Sjoelbak!

We had our first weekend of Christmas family celebrations this past weekend while Martin and Emily were in Ontario with Maria and Nicole, and it was also the beginning of our Second Annual Sjoelbak Tournament. Last year's Ultimate Sjoelbak Grand Champion was "The Honourable Sir Martin".
We played between preparing meals and kids' naps and Michael's availability in Banff (where he is now living, and doing the commute to L. Louise). Not sure what the standings are, but the games will continue when Michael arrives Christmas weekend. We could even start another round, since we can watch each other on Skype, and Martin and Emily are back in Dartmouth!
The little girls wanted to have a go at the board as well, and they scored well too. Naomi is quite proud of her expertise!
And Rachel of course wanted to try her hand at it,

giving us instructions in how to play: climb on board and shove the pucks in! Perfect score!!

Winter has arrived, and Christmas is coming!

It's been snowing off and on since Saturday night, so that we now have a few centimetres on the ground. Winter has officially arrived, and the lights on other homes look like the Christmas season has arrived.
Martin and Emily and their girls are coming on the weekend, for their Christmas with their Ontario families. Michael isn't coming until Christmas Day.
So this mom likes doing all kinds of stuff for family celebrations, but guess what! She's wa-a-ay behind!
There's been this and that and other things - all contributing to her time factor. But on Friday, I started to clean upstairs, and discovered something drastic. There's a moisture problem in the ceiling and walls, and it's become visible in a not very healthy way.
John and Stevin took care of it today, but we have a big project for early spring! Sigh. If it isn't one thing, it's another.
The plus side is that a sort of Clean Sweep is occurring, and will continue through the winter! The minus side is that Christmas projects will not be completed for the weekend. There will also be only a little bit of baking done.
But it's family together time that matters! We will have a good time, regardless!! Who's up for Scrabble? :) And later, there are always the pleasures of packages in the mail......