Santa drops by again!

December 19th

Party time at playgroup!  The craft for today was decorating gingerbread men cookies with icing, chocolate chips, sprinkles and a candy cane.  Surprisingly, the kids were a bit hyper for the rest of the morning!

Liam's was a "keeper" (his words, not mine).  Which makes Logan's an "eater" I guess?

     

My mini knight in shining armour.  He traded in his corn on the cob sword for something else.

Finally, Santa arrived.  Conveniently, nothing about Santa changed between the work Christmas party and this one.  And Liam loved him even more...

Does Santa look a bit surprised that there are kids out there who don't cry when they see him?  Liam sat on his lap and had a long heart-to-heart (mostly one-sided) conversation.  I forgot to ask Santa what they talked about....  he may not really know!  I bet it involved somebody asking for a "kitchen for boys," though.  And Santa was SO on the ball!  Not only did he (obviously) know that Liam loves orange, and so gave him a gift with a "giant" orange candy cane, but he also knew that Liam broke the necklace (in our house it's used as a hoist) he got at Hallowe'en and gave him a new one.  And he gave him a colouring book with a dolphin on the cover, which is Liam's "favourite!"  Oh, and a package of crayons with two oranges.  After all those coincidences (really!), I almost believe in Santa!

It seems that sitting on Santa's lap was okay, especially with the hat you stole from your brother.

You'll never believe this, but Logan's favourite part was the candy cane!

All in all, a successful morning!  None of the kids killed each other and there was no blood, despite double the number of kids and sugar.  There was almost a stampede of parents, though, when it became very clear that would all change if we didn't leave NOW!

Our baby really isn't a baby anymore

December 12th

Logan's second birthday!  We had a chocolate cream cake with white chocolate ganache icing.  Or as the kids said "A moon-star cake."

Time to blow out the candles! One...

Two...

Three...

Just like that: bang, bang, bang.  No second chances needed.  He's an expert already!

Logan didn't really "get" the present thing.  All his gifts were laying out all day and he was mostly interested in the wrappings, pointing out Pooh Bear or balloons.  His brother was eager to show him what it was all about.

  

---

"Look Logan - it's got a hammer!"	"A hammer?! Really? Let me see!"
"Wait until you hear those balls hit the laminate floors!"	"So, how long did you say it was until Christmas?"

December 15th

Playgroup was exhausting!

Grandma kept her promise!

December 12th

Liam has had a fascination with the moon since about the time he started talking.  In fact, I remember the first "conversation" we had was in January 2007 when we were driving to my mom's and it was way past his bedtime.  But he stayed awake during the car ride talking to me about the moon.  He still loves the moon, and when we found out we were moving to Iqaluit, my mom told him about the news story she had heard on the radio.  They were saying that in Iqaluit this winter you would be able to see the moon almost all day for about two weeks.  He was sold.  And sure enough we have been able to see the moon rise across the street at about 2:30 in the afternoon.  He might not have been so thrilled if she had explained that it would be dark all day when you can see the moon!

This is across the street from us at 3:00 p.m.  The colours are very accurate.

This is looking the opposite direction at the last bit of sunset.

And this is when we came back from our quick trip to the store, at 3:40 p.m.

It is slowly getting darker

December 11th

We went outside for a little fresh air before the sun went down. This is a picture looking southwest at 11:40 a.m.

Since there isn't enough snow (or wet enough snow) to make a snowman, Liam has decided that snow angels are the next best thing. Here is the only patch of snow loose enough for this:

Here we are, back inside at 11:59 a.m. It was about -25 outside, so 20 minutes wasn't bad!

Santa Parade and Christmas Party

December 6th

December 6th was the kids' Christmas Party at Craig's work.  There was tobogganing planned for the morning, but it was cancelled because it was just too windy.  On our way to the indoor part (with food and Santa!) we almost literally ran into the parade!  Sorry about picture quality for this whole day - at first I thought the battery was dead in the camera, then realized I'd left it at home charging.  Duh!  In any case, I had to use the video camera to take stills.
    

We first realized that Liam is no longer scared of the big guy in red when Santa walked in and Liam and another kid were all over him!  Logan isn't quite feeling the love, yet.  Although it is bearable if there is a present involved.
   

Craft time!

