It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Once we arrived in Nova Scotia, we had a few errands to run, so on Monday Hallie, Janelle, Neil, and the kids went to Mahone Bay (where Hallie said the weather was amazing and the scenery was picturesque) while Mike stayed at the house grading papers.  Once they got back to the house, the kids had the chance to get settled and get to know everyone. Eliza was cute when offered to share some of Kira’s ice cream. Later in the evening some of us had a rollicking time playing a DVD game version of $100,000 Pyramid. The boys won (yes!).  Neil’s parents brought over a beautiful balsam fir to serve as our Christmas tree.

On Tuesday, Mike holed himself up in the bedroom as he finished grading papers. Hallie, Kathy, Austin, and the kids ran errands and did some Christmas shopping. We took pictures of the kids at Wal-Mart.   

On Wednesday, we went up to Halifax with Janelle. Finding a parking space down on the waterfront was a joke, but we eventually found a spot and set off on our adventures in town. First, we headed up for poutine at European Food Shop on Pizza Corner. Janelle attends college at Dalhousie, and she said the poutine at this college dive was great, especially at 1 in the morning. After trying it, we agree. We then went to the Discovery Centre so the kids could play around in the exhibits and ended our time downtown with a stop at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and another for some ice cream.

He solved it!

On Tuesday, Kira put lights on the tree, and when we got back to the house on Wednesday, we decorated the tree with tinsel and the pewter ornaments from Amos Pewter the Doreys have collected since they first got married. Landon and Eliza both got a kick out of hanging the ornaments, although Eliza seemed more interested in eating them rather than placing them on the tree.

On Thursday morning, Mike and Landon tossed the ball in the backyard so we could take advantage of the relatively warm weather and so Landon could blow off some steam before the predicted snow began to fall. Kathy and Mike took Landon and Eliza to Kathy’s work, where Landon got to test out an International semi truck. Later, they met up with Hallie and Kira, who got their nails done down at the mall. We all headed back to Wal-Mart so the Doreys could have their family pictures. We ended the evening with supper at Swiss Chalet.

We woke up Friday morning to a blanket of snow. What the weatherman predicted would be about two inches rapidly turned into five by morning’s end. The guys went down to Bridgewater to run some errands while Hallie and Landon played some in the snow. While they were gone, the girls went to Papa D’s for donairs and pizza. After the boys came back, Neil and Mike made an improvised Margherita/Greek veggie combo pizza. We engaged in a flurry of present wrapping, listening to music, and watching movies in preparation for Christmas. Landon has really seemed to understand this year what is going on, and he’s excited.

We had a surprise visitor early Saturday morning. Mike came upstairs in the wee hours and was sleeping on the couch to avoid waking the baby. As he was lying there quietly, a small animal hopped on his head and jumped down onto the floor. He could hear the little animal making movements around the Christmas tree and under the love seat. At one point, the two of them looked each other in the eye, and Mike saw that it was about the size of a chipmunk. Not quite sure what to do, Mike just hung out with the rodent for a bit until Austin came out. Once he saw it from its new perch on the tree, Austin identified it as a flying squirrel.

Now you see him (lower right corner) . . . .

Now you don't! (He's the blur on the couch arm.)

The two of them made an attempt to catch the squirrel to no avail. Soon, Kathy,  Neil,  Hallie,  Kira,  and the kids had joined in, with accompanying hijinks worthy of a Griswold family Christmas vacation. Neil, Kira, and Mike spent a half hour chasing the poor critter from tree to floor and back again batting at the tree with a broomstick and a wrapping paper roll before we finally wore the squirrel down and trapped it (Kira deserves the credit for actually getting the beastie into the bucket--quick hands!). Janelle and Kathy later dropped our guest off near town, (hopefully) none the worse for wear.

Trapped!

Careful . . . . Careful!

After our morning adventure, some of us went down to a municipal park (the MARC) to go sledding. Eliza didn't like the cold too well, but Landon took to the slope with gusto. After a few trips up and down the hill, we had our blood pumping and felt less winter chill. The older boys (including Mike) even braved "Suicide Hill" a few times.

Back at the house, folks had started preparing dinner. In the mean time, the kids played around:

After a delicious Christmas supper, we sent the little ones off to bed and awaited Santa's arrival. More on what happened after he came next week!