Movies Galore

We are into the movie time of Christmas vacation. I love watching movies and with the temperatures making it unbearable to go out for any length of time, we have taken to glueing ourselves in front of the TV. In the last few days we have watched lots of movies. Hubby can only take movies so much before he starts to get a little on the loonie side so while it has been a marathon of movies it hasn't been our best marathon by any stretch of the imagination.

We watched 88 Minutes last night with Al Pacino. It was a fast paced murder mystery that I would say was high on tension and well done but the plot was nothing extraordinary. Before that we watched Raising Helen which was a light hearted transition movie. On a scale of 1 - 10 it rated about 6. Typical story of a person who goes through life changes and realizes that she likes the changes in the end.

We watched Dutchess which is a period piece with Kiera Knightly. Quite well done based on a true story. Before that was Grease 2 Bleck! But it passed the time and you need a good mix of things to entertain you. Before that was Pirates of the Caribean.... we've seen it about 30 times now. Before that was Vanity Fair with Reece Weatherspoon. Well done period piece again. How did those women back then ever put up with their slavery to men? Beats me. Then it was Girls Just Want To Have Fun which made me feel old because Helen Hunt was about fourteen years old in it as was Sarah Jessica Parker. Very corny movie super for teens. Before that was Hilary Duff in Raise Your Voice. The girls liked that one since it was a typical teeny bopper movie. Before that was Prince Caspian which strayed from the booksomewhat. I would think that it would make C.S. Lewis turn over in his grave but I liked it all the same. I'm a complete fan of the Narnia series of books. So today we are going to watch Leatherheads which is a story about Football in the thirties....

If you have suggestions for movies that you have watched let me know as I would love to get your opinion on good movies. Just leave your opinion in the comments area of this post.

Holy Sheep! It's cold!

I look out my kitchen window and cringe at the mercury dropping. It is a whopping -37 this morning and then I go to my living room window and look out at my poor sheep and alpacas who are suffering in these bitter temperatures. Hubby went out a few days ago and built the alpacas a windbreak with square bails of hail. They seem to quite like it. But they are cold. They are very cold. Even with those wonderfully warm blankets of wool covering their bodies they must still suffer from the cold. We feed them twice a day but sometimes food doesn't make you warm. The sheep are not interested in the barn at all which is what I figured. It will come in handy down the road in spring when we are lambing.

I'm sure humankind was not meant for these kind of temperatures. Like lizards we should know our place and stay in warmer climates. I could definitely relate to a lizard on a rock in some tropical locale with my back roasting in the sun. Open my lips and stick out my tongue and grab a bite as it flies by. Nourishment, warmth and relaxation all combine to make the perfect life. I'm sure my alpacas were trying to tell me the same thing this morning as I fed them their daily quota of clover.

I wonder if it is these extreme cold temperatures which we have to endure each year that makes spinners and weavers so in love with their woolies. I can't imagine how spinners and weavers in the southern climes can manage to justify their fixation on fleece when they don't have cold temps to use as an excuse. "Darling I need to knit myself a new alpaca bikini." just doesn't sound as good as, "Dear, think how lovely that alpaca hat with the ear flaps will feel when the temperature dips to -40 next winter."

I also want to know if Murphy came to visit your house this festive season too. I mean the kids have been off from school for two weeks and I am wondering why the week they finished school the temperatures dipped below -20 and stayed there the whole time they have been off from school. Monday the schedule gets back to normal and the kids will be back in school. I just checked the forecast and the temperatures are supposed to start rising again... back up to minus single digits. So the poor teachers are going to get wired kids that have not been out through the door for two weeks and have had lots of Christmas chocolate. Murphy is certainly not their best friend either.

The one thing I can safely say is.... thank God the days are getting longer. Hopefully January will pass quickly and the temps will come around to something a little happier.

By the way.... what do you think of the blue and yellow of my blog for these frigid days of winter?

Happy hibernating to all..... I'm off to work on my alpaca sox to keep my toesies warm.

A Nice Break

Well It has been a week since I last posted anything here and I'm starting to feel like I'm having DTs. Christmas has always been a trying time at best and to be honest I'm glad it is over. All the entertaining is done. And while I love to cook for my guests I always feel like a bulldozer has run over me when I'm finished.

By the way Happy New Year to all those who read this. Last night I entertained my last guests for the season. Eight of the Candian Rangers came to my house for supper on their way through to FSJ on a recce for a snowmobile trip that will happen in late January. Eight burly men with my family of four meant a very tight squeeze in my very tiny little house. It all went off well. I served Lake Trout in white wine and sauted veggies with the good old standard of mashed spuds for the main course. With Raisin, Cranberry, Bread Pudding with Bailey's in it for dessert, no belly felt empty afterwords. I think they enjoyed it and were most appreciative that they didn't have to eat sandwiches from a package that they got at a service station since there were no restaurants open on New Year's Eve in our little town. They were out the door by 9 p.m. which meant that my family was able to ring in the New Year with just ourselves. How perfect is that!