You may all bow down to my craftiness. I am not a crafty person, but I was inspired. One of the boxes that is hopefully is storage has the tree-topper that I wanted to bring. And the tree just didn't look right. There were instructions in my parents magazine to make an angel out of old greeting cards, which would have been the perfect size. But did my children (and, ahem, husband) want an angel? Noooooo, they wanted a star. They didn't have instructions for that. But look what we made instead!

Before....

(Logan's on the left, Liam's on the right)

After....

The proud painters/glue guys...

Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree...

We're halfway there!

The boxes finally made it.  But don't start giving the movers any credit just yet!  As I had mentioned before, the moving guys was going to call the next day at noon.  So I called him.  The van was still in the shop.  But we could expect them late in the afternoon the next day.  I called around 3:30 the next day (with Craig in the background saying "Tell him we'll just come get it!").  The van was still in the shop.  So I asked if we could just pick up the boxes and he could bring the sled when the van was working.  I could actually hear the relief in his voice when he said yes.

Off we went to the cargo place to pick up our boxes.  Strangely, the guys there thought that the boxes had been on the top shelf for ever and that nobody had come to look for them.  Surprise, surprise.  So in the end, we got the pot and pans and other kitchen stuff, the boots and jackets from the front closet and the clothes, etc from the laundry room.  Missing was the box from the basement I had been hoping for.  No homemade canned apples, Craig's precious jars of gravy, the DVDs, and the rubber floor mats I had been planning on putting under the boys' moonsand box.  And somehow the bootmats and floor mat from the front door didn't make it with the other items from the front door area.  So we'll claim it all, they'll tell us they can't reimburse us because we can't prove it's not in storage and we'll wait two years with our fingers crossed that it is actually all in storage.  At least that's how I suspect it will go.  It's all stuff we can live without.  I just hope we get it back.  Okay, not the mats.  But the DVDs.  At least the hard to get ones.  In the end, the household effects did beat the car.  But not by much.  And not if you count the sled.

Storms and Angels

Storms

On the 28th we had quite a storm.  Upstairs, in the computer room, the glass was rattling.  The barbecue blew over.  We thought a neighbour must have made a loud bang on the steps inside (really the only part we can hear), but when Craig went out the next day, there was the barbecue, laying in front of the door, briquettes everywhere.

A stuck taxi.  It seems the wind blows all the snow to our end of the street - then stops.  As you can see, we could hardly see across the street.  A before and after.  Or should it be a "with" and "without?"
 

Our kitchen window during the storm.  And Craig striking a pose. 
      

Angels

Not the adults, mind you.  But the munchkins being sweet and quiet.  These are the only known pictures in existence!  The last one is very rare: this is the first nap Logan has had in a couple of weeks.
    

All is right in the world

Just a quick post to let you know that nothing unexpected happened today.  Neither the FJ nor the household stuff showed up.  It took them 0.5 seconds at (airline) cargo to say that nothing had arrived for us.  They didn't really care whether it was a car or not...  And the "moving guy's" van is still in the shop.  But he'll call around noon tomorrow.

So, any bets on which arrives first?

Catch up time!

Windy and cold...

On the 17th it was cold.  I didn't feel the cold, though, as we didn't go outside that day.  Not even for playgroup.  I looked outside and cancelled anything that involved opening the door!  These are taken between 8:30AM and 9:30AM:

This is what the weather network had to say about the whole thing:

I was surprised to see that it only felt like -18.  It looked a whole lot colder than that!  For something pleasant, though, the Christmas cactus that I bought here (and it seemed like a heck of a deal for $9) got its first (and so far, only) open bloom that day.

In other news....

Late last week a had a conversation with our "moving guy."  I say this in quotes because I've never actually seen him move anything, but he seems to be the owner/guy-in-charge of the company.  If anyone really is in charge.

We covered a few things.  We reviewed the fact that, no, in fact we do not have all our stuff.  We discussed where our stuff might be.  He informed me that the next step was for him to do a walkthrough of the airline's warehouse, then start a claim.  That was pretty much it.  I was left with a lot of questions:  Who starts a claim?  Are the pieces gone forever?  Will he actually walk through the warehouse?  Does he know what he's looking for?  How can he miss a very large orange sled?  Can we do a walkthrough after?  (Well, I was thinking me, actually....  No offense, but men can never seem to find anything!)

