Winter Wonderland

We are at "our" cabin for New Year's again.  At least it feels like our cabin, since is the second year we will enjoy New Years here - we were here last winter, as well as during the summer.  The cabin was recently sold (listed for just under $1M), but we were glad that the new owner continues to make it available to rent.  We have already pre-booked for New Years next year.

We are on Otter Lake, in the interior of BC.  So instead of rain and mild temperatures in Vancouver, we are enjoying snow and clear cold weather.  The snow here is drier than we are used to, and due to the cold, hangs in the trees for a long time.  In fact, there is no sign of it falling.  It makes for some beautiful winterscapes.  Enjoy!

I wish you all a happy New Year!

Spreading the Christmas Cheer

...but not intentionally, this time. 

Yesterday my kids came home from school to find a package on the front porch.  It must have been dropped off during the day, giving one of our local squirrels enough time to tear his way into the box, and, being that there were only 23 cookies inside, to sneak one.  Well, at least he didn't bite any of  the others, so we have been enjoying the remaining 23.

I wonder if I should let the sending party (a company we have done business with during the year) know about the squirrel's break-in?  So they will know not to leave cookies on front porches anymore?  Or just let it go?  By default, I will likely not say anything.  What would you do?

Last weekend we finally made time to decorate our Christmas tree (click photo for larger view).  Since at 14' it is much higher than I can reach with our step ladder, I decorated the top from the loft.  I was a bit skeptical when my husband brought home icicles for the tree.  They seem to me a bit old fashioned, and also can be pretty messy.  But I am quite pleased by the effect, and how they shimmer with the light, and sway when someone passes by the tree.

We stayed with the lighter ornaments, not placing all of them this year.  But I think it's still pretty loaded.  Many of them are hand made creations my kids made at school or church, so it was fun pulling those out.  My son cut a lot of paper snowflakes for the windows.

I feel like I'm not quite in holiday mode yet, but by next week, hope to start taking time off work, and enjoying the family.  We are scaling back the shopping this year, or at least that's the plan.  I hope for spending time together and enjoying Christmas carols and Christmas concerts.  My daughter planned out the songs yesterday which our family will sing around the piano, including a couple songs she will perform as solos, and the kids are practising "We Three Kings" as a guitar duet.  That will be highlight of Christmas for me.

Christmas Tree - Beauty and Beast

We are blessed with a beautiful living room with 18' ceiling, so when we pick a Christmas tree (we've been cutting a fresh one for the last 6 years we've been here), it needs to be big enough to fit the proportions of the room.  Every year I think we find a bigger and prettier one.  Yesterday we cut down a monster of a Noble Fir - 14' tall, even after we took about 2' off the top.  The kids (who insisted they keep their brooms for the photo, after sweeping up needles we left on the ground from dragging it in) give the photo an idea of scale:

I strung up the lights on it today, reaching from the loft to string up the top branches, and a from a ladder for the remainder.  The two strings of lights sparsely cover, but still look lovely (click for a slightly larger view):

  

It was fun driving home, a lot of people were staring at us, thinking we are crazy.  Of course, once we got home and had to tackle the tree off the car, up the stairs, and into the stand (wow, it just barely fit, leaving almost no room for water!), then we also knew that we were crazy.  But what a beautiful tree it will make for Christmas.

By next year, hopefully we'll have furniture in the living room (we've been shopping for some time now, but haven't found the right furniture yet), and then maybe we won't be able to drag in a monster tree anymore.  So in the meantime, we'll enjoy it while we can.