Alyssa leaving and our first blizzard

We had a quiet night at home Friday night as this was Alyssa's last night with us, her flight departed at 6:05am on Saturday morning so only Steve, Taylor and Alyssa went to the airport.  Taylor was especially sad to see her big sister leave.  Yet again the weather decided to play up when Alyssa was scheduled to fly however her flight took off as planned and we spent the day inside, upstairs looking out our front window at the windy weather tossing the snow around. 

The cross country ski lodge called us to cancel our ski lesson as a blizzard warning was in effect and the temperature would be about -40C with the wind chill!!  We were wondering if this was a blizzard so I guess it was.  Snow was blowing everywhere, our window sills were full with snow and visibility was very limited, Cooper went outside to check it out and he came back covered in snow.  I checked out the weather report for the day:

• Minimum temp: -34.6 degC
• Maximum temp: -20.3 degC

"we only left the vehicle to go shopping......"

On Sunday night we went to Fermont for pizza with Matt, Kim, Randy, Karen and their kids.  After the poutine for an entree we could only manage one slice of the delicious pizza.

Zonix restaurant in Fermont, Quebec.

X Large Zonix pizza

Mummers

On Saturday night Steve and I went to Rob's 40th birthday party, at about 10pm some mummers arrived at the door. This is the second time Steve and I have seen mummers here and to be honest it is a bit creepy for the uninitiated.  I didn't even guess that the three mummers were all guests at the party, including Nancy, Rob's wife!  The mummers wore big gumboots, gaiters stuffed with pillows, check shirts, hats and the white mask over their faces, unfortunately I don't have a photo.

The mummers put on some Newfie music and danced around the loungeroom, one even grabbed Steve to join them!  I have taken the following description of mummers from the web.

 Who are the Mummers?

Mummers also called ‘Jannies’, have been a tradition in Newfoundland since colonists from England brought the custom at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Mummer comes from the old French ‘momer’ which means to wear a mask; pantomime. In particular, it refers to a masked or costumed merrymaker, especially at a festival.

Christmas revellers disguise themselves with old clothing and cover their faces with a hood, scarf or mask and go from house to house in their community sometime during the twelve nights of Christmas. When the householder responds to the mummers’ tapping on the door, the visitors using disguised voices ask, “Any mummers ‘lowed in?”

If they are welcomed in, they usually entertain their hosts with humorous antics and the musical instruments they carry, very often a fiddle. Some hosts offer alcoholic drinks and some serve cake or other sweets. A great guessing game ensues as the hosts try to guess the identities of the mummers. When correctly identified, the revellers remove their masks, but if not identified, they can keep them on.

Our first time on the snow mobile

Our snow mobile was delivered on Wednesday after New Year Eve, it's a 2008 Yamaha Venture.  It is four stroke, three cylinder, 1000cc two up machine.  It came with a couple of extras like a cover and Yamaha saddlebags.  We weren't sure where to put it so I told Steve to park it around the back, he drove a few metres and bogged it in the snow!!  A quick call to Brendon up the street had it out of the deep snow and parked beside the driveway, cover on.

Saturday afternoon, Brendon and Matt called to say they would be over in 20 minutes to take us for our first snow mobile ride.  After 30 minutes we were still stuffing around, getting dressed, adjusting our helmets and trying to get all six of us ready for the cold.



Alyssa and Kristy, geared up ready to go.

 I offered to go first while Steve drove the boys to Tanya Lake to meet up with us.  Taylor went with Matt while Alyssa sat on the back of mine.  Matt asked me if I have ridden a motorbike before, "No", I said, so Brendon showed me the brake and the accelerator.  I got on and followed Mat down the street and up behind our place.  Steve was laughing at how I just jumped on and drove off.  I did feel a bit scared but I thought I am not going to learn how to do this by talking about it.  I needed to get a feel for the accelerator as it didn't go until it was depressed a fair way but then it just took off.  I probably used the brake too much and I felt like I was going so fast when I only got to 35 km/h.  We drove down the sledding hill we were on last weekend, I was so careful as I didn't want to hit anyone, we had to cross over a road then along a ridge before we were on Tanya Lake.  The lake was frozen over and is a good place to practice, Alyssa had a turn and then we spotted Steve with the boys so we zoomed over to meet them.