There has been a lot of entertaining here over the last week like most people, I'm sure. We had a open house on the 29th that started at 9 a.m. and ended at midnight. We entertained many of our friends that day. Hubby and I enjoyed our 17th anniversary in the last week too. While we didn't do anything spectacular (we will plan something great later in the spring) we did have a good day. Entertainment wise though, the day that stood out as the best was the 27th when a close friend of mine and her DH came for dinner and we had a lovely time with them. Before that there were wonderful gifts under the tree, though Hubby's still haven't arrived in the mail..... but that's a whole other post. Christmas dinner was held at my parents house as my father was not well enough to come to my house. We cooked the turkey and lugged the great big thing in to their house while they cooked the vegetables.

Hubby is off with the Canadian Rangers for FSJ today and I'm not sure if he will be back tonight but I'm taking the leftovers to the parents house to spend the afternoon with them. We have a couple of evenings out with friends at their house over the next few days and then we will celebrate Old Christmas Day on the 6th. That rounds out the festive season quite nicely. The tree will come down on the 6th as it always does. We will hang our antique stockings on the 5th so that we will have them to open before school. Then when everyone is home in the evening we will have Christmas carols on the stereo, a nice cooked pork roast with dessert for dinner, open our gifts and take down the tree and decorations. The house is put back to rights and Christmas is forgotten for another year. I actually have come to enjoy Old Christmas Day better than the 25th of December. It is much more peaceful. Probably because there is no pressure and no expectation. I always save some Christmas presents for that day and of course we open tiny stockings that have nothing other than sweets in them. The shopping is done before Christmas so no rushing in stores when you really don't want to be there.

We started this family tradition about two years ago when the daughters discovered that Santa had forgotten to remove the boxes with the bills still attached that their gifts had come in. "How could that be when Santa made the gifts at the North Pole?"

Let me tell you it is very difficult to watch the magic of Christmas crumble on your child's face when they find the boxes and receipts for the gifts Santa had supposedly brought. The truth came out and while Daughter #1 was ready for the truth at 11 yrs of age.... Daughter #2 was not at 9 yrs of age. Christmas had been ruined pretty much, and so we decided to make Old Christmas day magic, celebrating it as a more special day than the 25th, remembering that Santa was not what Christmas was truely about but the Baby Jesus and nobody really knows what day He was born on. Old Christmas day is also the same as Ukranian Christmas. I think it stems from the orthodox tradition. It is most commonly known as the 12th day of Christmas.

What ever your traditions are, I hope that you have enjoyed the celebrations and from my family to you, ALL THE BEST FOR 2009!

Christmas Family Greetings

The great big fist of winter has hit
Time to get out the scarves, hats and mits.
I find this year I don’t have as much time,
To figure out Christmas poems that rhyme.

But I’ll do my best to give you a clue,
About all that has happened and all that we do.
The first big thing I have to say,
Is I became ‘redundent’ and lost all my pay.

The College disappeared and so did my job,
It didn’t surprise me I didn’t even sob.
Businesses are closing in our little town,
But new ones are opening so I just won’t frown.

I’ve started my own called ‘Ye Olde Batt’
I’m milling wool, so how about that!
I’ve bought myself sheep and alpacas too,
Well you all know me, I need something to do.

So I am a shepherd with my very own flocks,
We give vaccines, clip nails and shear off their locks.
When I studied Philosophy at good old MUN,
I never thought I’d be having such fun.

The kids are impressed and Mike too, I think,
I do have to say that he didn’t even blink.
I want 2 alpacas, is what I first said,
But then they’re so cute, it just went to my head.

We have 16 animals, I’m breeding them now,
And Mike keeps on smiling, but he wants a sow.
I exclaimed, “You want a great ugly pig?
They’re smelly and gross and nasty and big!”

You’ll have to wait till I write next year’s poem,
or follow this blog as I grumble and moan,
I’m sure if he wants, we’ll have one next year,
Then our small farm will be really in gear.

Even Leah has gotten in on the farm,
“A horse,” she says, “A horse in the barn!”
She took up riding, on Rosie the mare,
with lessons each week, she hasn’t a care.

She has a good teacher and just loves to ride,
She sits on that horse with the greatest of pride.
Her school work too is good we can say,
We enter the teens this year and I pray!

Both of my girls give me wonderful pride,
They’re lovely and polite I cannot deny.
I worry the teen years will be a bad shock
But so far so good, my daughters just ‘rock’!

Shellsea too keeps on doing so well,
Her marks are tremendous, her art is just swell.
She wrote a story that gave me such pride,
Her talent is growing and can’t be denied.