In the same day I had the brilliant idea of contacting the company that was shipping our vehicle here and letting them know our new phone number.  Four phone calls later I found out two things.  One, nobody was interested in humouring me by even pretending to take our phone number.  Two, our car has been sitting at a tow truck compound waiting for us to pick it up. 

Tow truck guy: "Oh, it's been sitting here waiting for you to pick it up"

Me: "It's what?"

Tow truck guy: "Well, we don't drive it to you, you know"

Me: (fake laugh) "Yeah, well the ice isn't quite that frozen yet anyway"

Tow truck guy: "Huh?"

Me: (realizing he's not joking) "Um, it has to get on a plane to get to Iqaluit"

Tow truck guy: "Oh, is that what this means about (airline's name) Cargo?"

Me: "Yeah"

Tow truck guy: "We'll drop it off there first thing in the morning."

Me: "Do you need our phone number to give to them?"

Tow truck guy: "Nah."

Click

Sure enough, the airline called in the morning to say they had it and that it might arrive Saturday, but probably Monday or Tuesday.  It's Tuesday night now, and unless it's hiding somewhere (you should all know that's impossible) it isn't here yet.  Colour me surprised!  But since they called, somebody somewhere listened to the voicemail I left.  That's not something that I would usually consider possible, but it just has to be!

Back to the movers...

I called the movers today.  Because I have an IQ over 10, I could tell that he hadn't even thought about us.  His suggestion was that we just go ahead and file a claim for our stuff.  I said, "So, we don't know where it is?"  To which he replied that he didn't have it.  I asked him how the walkthrough went and "do we know what we're looking for?"  Boxes with the number of course.  "Yeah, but the big orange sled, size of boxes, that sort of thing?"  He'd have to get the file out for that....  Anyway, I explained that I really would rather have our stuff because from what I'd heard, we wouldn't get any money until our other stuff came out of storage, and I really didn't want to put out that kind of cash.  And then I asked if the next step was to contact the people on our end.  And he said he'd check it out some more and get back to me.  Now, understand, I've heard that before.  So you know how amazed I was that when we got back from checking the mail, etc, there was a message from him saying that the pieces had been found.  Holy smokes!  First of all, he called me.  Secondly, they found the stuff!  Of course, it can't be delivered until tomorrow because the van was in the shop until 5.  Phew, at least some things are right with the world!  So if - big if - our stuff comes tomorrow, we'll see what may actually have accidentally gone to storage and what made it here.  And which arrives first, the car (remember they thought we'd be all disappointed that it wouldn't get here until WAY after our household effects?) or my pots and pans.

Family time....

One of the bonuses of not being able to go anywhere is that we get to spend a lot of time just hanging out as a family.  Nobody's rushing anywhere and our biggest foray into the outside world is to check the mail or go FJ hunting.

Logan is feeling better now, and as such is much less of a mommy-suck.  In fact the little stinker has developed a giggle that is definitely only for Daddy.  It is the cutest thing!  I am slightly jealous...

Both boys are back to sleeping through the night.  Hooray!  Liam still gets up before the rest of us, but is content to get his cereal and milk out of the fridge and eat, then play with his moonsand, or crawl into our bed for a cuddle.  He and Daddy have gotten into the routine of doing the cereal thing together.  Mommy appreciates the extra sleep and doesn't fall for that.

And I think that's about it for tonight!  I got some class stuff done beforehand, but now it's time for bed.  In case you're wondering why so long between posts, I usually only sit down to do this when there's extra time after the kids are sleeping.  Take care out there!

Some pics of our house

Our house is starting to feel a bit more like home. Having most of our stuff sure helps! It's some evil joke that one of the four pieces still to come is a box with my pots and pans in it.  We're almost ready to start putting up pictures and other homey things.

The living room (from the stairs)

From the kitchen to the living room

The front door is to the left of the TV

From the living room to the kitchen

Around the corner past the closet is the furnace room and other bathroom

The upstairs bathroom

Where did we put our sealift order? In our hall closets, of course!

The first is in the dining room, the second is at the top of the stairs and the third is outside the upstairs bathroom.  I didn't take pictures of under the stairs, but that's where the pop and juice and chips are.  And that is what (hopefully!) a year's worth of food looks like.