BC Christmas

Friesen Gathering

Christmas with my siblings

The Loewen Gathering

our christmas

It's a crappy picture, but it shows off our new 'when we go home for Christmas' Christmas tree (I don't bother setting up all our decorations the year we head to BC).

Our new stockings:

I made these, and I was so eager to get them done that I completely overlooked sewing any kind of loop on them so we could hang them. That's why they're sandwiched under a book. haha.

I wish we had more pics (and ones where my hair didn't look so awful), but we don't. Michael's gifts to me this year left me speechless. That box is a personal cutter thing that can do many cool things! The shelves are ones that I've wanted since visiting my cousin Debbie back in 2010 over Easter. In November Michael and I were at Ikea in Minneapolis and I wanted to get them, and he said we couldn't. It was almost a really terrible fight, but I finally accepted the fact that I wasn't getting them this time around either. Meanwhile, he'd been sneaky and had our friends buy them for us (do you know how bummed I was when they bought the exact shelves that I had been wanting?), and then he wrapped them up and gave them to me for Christmas. Well done, Michael, well done!

Welcome to Kasey John Enns!

Schultz Christmas

Caribou Lake

This year was a little different than a traditional Thanksgiving, in that Henry and Shirley were not able to join us, but we still went.

Instead we had other special guests! Karl & Bea and Dan & Jenn!

We had Thanskgiving dinner, Supper Central style.

Beautiful table! Delicious food.

We also did a fair bit of lounging around.

Some fishing and swimming.

And quadding, but I can't find pics of that.

Harvest 2011

My entire post just got deleted. It was a long one. Sorry, but the second one is going to have a lot less writing.

We had a very hot and dry summer, which means that some things in my garden thrived, and other things didn't. The part that didn't was the tomatoes, corn, lettuce and carrots.

Clearly, the part that did was the peppers.

Lots and lots of hot peppers, which, as you can see Michael is very excited about.

Oh, should talk about the carrots. Remember Mr Carrot Pants from last year?

Well, apparently, he grew up over the winter. Haha. He also found a wife with pretty sexy legs.

Apparently they had a busy winter and produced a whole family! Mom, Dad, baby and kiddo!

We had some other freakish carrots too.

The twist.

Chicken foot?

Oh, back to the peppers. Since Michael has been slowly but thoroughly enjoying his pickled peppers from last year, we decided to can them again.

Step 1: face the daunting task of slicing. all. those. peppers.

Step 2: mixing them in my sink because I had not other vessel large enough.

Step 3: Michael made a thing for the bottom of my pot out of coat hangers to keep the jars from bouncing.

Step 4: Realize we clearly do not have enough jars and make a mad dash before Canadian Tire closes in 30 minutes.

Step 5: Admire the finished product. Wonder how long it will take to eat this many jars, since it took a year to eat the 12 from last season.

If you like really hot pickled peppers, let me know...we're sharing!

Men's Retreat

So, really, Michael should be posting this, but since that means it might not happen for a long while, I'm doing it.

Michael has become really involved with planning events for the men's ministry at church. He's very good at it and they've had some great turn outs, jealous women and loads of fun.

Here's a few highlights from the 'build-off':

Step 1: build a raft with supplies earned during geo cache.

Step 2: hope it's sea worthy

Step 3: begin race by carrying raft into water

Step 4: make sure you know which direction the race course is.

Birthday Celebration

Michael's Mom turned 50 this September so we celebrated with bowling as a family and then going to a dinner theatre show (corner gas).


Bowling was a blast.


At the show.

Mom gets to dance on stage!

peaches, lots and lots of peaches.

I drove out to Austin for the day to hang out with my mother and sister in law. We spent the day processing peaches. Jam, pies and canned.

Cate helped with peeling blanched peaches.

We used every available bowl and pot.

Doesn't it look delicious?

a new adventure!

Michael and I signed up to be part of our church's dragon boat team this year. Cancer Society hosts dragon boat races as a way to raise money for cancer research.

It was a lot of fun to try something new together.

Team photo.

Practice on the river. Waiting to get in our boat. Zipped & Clipped! (not being completely done up before you were anywhere near the water had serious consequences...something about a paddle getting shoved somewhere).

Race day. Our green shirts made us incredibly hard to miss.

Waiting to get in our boat for our first qualifying race.

Waiting to get into position.

Paddles up!

We ended up doing quite well and even won a trophy!

Chickpea Pesto Pasta

So, I was gifted some basil seedlings from our neighbour, which I planted in my garden. It grew wild. I decided to try making pesto and put some of it to use.

Then I had to come up with a dinner quick one night, so I decided to use said pesto (which I had frozen a few batches of), cook some pasta and in an effort to add protein, I dumped in a can of chickpeas. It was surprisingly tasty!

Doesn't it look yummy!

Pesto is way easier to make than you think, by the way.

weekend gettaway #2

Once again, some wonderful friends invited us to join them at their cottage. We totally relaxed and just soaked up the sun. Totally wonderful!

Around the outside of the place.

Breakfast.

The dock.