Celebrations

the kids skiing

David skiing

Snow shoeing a bit like walking with tennis rackets on your feet!

The kids got those fleecy blankets with sleeves Isaac and Josh look like Yoda & Obi-wan Kenobi.

Christmas Eve market was a big success except a little mix up over an order! A family asked if I made Christmas Puddings but as they need refrigerating and 6 hours steaming I said no but they came back later and begged me to make one for them. I agreed as I had made my own which made 3 bowls full, a friend at church heard I had relented and also asked for one and that should have left 1 for us. A bloke came early to collect the first pudding, our friend from church collected the second then just before closing another lady came to collect hers!!!!! I don't know who the first person was but hey they got a pudding and I had to send David home to wrap ours to sell. Guess what I was doing in the afternoon?!!!

Our Christmas Eve service was lovely and a fitting reminder of the real reason for Christmas.

Harriet got a DSi with a game and has been taking lots of photos of us all and feeding her farm animals on it. Josh got a Xbox live and an Xbox game. Isaac's present was a total surprise for him, an incubator for him to hatch eggs (we meant hen's, turkey's or geese but he's looking into terrapins and snakes!!!!- no way) David got a blu-ray DVD player and I got a new food mixer as mine from England is making very strange noises and not actually doing much anymore.

Our Christmas dinner was very English with turkey, roasted parsnips & potatoes, mashed potatoes, carrots, Brussels sprouts, cranberry & bread sauce, pigs in blankets and cauliflower cheese, stuffing etc. It took some finding to get all the ingredients as they don't have pigs in blankets and their sausages are more like huge German ones, stuffing is a stove top packet mix so no paxo for us but real sausage stuffing and bread sauce has never been heard of! Gravy is very different too very white. Rich, Jen & the girls came for tea and stayed over till Boxing day afternoon playing games and generally having fun and eating too much. We skyped family over Christmas which was nice too.

There was another storm warning for Boxing day onwards, it hit late Boxing day and Monday we woke to a good 8" of snow and it was still snowing. We dug out the car and enjoyed playing out in it then went off to the sales and to spend they day at Kevin and Dianne's. We had a lovely hot buffet with lots of tempting desserts. After supper (teatime) it was time to play some of us tried our cross country skiing skills out (in the dark) and others had fun racing round the top field on skidoo's (snow mobile) later we played games. We set off for home which took some time as it had been snowing all day and night and the ploughs were struggling to keep up. David turned into our drive and we found ourselves in a snow drift!!!! oooops we had to dig ourselves out which some kind neighbours helped with and get a space cleared off road big enough for the car overnight. It was fun unloading everyone and everything from the car and walking through drifts some up to our waist home in the dark storm. This morning the kids and Steve made snow forts, we cut more wood and dug the car out again!

We went to Rich and Jen's to practise snowshoeing and cross country skiing in their garden and woods. It is harder than it looks but thankfully the snow is soft! Tomorrow the Phillip's come to Yoho and we are hoping to go to an ice hockey game on Thursday if we can get tickets.

Where's the snow?

Thought I'd better update you all before Christmas.
David travelled to Boston last Wednesday to pick up his brother Stephen. They stayed over 1 night and after a 7 hour drive arrived at Yoho. It's great to have him stay with us and hope he likes our English/Canadian Christmas.
I did my last outdoor market on Sat it wasn't too cold only about -4 so with footwarmers, thermal socks and the odd defrost inside we kept warm. It was the best Fredericton market we've had so far. This week the market is on Christmas Eve and I've got a huge indoor stall to fill then I get a week off.
We went to a wedding on Saturday. It was really lovely, so laid back and informal. The groom gave the address at the service. Lots of people contributed to the buffet and the bride's mum, sister and best friend and the groom's dad and brothers aswell as the bride and groom all gave speeches.
The kids had 2 storm days off school last week, Tuesday & Wednesday. A huge storm hit New Brunswick with approx 120mm of rain. This caused loads of problems with roads under water, washed away and bridges collapsing. Our roof leaked in a number of places, we lost power at 10pm which would have been ok except the water and toilet are on a pump! We decended on Rich & Jen for breakfast!
This is our last week at work & school we all finish tomorrow...yippeeee.
We have a Christmas Eve service at church to look forward to. Rich & Jen are coming for tea on Christmas day and staying over. We are meeting up with other friends between Christmas and New Year too.
David is very excited he gets a new truck next week. Unfortunately his car overheated and started making nasty noises last week, a check up at the garage confirmed the worst that the engine is terminal and will die at any moment.

