Ghosts and Goblins and Wintery Cheer??

Oh my Lord, I'm so far behind on my blog. And with my scrapbooking.

I have no idea why, other than the excuse that by the time my children decide to get to bed and stop coming out of it to "just ask me something", it's always after 10:00 pm and all I want to do after that is snuggle up to Mike and do nothing.

Winter has officially arrived, like, three weeks ago.  All I feel like doing is hibernating in my cozy Alpaca socks and my sweatpants.

So tonight I decided to catch up the blog, update my background to something more suited to the season, and drink me some tea.

I know most of my readers are local Saskatchewanians living along Highway 16 like me, so I don't have to go into details too much other than say: "Holy Snowballs, Batman!"

I have no idea how much has fallen since the week before Halloween, but we estimated the amount of snow accumulation tonight to be somewhere around 22 cm and counting, as it is still falling as I type.

Don't get me wrong, I love this time of year, and getting out into the snow with the kids is great.  I even like shoveling.   But the roads have been so horrible and there have been a lot of accidents and that I don't like.  Halloween felt like a bit of a bust with the wind making noses and little fingers so cold that we had to quit after a half an hour.

Brandon and I went back out after we warmed up around 7:00, and went until 8:30.  The wind had died down and other than being super slippery we had a good time.  Then we went through all his loot and he put into a big bowl what he didn't want (7 pounds worth) and we bagged it into one pound portions to donate to a local dentist's office.  They were doing a draw for an iPad and each kid who donated would get a ticket for each pound they brought in.  Brandon happily entered in his 7 tickets, and is patiently waiting for them to draw his name.  If you're wondering what the dentist is going to do with all the candy, they are going to donate it all to the Canadian Military.  Last I heard they had over 180 lbs of it in 8 large garbage bags.  Insane!!!

Charlie and Jacelyn both had fun at their school Halloween parties, even though we had to change Jacey's costume from a devil into something a bit more "friendly" for school (they go to a Catholic school).  As long as she got to wear her horns and tail for trick or treating, she was alright with it.

not impressed with the slimy pumpkin guts

"eeeewwwwww"

scary spiderweb woman

Brandon's 7 pounds of loot

Since then we have had another dump of snow, which stopped us from going anywhere on the highways and which also blanketed everything again in heavy, wet snow.  And tonight yet again after a few days reprieve.  While it fell so early, it sure makes people in the Christmas spirit.  On November 1st Mike and I were surprised at the amount of lights on around the city, as well as trees up in the windows.  At least there is comfort in knowing we won't be the only ones who like to decorate early!  Although I'm pretty sure Mike has more Griswold in him than most and so our yard will boast our North Pole theme with pride.  Not this year, but next year! :)

I've been making Christmas ornaments out of gingerbread for the last while and finally finished up yesterday with a large popcorn string to drape around the tree when the time comes to decorate it.  With this house being so little there is no room for our rather large tree.  We bought a 4.5ft potted pre-lit tree last week and so will decorate that up with a gingerbread theme...our decorations are all packed away and to make the gingerbread was almost free.  Bonus: the tree should smell pretty amazing whenever we walk by it!

Jacelyn's take on "Gingy" from 'Shrek'

The kids and I decorated them up at the end of September, and they've been drying ever since.  I made a tree topper out of felt and decorated it to look like a big, stuffed gingerbread star.

After starting on our Christmas shopping to the beat of Christmas carols over the loudspeaker it's starting to feel like the holiday season.  

Bring it on!!!!

And finally some more things have been slowing happening over at the house; the concrete has been poured for the garage grade beam and the framers can start soon.  I'm hoping that by next week we will have more than just a box in the ground and start to see the house get some shape to it.  The entire basement is enclosed and there is a small furnace down there to get things nice and dry and warm for the concrete to be poured and set.  We are excited to see more!