The first part of December was still warm enough to play Frisbee in our T-shirts. I don't enjoy Frisbee, but I enjoy Blake, so I go out and toss one around with him. Much more than I would like, not near as much as he would like. But it was a beautiful day for it.
A few weeks ago, everyone went skiing. Castle wasn't fully open yet. It was just the early bird runs at the top that had received more snow. The boys got a discount with their WOW cards and another with the early bird special. It was a bit sketchy. They really had to watch it, but of course had a great time.
They were not sure about Blake's boot size. His ones from last year were just a bit to tight. They went over to the farm to grab Grandpa Puzey's old boots but they were a bit to big. Dave decided to take both and see how the day went. A few runs in, Blake kept slipping out of his skies. He was getting a little annoyed. Dave said they would tighten bindings at lunch. As they were walking in, Blake looked down at this boot and saw that it was cracked. No wonder he was slipping out. So he changed into Grandpa's boots and he skied great the rest of the day. He was pretty excited since Grandpa's boots were orange and black like his ski gear. And Dave was feeling inspired to have thrown the second pair in.
That same weekend Cora and Leah went to Marmot Basin in Jasper. There were about 12 YSA kids that all went from Edmonton. They left at 3 in the morning to make it to the hill by opening time. This was the girl's first ski not on Castle and Cora's first in two years. She was so happy to get back on the hill. They had a blast. The drive up and back, the skiing, being with that group of kids. All around fun day. They were asked to go again today, to Lake Louise this time, but both decided it just wasn't in their budget this time.
Every year I say it's the last time I am going to send out Christmas cards. But here we go again. This started out as a simple, hey what about this, and grew. Dave says, "suddenly I was building props!" but I like how it turned out and we had fun.
I had seen a postcard style on one of the card sites I was looking at, and loved it. No licking envelopes. But it was much more than I was willing to pay. I did a lot of looking around and finally found a site that would let me design my own. Twas fun.
This year for Grandma Puzey's tree I did just one decoration for all the kids instead of individual ones.
We got to go over and set up her tree this year and see all the past ornaments from everyone. It was so fun to look at them all and remember.
We used to get a live tree every year. I love the smell, and watching it fall open when it warms up. I didn't like the watering everyday, and hoping it didn't wreck our carpet, or the needles all over the floor. A few years ago when we went to Mexico, we just didn't think it was worth it as it would die as we were gone. So I stuck a small tree we had on an end table and called it good. Then we just kinda started doing that each season. We kept saying we were going to get one on sale after Christmas, but still could not believe how much they were. A lady in our community put up on the local buy and sell they she was giving hers away for free. So Blake and I went into town to get it and worked fast to get it all set up before Dave came home. I wanted to see how long it took him to notice. Well long story short, Blake walked in from the garage behind Dave. Dave was staring right at the tree and Blake said, "I see you have seen the new tree" faster than I could stop him. Dave had not noticed. Haha Ha seriously after we had worked so hard. He felt bad, but in the end it was kinda funny. Dave insisted on still lifting Blake up to put the star on...because....tradition.
House all lite up.
I have been working at the local food bank this month. Because of restriction they couldn't have volunteers as they usually do. So they hired me to work almost full time making Christmas hampers and getting and wrapping presents. It was a lot of fun. The only thing was I started just when it was announced that Blake would be staying home for online school. It bothered me to leave him everyday. Dave and I tried to work it out that sometimes I would come home early, sometimes Dave could. Once he was able to work from home. I really enjoyed 'shopping' for fun food and extras sometimes for the hampers and deciding what to give those in need. I hope to be able to go back next Christmas.
Dave is the councillor over the teachers quorum. Blake is the only teacher in our ward. So Dave was joking about the ski activities they were going to have and winter camp. But they did set up a YM's zoom activity. Dave put Blake in charge of the agenda and contacting everyone. They talked about their goals and things they didn't like about COVID and one thing they secretly liked about it. :) It was a short activity, but nice for them all to interact again. It has a very long time. I think they have only been able to have 1 or maybe two activities since March.
Christmas is coming soon. Our house is still Cora and Leah's permanent residence, so they are allowed to come home for Christmas. It really has been a strange year. I wish that they could just get out and meet lots of new people. They have meet some and continue to meet a few, but it certainly is not what we had thought. I'm glad they have each other. And we prayer that Leah's job will continue on in the new year. She was hired for seasonal. They take one of the seasonals every year and hire them on permanent, but with shut downs she isn't sure they are even doing that. They both finished their first semester yesterday. Leah started again in March and Cora should start April. They have lots of time to work and are very willing. Lots of prayers. Blake finished his online schooling yesterday as well and is looking forward to the break. He was part of a Secret Santa this month as well with some kids in the stake. They drew names and then he delivered the gift. They then did a zoom meet where they opened and guessed who their present was from. He enjoyed it. He is also texting friends from school regularly, so he has some interactions outside of his house. He is looking forward to going back to school.
