Matthi's First Christmas

There was still lots of snow on Christmas Eve and it didn't go away for Christmas.  We had below zero temperatures as well.

We were privileged to spend Christmas Eve and Day with Nathan, Tara, Orson, Liam, Keaton, Lochlan and Matthias.  What is Christmas if not grandchildren? 

Matthi was born in March.  I can't believe he is 9 months old already.  The time has flown.

Last night we spent time with all our children on google+.  It was rather noisy and I didn't hear much of the conversation, but it was good to see them all together.

We hope you all had a very joyous Christmas and we wish you a wonderful 2012!

Forecast - Green Christmas

For the past month or so the forecast has been for a green Christmas in our area and that was alright with me as I prefer roads without snow.  Well this morning it started to snow.  Bob shoveled the driveway about 10:00 a.m. and then went for a walk and took a few pictures in the neighbourhood.

About 300 p.m. Nathan and Orson came and shoveled the driveway again and cleaned off the car.  As soon as they left, the snowplow came by and plugged up our driveway with a big ridge of snow.  Lucky for us our wonderful neighbour got his big snow blower out and opened our driveway for us. 

Since our last post we have attended the ward party where Orson played the bagpipes on the program and Liam and Keaton were in the Primary part of the program.  Bob gave a talk in Church on "The Second Coming".  We had the young elders at our home for supper one night and we had supper at the Robinsons (The Temple President) one night.  We spent some time with Tara and Nathan's family.  They had supper with us one Sunday and we went to their home the next Sunday.

They were to change the Temple from propane to natural gas this past week; they got just about finished and they didn't have enough parts.  So now they have to wait until after New Years to finish.  Today was the last day at the Temple until after Christmas.

Karen and Ron Murphy's grandaughter (Lena and Brent Purnell's daughter) was at the Temple tonight.  She married a young man from the Maritimes.  Last night and tonight were very slow at the Temple - tonight only 7 patrons for the whole evening.

Some of the Nova Scotians say that the snow could be all gone by Christmas, but I don't think that is possible!

The Leaning Tree

There is a tree in our backyard that leans over the deck.  It began to lean some years ago during Hurricane Juan.  The house owners were advised to cut the tree down, but the lady of the house didn't want the tree cut down.  I am sure that it is going to come crashing down on the deck sometime and I just hope that it won't be until after we vacate the house.

Today we have been experience winds with gusts above 100 k.  The house is shaking.  I videoed the tree in the wind.

December Already?

We attended a family home evening group on Monday evening.  All that snow that came in November miraculously disappeared overnight Monday.

Tuesday we had district meeting, but I left in the middle of role playing and went to the family history library to look at a film that I ordered in.

We went to Halifax twice this week.  On Thursday we used the mission van and hauled a couple of bed frames over to a missionary apartment.  Bob installed blinds on one window and we got the beds up on frames and got back to Dartmouth in time to go to the Temple.

Friday was very relaxing.  We took the ferry over to Halifax and did a little shopping and had lunch there.  The trees along the harbour were covered with burlap, the clock had scaffolding around it and the ticket office for Theodore Tugboat was closed for the season.

There is an intriguing island in the harbour called Georges Island.  Although it has been named a National Historical site, it is not open to the public.  It is supposed to open by 2014, but we will be long gone by then.    It once had a fort called Fort Charlotte on it.  Some of the  Acadians were kept there before they  were expelled from the Maritimes to the Thirteen Colonies in the middle of the 18th century