And So It Begins

We had a nice visit to Edmonton to see family and friends and do some business for our company last week.  We have a November Christmas dinner in our favorite Vietnamese restaurant with the boys (19, 21 and 22) and visited Baba who loved getting a copy of hubby's book and our family picture calendar.

I took this picture Saturday as we were at the airport waiting for our flight home.  Edmonton Airport regularly gets large amounts of snow.  It was barely snowing and there was no less than six snow removal vehicles zooming around on the ground.  I was pretty impressed.  It is so nice to come home to some sunshine and green grass, although there is talk of snow here on Sunday.  It would be unusual as we normally only get two or three snows per year and they usually fall around Christmas.  I bought a second snow shovel at Costco yesterday in anticipation-you must shovel the snow quickly or due to the high water content it quickly turns to cement and you will not be able to leave your house.  In Alberta we had light fluffy dry snow, easily moved by snow blowers - not possible here.

I normally have the entire house decorated by now - but life has been pretty busy lately and it just hasn't happened.  Sunday I threw the wreath on the door and yesterday I hauled all the Christmas bins up.  My house is a complete mess right now by by the end of today the interior will be done (*with some help from my Stepdaughter and a bit of Captain Morgans spiced rum and eggnog) and the empty bins put back in the crawl space. Tomorrow will then be cleaning day - everything will get a good scrubbing, dusting and vacuuming until New Years day when it all comes down and I do another major clean. 

I found these 4 spotless placemats yesterday at the thrift store for .75 cents each - $3 for the bunch.  I have been looking for some nice Christmassy ones and these fit the bill.  I did go thrifting in Alberta with my friend but bought nothing - prices are twice what they are in our thrift stores (that or I am just getting too cheap, could be that too :))

I used some of my amazon Gift certificates from Swagbucks for a gift for myself this year.  A Christmas Carol (specifically this 1950s version) has always been my favorite Christmas movie.  They used to have it on TV every Christmas Eve but last year they did not show it.  I wanted to make sure to have a copy so ordered it along with a stocking stuffer for my Stepdaughter so I didn't have to pay shipping.  

For all my American friends  - Happy Thanksgiving and to everyone else - have a great week!