One week until Christmas

Can you believe it is less than a week until Christmas?  Today you get the random version of thoughts in my head.

It's literally been 17 days of being sick and I am finally just starting to feel somewhat normal again.  My energy is zapped though, and with the preparations for Christmas, I don't have much left for anything else.  Daniel's foot is slowly getting better, but he still can't walk a lot, so I am taking the dog out, doing the groceries, and helping however else I can.

I really still can't believe that we actually live in Calgary.  With the holiday approaching, and realizing this will be our first Christmas outside of BC as a family, I am still in shock.  I mean, look at this photo.

We have had snow on the ground for 22 days!!!  We built these snowmen on Nov. 26th.  I have never, ever in my life seen a snowman last longer than 5 days maximum in BC.  It always melts, or (more classically) gets rained away.

Also, the lake has frozen over and is open for skating.  I'm not sure why, but I never imagined living somewhere that got this cold.  It was always a far away dream that I never expected to experience.  Now we have bought our kids skates and hope to get out there this break. It is just so neat living in a new climate.   I am finally starting to understand the concept of the Chinook.  Even though we have snow on the ground, today the temperature felt much more like a BC Christmas.   I'm a bit sad that we likely won't have "fresh" snow for Christmas but I'm happy to have warm temperatures so that we can get outside and enjoy the beauty that Calgary has to offer in winter.

Christmas is seriously so exciting with kids around!  Every year is just keeps getting better.  This year, the kids are literally vibrating with energy.  Christmas is being celebrated all around them.  There are special things at school.  They are many church parties.  They have an Advent calendar and each day they are counting down the days.  They helped with most of the preparations, decorating and baking.

This is the first year they have really asked about Santa, and while I am a bit of a Grinch when it comes to celebrating Santa, we are keeping it a bit mysterious this year, just to build the excitement.  I am very determined to help them understand the real meaning of Christmas though, and I have attempted to bring that into all our festivities.  It already has been truly special, and the best is yet to come.