Alyssa driving, Taylor on the back

 Cooper had all of his new gear on and was so excited to have a turn, he sat in front of Steve wearing his hockey helmet.  It was getting late (and cold), Steve drove Cooper and Taylor home the same way I had come.  Given the large amount of snowfall we had over Christmas and New Year, grooming of the snow mobile trails will be done this week so hopefully next weekend we can have a scenic ride along a trail.  Maybe pizza at Fermont, Quebec?

Cooper on the front, Steve driving, Taylor on the back.

A busy New Year weekend

New Years Eve was a fizzer and we ended up staying in and going to bed before midnight.  On New Years Day Taylor was invited to a friends cabin for a turkey supper, they were going by snow mobile so she got to wear her new snow mobile suit.  We weren't doing much so we decided to go sledding behind the Lab City water tower, this is a very popular spot for sledding and it isn't too far from our place.  Before we got ourselves out of the car and organised, Cooper had raced off and was in his sled going down the slope.  I was calling him to come back but he said "I'm going", I was so nervous watching him but he got to the bottom in one piece and waited for us to walk down and meet him.  A guy on a snow mobile offered us a lift in his big fibreglass sled and took us up to the top of the other side of the slope.

There were a couple of groups of sledders and each of them had a snow mobile to drive to the bottom and pick up the kids and the sleds, how easy is that?  After a couple of laps, our friend Brendon arrived with his snow mobile, Cooper happily sat on the front and got a lift to the top.  In fact, he wasn't fussy, he got a lift to the top on a few different snow mobiles!

We had a great afternoon and Cooper really had the hang of how to direct his sled and slow down at the bottom (after a few near misses with bushes, other sledders and snow mobiles).  He got more practice on Sunday when we went to the ski hill for the day.  Steve had led Brendon and Matt astray the night before, after dinner and a few drinks Steve suggested they go to the local pool and poker hall for a few more drinks and then they finished up at the K-Bar and arrived home close to 4am!  So Steve offered to look after the kids at the ski lodge while Alyssa, Taylor and I hit the slopes.

Alyssa and Taylor tried out snow boarding while I got some skis on.  The last time I had been skiing was our Year 9 ski camp, but after a few practices runs with Brendon I was OK on my own, not fantastic but at least I felt that I could build on my limited skills in future.  Alyssa and Taylor got confident enough to give the lift a try with their snowboards on but it beat them, after several attempts they headed to the ski lodge for a lunch of poutine.  Taylor also gave skiing a go in the afternoon and was really good at it, mastering the pommer lifts in no time.

We got home at about 4pm and everyone was worn out, Taylor and Steve went straight to sleep and Alyssa and I nursed our sore leg muscles in front of the tv.


A good place to ride sleds

Cooper in action

Brendon and Ebony Burrows and Sam Bull

Alyssa waiting for her turn

A quad bike with tracks and a two seater buggy towing kids up to the top



A final 2010 purchase

Steve was up bright and early on Friday the 31st of December as our friend Brendon was taking him to look at a snow mobile - yippee!  We had been umming and ahhing about whether to get a snow mobile as it is not something we can all do together, however after more snow falls we saw just about everyone riding around on their snow machines and it looked like so much fun.  Steve was impressed with the 2008 Yamaha Venture which has two seats and is suited to driving on trails, he came back to talk to me about it and I agreed that we should get it.  We went across to Wabush and paid the deposit and then went straight to Ce La Vie sports store to buy our snow mobile gear!