Loving winter

Our tree is up.....whoooo...Christmas is coming!

Yoho lake froze again then snow fell on it, this morning it has zigzags melting across it!

Harriet has been making her own version of a gingerbread house!

An order for a 1 year olds birthday, she's called Ivory and her mum asked for very specific designs.

This week we've had small amounts of snow most days, the lake melted last week then refroze but it was windy so it isn't flat ice but sort of a scaly texture. We did get down to -14 one day this week which was a little chilly!

David & I went on my works Christmas meal on Friday night. It was held at the 'King's Head Inn' at King's Landing a local historical museum a bit like Beamish. It was started in the 1960's when the Mataquac Dam was built which flooded a whole valley. The houses and businesses of some of the first settlers were moved up the hill and made into this settlement to preserve them. It was a great atmosphere with open fires, candles for lights and live entertainment in the form of fiddlers and guitarists and singers touring the dining rooms. The meal was nice we had chicken soup with a sweet bread, goose with veggies and mincemeat pie with a sweet sauce for dessert. I think the mincemeat was a Canadian recipe which contains meat either caribou or moose it certainly wasn't as fruity as a British mince pie.

I was outdoors at the market again it was a bit chilly at -7 but did warm up abit by lunch when I could feel my toes again.

We went to a local upick Christmas tree farm to choose our tree yesterday. It came with free snow which had to melt before we could put the lights on it!

This week we are looking forward to the arrival of Steve, David's brother who's coming for Christmas. I am hoping the market will be very busy on Saturday. We have been invited to a friend's wedding on Saturday too, which should be nice to go to a Canadian wedding.

Typical!!!

We move to Canada and look forward to long hard winters with lots of snow and winter sports and Whitby gets the snow instead! We are following the news of all the bad weather in England and it brings back memories of David trying to get to work on the farms for 5.30am last winter and struggling to get out of Whitby. We have got snow here but it doesn't stop much from happening. Yesterday the kids got the day off school for a storm day as a big storm was forecast to hit the atlantic provinces overnight Sunday and most of Monday and Tuesday with lots of snow, wind and rain. We didn't get hit too bad at all but the roads were slippy with the slushy snow. I went to work to find Fredericton still green as the rain had washed all the snow away. Later I went into Harvey to the hairdressers where there was a good 8-10 inches of snow and it was still falling. Josh spent his day off Christmas shopping, Isaac helped Dad install broadband and Harriet came to play with the little kids at my work.

I was back outside at the market on Saturday, thankfully it wasn't too cold and the outside had a good atmosphere with all the Christmas tree vendors. Saturday nights market was at a local village hall. People bought tickets to tour round 3 local homes which were decorated for Christmas then ended up for food and to visit the stalls at the village hall. It was good to get to know more locals abit better and was a pleasant evening out.

With Christmas fast approaching I actually got some cards written and some prezzies bought. When I can get round to cleaning up we will get a tree then it might feel more festive.

The start of winter

Jen gave Rich old man presents for his birthday hence the tank top and flat cap!!

Josy on her 1st birthday with Grammy Carol, Auntie Amy and cousin Robin

Harriet & Maeve's snowman at Danny and Karens last weekend

the view from our window this morning

the lovely warm log fire we bought

an order for a house warming party

Josy's flower cupcake

Richard's canoe cupcake

Typical we move to Canada and look forward to lots of snow this winter and Whitby gets as much as us and is much colder this weekend!!! The difference is life doesn't stop the same, snow ploughs and gritters keep the main roads moving. The side roads are done later but because every vehicle has to have minimum of all season tires and most have snow tires you can get through quite alot of snow it's the ice that can be a problem. Snow seems to fall quickly here, a couple of times this week I came out of work at lunch time and had 2-3 inchs of fresh snow to clear off my car. It's great we hardly see the kids, as soon as they get off the school bus they play outside!

