her a bit of fluids under the skin, checked her temperature, gave her some gravol and told them to fast her for 24 hours.  Not much more I can do.  I received a call from Amanda this morning and poor little Oreo is still vomiting so I told her to call Yellowknife vet to see if they think she should be flown out today.  I feel sorry for these little pups as they are so fragile and there is no veterinarian care for them here, closest vet would be Yellowknife and then Edmonton.  I hope that she will be fine as she is such a nice little pup and the owners are so caring and love her alot.  I will keep you posted on Oreo.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and spent it with loved ones. We missed spending Christmas  with our blood families but as I always say, good friends are like family and we spent Christmas with family in Cambridge Bay.  

The pictures today are from Christmas day and yesterday.

Talk soon!

Pre-dinner gaming on the IPads

Marg, Cat and Sheila

Sheila and Jason

Jason and Craig, serious gaming on the IPad

Cat, Jim, Jason and Craig playing games on the IPad

Poco, the Queen of Jim & Sheila's household

Thanks Jim & Sheila for the turkey leftovers, made for some good soup!

Mocha doesn't look too impressed

Christmas Prep

You could say we have been busy this past week and a bit getting ready for Christmas.  I have baked about 5 dozen Pecan Puffs, lost count how many gingerbread men, 5 Papa's tourtieres with the relish, a granola mix and I think I am done baking.  We also put up the new purchases from Ikea around the house and of course decorated it for the Holiday Season.  

We had a few friends over last Saturday night for some Christmas Cheer.  It was our first get together in our new home and I think it was a success.  Everyone brought something to eat or drink and in the morning I had a pair of shoes, a red truck, an eye mask and lots of leftovers....wasn't that a party!  haha  We have been invited over to Jim & Sheila home for Christmas dinner and we will head over there once Craig is done work at 4pm.  Work you say?  Yes he works Monday to Saturday no matter if it is a holiday or not.

So glad that yesterday was Winter Solstice as I can not wait to see the sun again.  It hasn't been as bad as I thought but I sure do miss seeing that bright yellow circle in the sky. It doesn't get completely dark all day long, kinda like twilight for a couple of hours midday and then it becomes dark.   The skies are really beautiful today with shades of pink, purple and blue.  Might have to drive Craig to work this afternoon so I can take some pictures.

I have alot of pictures to share with you today, some house stuff, animals and of the get together last weekend ending with our Christmas Tree.

Talk soon!

The Box

New track lighting for the kitchen

Dated brass knobs for the kitchen cupboards, no handles

Nickel handles and knobs from Ikea

Old doggie corner - boring!

New doggie corner - 'ass hooks' from Ikea for their coats and new key holder for us.

New drapes are up in the livingroom, dining room, our bedroom and the office.

The guitars have a new home

Craig getting lots of lovin' from the dogs

Mocha & Craig playing Scrabble

Myself & Millie

Doris, myself and Marg

Sheila and Marg

Jack & Phebe

The party entertainment:
Ryan and Craig

Our Christmas Tree

Lobster Feast

Last night we were invited over to Sheila & Jim's home for a lobster dinner.  They had the lobster shipped from Edmonton.  Jim's sister Shirley was out for the weekend from Yellowknife so it was perfect timing for her to help us enjoy them and Marg, another friend was invited to join in on the fun.  In the end Sheila, the smallest of us all, came out as the winner by eating 3 lobsters - way to go girlfriend!  It was great food with wonderful people and conversation.

After dinner Cat, Marg's daughter joined us for some fun playing board games and poker.  We all put in $20.00 and the game went on until 2am and in the end I came out in second place taking home $40.00 and Craig was the top winner with $80.00 - keep it in the family.  I had never played poker before so it was a nice surprise that I came in second, poor Cat really wanted to beat Craig though.

Due to the blizzard this past week our food and booze orders did not come in on Thursday, the scheduled date.  We did get a call from Todd at the airport this morning stating that both were in.  Before heading to the airport the skies were beautiful so we drove down by the water so I could take some pictures.  It was a wee bit scary when I first went on the ice especially when I noticed the large cracks in it.  I wanted to get near the couple of qamutiks out on the ice, thought it would be a nice pic against the skies.  Can't stay out in the open area too long with the Nikon with -30'c weather.  After the bit of fresh air we headed over to the airport to pick up our goodies.  The rest of this afternoon was spent with me playing with the new Dx0 Optics program and Craig putting Christmas tunes on the ITouch and playing computer games.  Nice and relaxing.

Today's pictures are of Lobster Feast 2010 and a couple from today's little outing.  Hope you enjoy them.

Talk soon!

Jim being Vanna White