December Days - board games!

Tough decisions are about to be made...

I grew up playing board games. It was always a special treat when our whole family sat down to play a game. Things usually got a little bit silly and a lot of great memories were created. Even as teenagers we loved to take time to play a game of Wizard or Monopoly (although we were sure our brother was cheating because he won so often).
Since  Mike and I married we have discovered German board games and love the different style and unique game play. Christmas always includes a new German board game to try. The first year we discovered German board games we both went out and bought a copy of Carcassone for each other. Since then we've chosen our new Christmas game together to avoid having to return one!
Our anniversary and Mike's birthday usually include a couple of hours playing one of our favourite games while enjoying special snacks and each other's company. We always have a hard time choosing which games we will take on our houseboat trip and end up taking more than we could ever play.

She can hardly wait to say "Boo" and scare me when she gets to the top.

This past year it has been a lot of fun to see our little Sweet Pea learning to play board games. Last Christmas she received quite a few great games and we've had so much fun playing them with her.
A Hello Kitty Trouble-style game was left on a houseboat this summer. If it was yours, thank you! Our little girl and Grandma have enjoyed popping the die and making their way around the board  quite a bit over the last few months.

Will we be able to beat Daddy?

For her birthday Mike found her first German board game called Spooky Stairs, chosen because you get to say 'Boo!' when you get to the top of the stairs.
 We've already created so many fun memories and now that the houseboats aren't keeping us busy December has been the beginning of several months to enjoy playing a lot more board games together.
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December Days - Snow

For the past twenty years or so snow has not been a certainty in December. In fact a few years ago we joked about putting one of the houseboats back in the water for a spin on Christmas day just to say we'd done it. This year has been a totally different story. The snow came early and even piled up enough to play in. Lake Temagami is frozen over and we've been skiing on it while others have been sledding and ice fishing. And the snow just keeps on coming.

There's just something about snow. Yes, it's miserable to drive in sometimes and it can be an unwelcome make work project when you need to go somewhere. But it's beautiful. Whether the trees are covered in a heavy blanket of snow or lightly frosted the whole world becomes a new place, a wonderland that can take your breath away. Winter is probably my favourite season (although by the time April comes I will agree that it is time for a change).

Yes, it's cold and it's a bit more work to get ready to go outside. But it's so much fun especially with a three year old. There's sliding, rolling, burying, skiing, and fort building to be done. There are snow angels and snow men to be made. It's soft to lay in and look up at the clear blue sky or watch the clouds float by. While most people are groaning with each successive dumping of snow I'm marveling at it's beauty and looking forward to all the fun we'll have in it. There's just something about snow...

December Days - Skiing!

One of my most memorable Christmas gifts as a child was the year we received cross country skis. I had done some skiing on my Grandpa's big old wooden skis but now I had skis that were my size. Our whole family received skis and now we could go together. Our family spent many happy Saturdays enjoying fresh air, trails, white birch trees against brilliant blue skies and laughs over my little brother's escapades as he tried to outdo us all.

Last winter our little girl started talking about wanting to ski but I thought she was too young. Finally at the end of the season we went to a nearby ski club which offered free rentals of sleds I could pull behind me so Sweet Pea could experience skiing. The whole time she kept asking where her skis were. When we returned to the chalet I discovered that they also offered free ski rentals to anyone under six so we borrowed a pair and were off to ski around the chalet a couple of times. She was so excited. The whole time she kept exclaiming, "I'm doing it! I'm skiing!"

We haven't had enough snow to do a lot of skiing in December the last few years but winter has certainly set in early. We've been practicing our skiing since the beginning of the month which makes Mommy happy.
This winter I am looking forward to doing a lot more skiing, especially since it's one of my favourite winter past times. Our toy library actually had skis we could borrow and we've been practicing first in the driveway and now on the frozen lake. Today Sweet Pea wanted to go in the forest but I said we would try that next time.
I think she might be ready to try a short ski at Finlayson Point Provincial Park. If the weather warms up a bit over the next couple of days I think we'll give it a try.

December Days - bird watching

Crisp cold air. 

Snow covered branches everywhere. 

The call of the chickadee, the nuthatch, the Canada jay and the bluejay. 

I love watching the birds out our big front window. They are an entertaining part of our day as they come and go taking turns and deciding who will be first at the feeder this time. 

Abby loves to get as close to the feeder as she can, hoping to catch one of those little birds. I think we've convinced her that she'll be more likely to have one in her hand if she stands still and waits for them to come to her. She's a patient little girl and more than once she has sat in the garden for 20 minutes enjoying the birds flying and landing so close to her she could almost touch them. 

