Christmas was spent in Manitoba this year, although it was our year to travel to BC (I couldn't get the time off work). So we celebrated with the Schultz Family.
Here are all of our lovely faces.
This is us opening presents...
This is Michael and Stuart enjoying the fresh snow outside (Michael is also trying out Dad's new John Deer tractor).
Michael and I got to spend Christmas morning at our house. That was fabulous. Since this was our year to be in BC, we went with a fake tree for the first time ever (courtesy of friends of ours who traded us for our live tree stand). The advantage is that this one had a straight trunk and didn't fall over or require us to tie it to the wall.
New iPod, meet old iPod. This is what Michael got me for Christmas. Isn't that wild, the different in size? I felt like the new one was going to slide right out of my hand!
Michael got more woodworking tools and a great tool bag for tools that stay in the house (admittedly, I benefit from this one as well, since now I can always find a hammer or a tape measure).
Our dear friends K&P had finally had their baby. We got to meet her at the hospital. Of all the babies I've ever seen at a day old, I think this might be the cutest.
Michael and I have been talking about taking a little trip south to do some shopping. We have been saving up money to do it, and with a little gift we got from my Mom, we decided we had enough to make the trip worth it.
The spoils from our weekend of shopping. Thanks Mom!
It looks totally ridiculous when it's all piled on the couch like that. Would you believe me if I told you our feet ached a lot after this weekend?
Can you tell what's wrong with this photo? It's a picture of the inside of my freezer.
Yup, you got it. EXPLODED beer bottles!
This is what you get when someone puts a couple beers in the fridge to cool them off quickly and share them with a friend...and then gets so distracted that he someone forgets about them until the next day.
That is the bottom of my freezer.
What fun!
Dan came to visit us, which was really exciting. When you have lived and shared your house with someone for three years, you miss them when they are gone. We were enjoying some cheese cake (I think), that we knew Jenn would be really sad about missing out on, so we pretended to feed some to her photo.
Dan hanging out with Katrina at our place.
It was great to get to see Dan. Too bad Jenn couldn't come too. Next time!
It's hard to believe, but Michel and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary this year. So, we decided to capitlize on the long weekend and do a little get away. We tried to find a place sort of like where we spent our wedding night & 1st anniversary (check out this place). So, we went to a place called Pinewood Lodge. Which was also very nice.
A bed with rose petals, nice.
the inside of the chalet, bed in the loft.
The living space.
The weather was beautiful, even though it was the middle of November, so we went for a walk, and ended up spending a good chunk of time on this bridge throwing rocks at the frozen ice. Not the kind of thing you would expect from to married adults, but that's what we did.
Another view of the inside.
It was so nice to get away and just be not at home, where we could forget about the pressures of life for a few days and totally veg out (how on earth should I be spelling that?). It was hard to come back to the real world.
This has definitely become a tradition, doing Thanksgiving with my Winnipeg parents, Henry & Shirley. It's a really nice one if you ask me, but then again, I love family traditions.
This year, my Dad joined us, so that was special. 
We also had to find substitutes for Dan & Jenn, who have moved away. 
So Karl & Bea joined us for this particular weekend. 
We did the usual kind of stuff. Reading, eating and I of course indulged in some knitting. 
The weather was also reasonably nice, so there was some exploring to do (the old abandoned cabin) and the quads came with too.
Karl enjoys fishing so he did some of that. 
We even ate turkey, just not in the traditional format. Sorry, no picture of that. 
I don't have a lot of great photos of what the place looked like, but it was great. A beautiful fall day, with a nice breeze, not too many people. 
Michael enjoying our lunch (I know it doesn't look like it, but he did, I promise).
We rode around the trails, and then enjoyed laying in the grass under a tree and chatting. A lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
The flower boxes on the deck:
The garden box, where we grew veggies (the big bushy thing is the tomatoes, which grew totally wild and covered the bell peppers and basil to the point that they died):
And here is some of the stuff we got to eat from the garden (hot peppers were actually grown in the front yard flower beds):
I had so many tomatoes, I gave a lot away because I couldn't keep up with eating them. By the end of the summer, I was actually kinda sick of them (keep in mind that I had to eat them myself, Michael doesn't like tomatoes). 
We also enjoyed some traditional camping food, such as s'mores:
One night we had a visitor. Something brushed up against Bea's tent. At first we though it was Michael because he was not in the tent, but then he came back and claimed to not have been goofing around. We weren't too sure. But then it happened again after all of us were in our tents. Then we heard chewing noises. So, the guys got out to explore and discovered a skunk eating some kind of scraps that had fallen underneath our picnic table. Later, when Bea and I went to the bathroom in the middle of the night we saw mama skunk and her three babies walking down the road...luckily no one scared her enough to cause her to share her odour with us (although I slept in fear of this all night long). 
One of my roommates from Capernwray emailed me to say they were going to be in the neighbourhood and wanted to come visit. So, Aimee, Atticus & Van came to see us for a few days (perfect timing too, our basement was empty so we had lots of room). 
Dan and Jenn moved into our basement three years ago, as virtual strangers. After sharing our house with them, and many meals, they are not just tenants but good friends. It is sad to see them go, but we wish them all the best as they settle into life in Abbotsford!
Saying Goodbye in the wee hours of the morning.
Bye Dan & Jenn! See you soon!