Christmas decorations are up everywhere (except our house!). I've even got 2 Christmas cards too!! I took part in my works Christmas play on Friday which was lovely but really wierd as it seems ages away yet. David's brother Steve is coming in 2 weeks time to spend Christmas with us which will be great.

It was Richard's 30th birthday yesterday and Josy's 1st birthday too. We went to a cake and icecream party in the afternoon and the boys had a 'Risk' party at night.

We are really happy at 'The Meeting Place Church' and are enjoying getting to know lots of the people there, it will take us years to remember everyone's names we can just about manage everyone at our Life Group now!

We went to Parent teacher conferences for the kids this week. They all got fantastic report cards and had lots of very positive feedback.

This week looks nice and quiet on the calendar so I may start Christmas shopping and maybe write afew cards. I have 2 markets on Saturday to bake for later this week.

November in picture

Bonfire night at Rich & Jen's

Cupcakes for my stall

David now looking really old!!!

David's 40th cake made by Harriet (very yummy)

David's birthday cupcakes with cows, worms, rabbits, geese, chickens and computer mice!

Josy now walking

Maeve playing with Harriets toy worm

Isaac showing off his new winter coat

Icicles before Harriet collected them

Harriet collecting icicles to put in my freezer!

David is 40!!!!!!

Today has been the calm after the storm, it's been a lovely snowy day with a beautiful drive to church this morning followed by Jen & the girls coming for lunch then just chilling all afternoon and skype with family and friends. Life is good.

Since I last blogged David has turned 40!!!! Ha ha. We had an open home for his party and invited family and friends. With it being a public holiday for rememberence day and the fact that we'd only been here 3 months we did worry that it might be a quiet time! It certainly wasn't with around 30 new friends coming and squeezing into our little house. Thank you for all the cheeky cards and well wishes from the UK too!
The new chainsaw has been well used since then and our woodpile is looking much more healthy.

As you know bonfire night is usually on 5th Nov and we'd been invited to Rich & Jen's but the rain was at it's worst so it was postponed a week until it stopped. It was a lovely evening even if the bonfire was rather wet and took some persuading to light!

My business has officially started trading on the market. Last Saturday Josh & I had a pitch outside which was good. I can't believe how the adrenaline kicks in when you're so tired from getting up at 4.30am and spending hours setting up the stall I thought I'd be ready for bed but I love chatting to the customers. There have been lots of positive comments so far and business cards taken. Thursday, Friday have been the Christmas in the market from 10am-9pm each day. I had a tiny indoor pitch and was quite frustrated being behind glass shelves so I couldn't talk to the customers, despite that I did quite well. Saturday we arrived and started setting up outside on our pitch when we were offered an indoor spot!!!! phew it was freezing and by 11am snow was falling thick and fast, let's pray an indoor spot keeps popping up each week if not Josh & I are the 2 blobs under the canopy wearing all the clothes in our wardrobes!! I found the dollar store sells toe warmer pads that last for 6 hours, I must say this is the best dollar I spend each week! Even though Fredericton is a city it is such a small town atmosphere, everyone knows everyone else and is so friendly. So many people come to find my stall and obviously know who I am and lots about me.....wonder how long this celebrity status will last?!

The reaction to the news of a Royal wedding was funny, Canadians are so excited and keep asking me if I'm looking forward to it! At least it's real life instead of the obsession they have with Coronation Street.

David has been away on a church men's weekend which he really enjoyed. He's also been polishing up his old rabbit culling skills at the Warrington's farm!

We had an invite to Jen's Aunt and Uncles (Karen & Danny) house yesterday for a bonfire. As David was away me and the kids went and had a fab time in the snow.

I must say snow tires are wonderful, you obviously still need to drive carefully but they really help to grip the road. We've all got the snow gear now too so we should be able to stay warm outside as well as inside.

This week I'm a rabbit in the daycare Christmas play, we've got parents evenings for the kids, it's Rich's 30th and Josy's 1st birthdays, I've got some orders to fulfil for the market and I've got a Pampered chef party to go to too.

Let it snow!