So from this farm as the year passes by,
This Season of Light with God, is a joy,
We wish you all now, the gifts He bestows,
Joy, peace, and hope, with blessings that grow.

Merry Christmas with love from the Nichols Family

Ta Da

Here are the final results of all our renovations.

Ok so I like the red floor and especially with the new rug.



I added a little conversation area in the corner with the Christmas villiage above it in the window.



The computer is tucked nicely into the corner.



We always decorate the rail of the steps... it makes us feel like Christmas is all around us.



And finally the new table fits perfectly under the steps with the kitchen close by.
Perfect! I'm all done. How perfect is that?

Sleep In Heavenly Peace

The house has been in such a turmoil lately that I sometimes think that we will never get back to normal. I think that even the cats and dogs are beginning to feel the same way too. The cats slink around and every time there is a scrape of furniture they dive for the nearest safe spot. Duff, our big Wolf/Husky has taken to sleeping upstairs at the top of the steps as she wants to be near us but not when the house is so crazy.

Add into the mix, one large granddaughter dog, and you have complete chaos. A few years ago Duff found herself pregnant after a romantic interlude with a Black Lab. When the pups were born, we found that we had difficulty getting homes for all the them of which there were seven. Hubby began to plead with our friends to take a puppy. And so the Buddha odyssey began. Buddha belongs to very good friends of ours and when they agreed to take one of the puppies we agreed that we would dog sit when they travel..... they are now in New Zealand and we are stuck for the millionth time with another large dog in our very tiny house. It is -32 degrees and you can't leave her outside since she has short hair. Now over the years we have developed a way of dealing with this particular problem. Buddha sleeps under the steps. She completely disappears down there. But this time when she came to visit, the new kitten was not sure what to make of this new big dog.

Buddha is a wimp and so the cats and Tootsie have taken over her bed in this chaos.

On Sunday after the Daughters had a birthday party which they attended, we decided that the Christmas tree was necessary to add to the mix. The chaos in the house, was almost under control and we needed to add a tree to the craziness! Having found no tree in FSJ to buy that didn't look like it belonged in the house of the sevin dwarfs, we felt that we had better go looking for the perfect tree. Daughter #2 insisted that we cut a Pine and so it was while I was scarfing down breakfast that my eyes landed on the half eaten by a moose Pine tree that Hubby has been nursing along for the last three years. This tree (and several others in our yard) had been nibbled below the deer line (as I call it) three winters ago when the deer and moose were starving. When spring finally rolled around the tree and several others looked somewhat like a giant Q-Tip. A long spindly trunk with a tiny tuft of pine needles at the top. In three years the top has grown to quite a size. When I peered through the gloom on Sunday morning I spied that tree and made the decision to convince Hubby that with time so short before Christmas, it would be a good tree for our Christmas celebrations. He was quite willing to cut it down since it meant he didn't have to go trekking through the woods in -32 degrees.

We cut the tree down and took it into the kitchen to thaw. This was a big mistake as it was frozen with a lot of frost on it and that melting frost makes large pools of water, which on a laminate floor will curl the edges of each individual board. I am not happy.... but the flooring will be changed in the spring when we take on our renovations to the house..... When we got the tree in the stand after the church pageant on Sunday night we dicovered that this tree was larger than we had imagined...... argh! After 8 hours of sleeplessness I got up in the morning to once again freak out the animals with another furniture move. By last night it was done. The living room will not be changed again. It all looks good, even if I do say so myself, as you will see in my next post.

Flax Seed Fruit Cake by anonymous

Mix in your largest bowl - 11 cups of chopped dried fruit and 6 cups
of chopped nuts. Options are: citrus peel, cranberries, dates,
currants, raisins, dried apricots, candied ginger and walnuts,
almonds, sunflower seeds. Drizzle over this mix - half cup of brandy,
liqueur, sherry or other powerful stimulant/preservative that will
soak into the fruit and nuts. Leave this half a day or more.

Gently boil 6 tablespoons of flax seeds in 2 cups of water, then let
sit - this makes the "glue". Slightly heat to make it flow nicely - 1
and a half cups honey. Add 3 teaspoons vanilla, 1 teaspoon salt.

Stir into the fruit mixture - 3 cups flour - I use half and half -
white and spelt or whole wheat. Add the honey mixture and the flax
mixture and stir with a BIG spoon.

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Line 5 loaf tins with plain brown paper and
rub the insides with margarine. Pack cake mixture tightly in the pans
(they'll be only a half to one third full). Cover tightly with foil
and bake 1 hour. Then uncover and bake another 10-20 minutes.
YUM! These keep all winter in the fridge, wrapped in foil or in
brandy-soaked linens if we want to get back to the linen theme! They
cut well into non-crumbly blocks of energy food.

Happy Holidays!