Earlier on in the year, I established a choir at Ralston School. It was quite a challenge as many of the children had not sung in a group before, so I was starting from scratch (even showing some how to find the correct note to sing!) so things moved rather slowly. I had in mind to do a concert at the end of term so I was quite relieved that the children had become confident enough that they could sing carols with lovely high descants. Quite an achievement for them.
Later that evening it was our Officers' Mess Christmas Ball. It was a good night, as these dos usually are and we all had a good time. Richard's Sergeant Major was the surprise Father Christmas with presents or depending on who they were, embarassing asides.
As soon as term ended, the majority of Ralston families disappeared off on their Christmas hols (most of the base is shut down over Christmas so Richard and many others had three weeks off which has been lovely......mostly....!). So as the place was fairly empty, we took the opportunity to brush up on our ice skating. It was really good to be able to all go together and we mostly had the rink to ourselves - a real treat.
Christmas Eve morning began with a real treat for us - we were Skyping my 2 year old niece in the UK when across the front of our house pranced a stag. And then another with a doe.. It was fab because we were able to manouvre the web cam so all that way away in the UK, little Zoe could see Father Christmas's deer doing a recce before their hard night's work! Our Lizzie, Lexi and Henry were quite overcome thinking that the deer were checking the place out before returning later!
On Christmas Eve we had, in the end,58 people over for a party (Richard has requested that I include that it most definitely not his idea to have this little shindig this close to Christmas day!). All was going well and I was, most unusually organised. Thank goodness I was because three hours before our first guests arrived our oven ceased to work. I couldn't believe it. I was right in the middle of proving quite a few loaves of garlic bread I'd spent ages making when suddenly the gas just went out. Aaaaargh! The next move was to dash around the village borrowing two very kind friends' ovens - I would have been stuck without them. The party went well, everyone I hope, went home replete and then the big wash-up began!
(Us, late, after the party!)
The children stayed up late and enjoyed themselves too which was great and after everything was done, they laid out their stockings ready for the man himself. This is the first year Harry has understood what was going on so it was brilliant to see the three children completely over excited together!
The girls writing to Father Christmas.
The momentus placing of the stockings.
Christmas morning, was a lovely affair. The children didn't wake until 7.30am (ohhhh yes, that was HALF PAST SEVEN) so by the time they had rifled through their stockings it was a fairly civilised hour. We ate our usual special Christmas breakfast and then sat in front of the fire doing the present thing. Two other friends had kindly taken our turkey and tatties to cook for us, so it wasn't a hugely labour intensive lunch for us at all! We had a most relaxed day, played lots of Monopoly, spend quite some time on Skype and generally had a good fun day.
We saw in the New Year with some lovely Canadians who live in the village, they have three children too and the whole thing was very relaxed. They had gone to quite some trouble and created a scrumptious Indian feast after which all the children disappeared off into their basement until we joined them to see in the New Year. Although the children were still up and happy playing Twister (yup, Harry too!) we decided at 2.30am that it was probably about time to head home as we were to leave for the Rockies at 9am the following day (or actually that day, as it was then!).
We woke and were ready on time, but most ashamedly both Richard and I realised we were incapable of driving (mainly due to our host's knockout navy blue martini concoction - it was delicious, but clearly rather lethal). So we finally made it to Canmore, a beautiful small town in The Rockies - very, very different to here on the prairie. Some friends of ours had taken a house for a month up there and had invited us to stay with them for a short week. It was a beautifully appointed place backing onto a small river, but right in the centre of the town. It was warm too when we arrived, about -1 so it was a good start. In fact, the temperature stayed above -10 for the duration of our stay which made the whole thing far more pleasurable enabling us to do a good range of outdoor activities.
The first of these, on our first full day there was to go Lake Louise for a sleigh ride around the frozen lake and then for a skate on it afterwards. We hadn't told the children about this so you can imagine the squeals of delight when they spotted the sleigh, said how fab it looked, only to be told they were going to be going on it with us.
It was a totally picturesque couple of hours at a steady pace, watching this beautifully created piece of the world go by. Much as I absolutely loved doing this with my family, I couldn't help thinking at nearly every breathtaking turn of the journey how my mother would have liked it. It really was so beautiful.
Look in the centre of this photograph, there were two daring/insane chaps icepicking their way up this frozen waterfall!
Whilst in Canmore we took the opportunity to go dog sledding too. I was one of the most awesome experiences of my life. The tranquility when we were out on the frozen lake was amazing. It was just us, the drivers and the dogs.
The day started off with, as always here - to get anywhere, a really picturesque drive to Spray Lakes just outside Canmore.
We arrived to find the dogs there in teh truck waiting to be harnessed and let out. The dog and sled handlers were oganising our two sledges (they're fairly small, so Richard and the girls were in one and Henry and I were in the other). The dogs were kept in their travelling cages until the latest possible moment as they become so excited when out. They were then immediately harnessed and we were off! During the journey, we all had the oportunity to drive - and for Lizzie and I we were allowed to do it ourselves - it really was pretty cool!
The huskies were far smaller than I imagined, not the Alsatian size that one often sees in films etc.. These looked similar, but were far smaller. We had seven dogs on each team and they were raring to go - eager and excited for the whole journey. During the ride, we came across several ice fisherman. They set up little tents on the ice so protect them from the terribly cold wind we have here, then drill a hole into the ice and sit fishing. Just the though tof it makes me giggle - I'm sure it is a very serious past time, but really, I'd rather be inside with a hot chocolate than freezing my butt off sitting on the ice for a few hours waiting for a fish to go by! Each to their own. Don't forget how jolly cold it is here (although with your present temperatures of minus 20 in Blighty, I'm sure you are getting the idea!).
We ended our stay in Canmore with a couple of soaks in the hot tub in the garden. It was really strange, but quite lovely being in the steaming hot water with snow all around. The children and Richard loved it and spent ages in there - they finally managed to guilt trip me into it too (as those of you who know me well, getting me into anything remotely resembling a swimming costume/bikini is no mean feat)and we all had a bit of a giggle which was a nice end to our hols.