I've been searching round all the charity shops in Fredericton for snow gear for us all. Ski jackets, ski pants and snow boots are very expensive so I've had my eyes and ears open for bargains. We've now all got pants and boots and just 3 coats left to find, our Whitby coats will have to do for now!
My car had 2 flat tires in 2 weeks. It's so funny putting on the spare tire which is called the donut, it's tiny and really thin and only meant for getting you to the garage and definately not fast or long driving. I got the first tire changed trying to eeek out the time till I had to purchace snow tires, when the second one went I relented and changed to 4 snow tires- not a cheap day!
Josh has always said it would snow in October (even when we were baking in 40 degrees heat!). Well we woke on 31st Oct to SNOW!!!!! Yes the real white stuff, we had flurries for 2 days but it didn't settle. Since then it's rained and rained, it's a good job it wasn't snow or we'd be buried under about 6 feet of it by now. Today we woke to snow flurries again but it was bright sunshine by lunch.
I've gone practical for David's birthday and bought him a chainsaw! He came last night to choose one and has been playing with it today getting our woodpile abit healthier!

Rainy November

Our stall at the forum

snowman design

Christmas tree design

Holly & Ivy design

stars design

Harriet's artistic pic

sunset over Yoho

Cupcakes for staff weekend away.

I haven't forgotten about the blog...honest just busy at the moment.

2 weeks ago I went on a fun night away with my work to a lovely log cabin out in the sticks. Now I'm working some of each day except Fridays so I can bake for Saturday markets if I get a pitch each week.

The past 2 weeks have been totally focused on 'baking for 'Christmas in the Forum' in Halifax. I managed to baked 180 different sized Christmas cakes in 3 sizes and 4 designs. 21 slabs of sticky gingerbread and 138 fruit scones. Sue and I set off when I finished work on Thursday lunchtime and arrived in Halifax by teatime. We spent all evening setting up our stall then booked into a lovely hotel called Chocolate lake Hotel. We then had 3 trading days with thousands of customers filling 3 huge buildings. It was really fun, we got fed up hearing the sounds of our own voices (I know most of you won't believe that!) and our feet and legs ached really bad. One of our neighbouring vendors came across to see what all the laughter was about on our stall!!! (we think that was a compliment!) The show was 10am -9pm so we basically went straight to bed after sitting with our feet up and eating tubs of icecream! It rained all the time so much so that the van flooded and Sue had fun packing it so nothing got spoilt. Overall we did quite well, I sold out of scones, most of the gingerbread and half my cakes. As I said my first Fredericton market could be this saturday, I have to apply each Tuesday and I hear if there's a spot by Thursday. If not I've got a 2 day market the week after called 'Christmas in the market'.
It's David's 40th birthday on Thursday and because it's rememberance day it's a bank holiday each year. We're having a party for him at 4pm with some friends and family coming. Pop across if you can!

Life is getting very busy!

Beautiful Autumn morning

Jen's birthday cupcakes

David is getting really busy with lots of calls to fit high speed internet. He's driving long distances everyday as the calls can be very remote.

I started my official hours working at the daycare last week then the girl I job share with handed her notice in so I got a lot more hours! That would have been fine except 'Cute as a cupcake' is taking off big time. I am still waiting to do the farmers market each week but since I passed the hygiene course I can trade. I was busy baking for the Christmas market in Fredericton when I got a phonecall asking me to help a friend on her stall in 2 weeks time in Halifax, Nova Scotia at a huge Christmas market. I am busy making 175 Christmas cakes of varying sizes all with marzipan and icing, 50+ slabs of sticky gingerbread and 120+ fruit scones. It's a 3 day market from 10am-9pm daily!

I went on a ladies retreat last weekend with 50+ ladies from church to Beulah, near St John. It was a fantastic couple of days with good company, food, surroundings and speakers. Tomorrow I'm on another retreat but with my work colleagues,we're staying in a cottage for the night which should be fun.

Once my cakes are at the finished stage I take photos to show you all.

The weather is often frosty in the morning but can still get up to 13+ during the day. We hope the snow holds off for another couple of weeks until we manage to change the tires!

I've been to a number of charity shops for our winter gear but apparently I'm too early as there is so much Halloween stuff in every shop there's no room for useful stuff! Houses all over are getting decorated for Halloween (Christmas type lights) it's a really big day out here. When we say we don't celebrate it we always get asked 'Don't you celebrate Christmas then?'!!!!!