Maybe one day she'll actually have one land on her hand.

December days - Christmas baking

Sweet Pea using the mixer for the first time - the noise used to frighten her.

mmmm... licking beaters is one of the best things about baking cookies

Everyone loves something different about Christmas. For me one of the big highlights has always been baking special cookies. My Grandma was the cookie queen. She always had cookies on hand and always had us come to cut out spicy gingerbread and melt in your mouth shortbread cookies. Mike's favourite christmas baking includes peanut butter balls, Annemarie's Christmas cakes cherry surprises. Christmas baking is a little bit different now that Abby and I are gluten free and I have to be careful how much sugar I eat. Cookies are definitely my weakness and I find it so hard to not devour them all that I don't do nearly as much baking as I used to. But Annemarie found a good gingerbread cookie recipe that we enjoyed making last week. It uses only half the sugar but still tastes great and little Sweet Pea got to use some of our cookie cutters for something other than playdough. We started with bigger cookies but our girl loves little things and the smallest cutters were her favourite. Really it's a good thing I guess because now we can eat three and tell ourselves it's the same as eating only one!

December Days -snow angels

I can't say that I remember snow angels being a huge deal. I remember making them but I was always disappointed that I ended up with footprints in them and a simply unrecognizable something in the snow. Somehow I just couldn't get the hang of it.

But our little Sweet Pea, now that's another story. Snow angels are exciting, glorious even. As soon as there is a dusting of snow she can't wait to get outside to make snow angels wherever she can. We had to bundle up before breakfast one morning because we just couldn't wait to lay down in that beautiful white snow and create a whole new series of angels.
She's renewed my joy in stretching out in the soft white snow and creating flowing garments for my angels while enjoying the bright blue sky or catching snowflakes on my bare face. Don't worry, I've figured out how to get up without destroying my creations and I help our little girl to her feet so she can enjoy and admire their beauty.

It really wouldn't be winter without snow angels.

The beginning of another houseboating adventure and a new shrimp recipe

Delicious shrimp and apples just waiting to be eaten

This year’s houseboating adventures didn’t begin exactly as planned but this time I’m actually okay with it. We had hoped to leave home later in the afternoon on Saturday but the wind began to blow and we were tired. I was even thankful when Mike said maybe we wouldn’t leave until the next morning. By evening there was a severe storm watch for just north of us that would possible include Temagami with predictions of winds up to 90km/h! Yes, I was definitely thankful to still be at home.

The only awkward thing about not leaving as planned was that all of our clothes and food were already loaded up. So we had supper on the houseboat while it was parked at the dock and pretended that we were already at our first stop.

My menu for the week includes a few new things to try on the barbecue. We all love cooking and trying new things. Abby especially loves to measure and mix. 

A delicious meal that we all agreed we'd eat again!

My first supper consisted of something that could be made very quickly on the barbecue since we probably wouldn’t arrive at our first campsite until it was really past suppertime. I was originally going to fry shrimp to go with rice and asparagus but then I came across this recipe in a gluten free e-mailing that I get and I had to try it. We all agreed that it was a make again recipe and I wished I had more apples to go with the shrimp that were still in the freezer at home. It was fast. It was easy. It was delicious. And who doesn’t love shrimp? I didn’t use jumbo shrimp but I always pick up the biggish sized shrimp when they go on sale so we have them on hand. Since we were still at home I cooked the rice in our rice cooker. I just can’t seem to get the hang of cooking good rice in a pot. Besides it’s so nice to just turn it on and forget about it.

After supper we pretended we didn’t have anything else to do and just went swimming for a bit. Much to Abby’s dismay we decided to sleep in our house just in case the weather network's predictions were correct and the winds decided to get up even higher and loads of hail decided to fall. In the end the weather network was wrong once again and the storm didn’t happen at all. We woke up to a beautifully calm, cool morning with the wind behind us as we set out for our houseboat vacation.

Grilled Shrimp and Apple Skewers

3 TB honey
3 TB olive oil
1 TB fresh basil
1 TB strawberry jam
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 clove garlic, minced
2 TB red wine vinegar
1 TB lemon juice
2 tsp. white sugar
2 gala apples
16 jumbo shrimp
Refrigerate the shrimp in marinade 30 minutes. Skewer shrimp and apples alternately. Barbecue 5 minutes per side on medium-high, basting with remaining marinade.