It seems that every activity here requires a different set of gear and accessories to go with it, however you can't really go without them.  Snow mobile suits are especially designed for the cold, so we felt like snow men trying on our suits, pants and gloves.  Steve, Taylor, Cooper and I all got a two piece Choko snow mobile suit.  Everyone in Lab City seems to have a Choko snow mobile suit so we won't look out of place; they even select the colour suit to match the snow mobile!  We chose modular helmets, Steve got black while Taylor and I chose silver as well as balaclavas to wear underneath, we decided to pass on the heated visors for now as we are not sure yet whether we need this accessory. We did need new gloves though as this can be a real cold spot in the wind, even with our heated grips for the driver and the passenger. We decided to stay with the snow boots we have but you can buy snow boots suited for the extra cold as well.  I was very impressed by the seal fur boots however they didn't have my size )-:

We loaded our bulky bags into the car and took the gear home and packed it away, the New Years weekend started this afternoon so we can't get the snow mobile until Tuesday.  More on the snow mobile once we get it!!

Cross Country Skiing

Having the Boxing Day public holiday on Monday 27th Dec allowed for another day for us to all spend some time together so we decided to all go Cross Country Skiing.  Cooper has been having lessons for a few weeks now but we can't say he is loving it just yet so we hired a Polk (a small covered sled) that I dragged behind me with Cooper and Ryder in.  This was pretty scary having the boys connected to me as this was only my second attempt at skiing in a week so I am far from seasoned.  Alyssa and TJ have never skied either so it was left to Kristy to explain what we had to do.  There is probably a method that could be learnt relatively easily but we all decided to get in the grooves cut in the snow for beginners - it can't be that hard!  Once we got TJ's boots clipped into her skis, she just slid off down the slope - away from the grooves, screaming then falling in a heap.  Cooper and Ryder were both complaining about the cold, Alyssa tells us all her fingers are frozen and... we haven't left yet... oh this is going to be fantastic...  We eventually all got our skis clipped on and into the cut grooves and started to slide off along the trail.  The freshly fallen snow in the trees and on the trail looked amazing against the brilliant blue sky background and the air was so cold and crisp that our nostrils felt like they were sticking together, you forget it's -17 deg C when it is such a beautiful day outside!  We skiied along the trail next to the lake that is frozen over up hills and down hollows.  One slope downhill Alyssa headed first.... Arrghhh!! Crash at the turn at the bottom... then Steve and the boys... Move Alyssa!!... same result... then Kristy... then TJ.... Crash! Crash!  We all gathered ourselves together and skiied on for about half an hour or so then turned back so we could get the boys back and warm next to the fire place.  Alyssa and TJ skiied on a bit further then the grooves ended so they turned round and headed for home also.  A hotdog and hot chocolate for all back at the lodge made for a good end to our first skiing adventure together.  It was so good that we decided to join the club.  Lessons start this week...

Our First White Christmas

We got a sleep in on Christmas morning until 8.30am (this may not happen again for many years to come!).  Cooper was very excited to see that Santa had left lots of presents and the carrot had a bite out of it.  Cooper asked me to leave Santa a coffee and a cookie so we made him a latte and left him a good old Aussie Tim Tam.  Santa even filled the stockings on our mantle peice with chocolates, Cooper was amazed!

Unwrapping presents took us till about 10.30 then we thought we better hurry up and get ready for Christmas lunch.  We spent Christmas day with some other Australian families in our street.  As usual we ate way too much and had our dessert at about 4.30pm.  Kim did an awesome job cooking turkey, lamb and pork roasts and Matt was an excellent bartender, the cocktails just kept coming.  At about 7pm we were all realxing in the loungeroom ready to fall asleep, lucky we only had to walk down the street to get home although it was very cold by that time.  It was a great day, the kids loved their presents and they really had a ball playing with them.  Thanks to everyone who bought us gifts and sent cards and gifts in the mail.

Cooper and Ryder's new kitchen from Nanna and Grandpa

Ryder's wheelie car ramp

Alyssa eating a chocolate 'A' from her Xmas stocking

Cooper has been asking Santa for Hungry Hippos

Steve's new t-shirt

Kristy & Ryder

Smile Taylor!