Clandonald is freezing, but beautiful. The house is cosy, warm & welcoming and so are the people. We had a snow day today and yesterday (17th and 18th of Jan). That means the school buses wouldn't run because it was below -46C. It was so cold my teeth hurt. No more smiling in the snow! We are having an amazing time. Last week we visited West Edmonton Mall. It has roller coasters - a wave pool - with real waves but did not live up to the hype. I heard you could surf on them - if so the swell was less than expected and there was about 200 feral kids in the way. We didn't swim. We didn't go on the roller coasters we just shopped and gawked! I had a conference and escaped but Mary spent a day in the mall with Til and Jose. They watched a live seal show and played around a replica pirate ship..
We returned to Vermillion for the Malanka - a Ukrainian New Years festival- we ate traditional Ukrainian food and watched some traditional Ukrainian dancing, then drove home on an icy road, at night, on the right hand side of the road, through a blizzard. Matilda made the comment, "Well this time last year we had bugs smacking into our windscreen instead of snow." That relieved a bit of tension.
Yeh, I'd fly south but my bloody feet are stuck, eh!
Ice skating is fun - but sometimes it hurts!
Oops!
Did I tell you it was COLD?!!!
I went for a walk after I got back from school. Not far, around the silos and yards and trees - but by crikey I was cold when I got in. I was rugged up too, with a snow jacket, toque (a cool Candian French word for beanie - pronounced: took) gloves, upper body thermals, snow boots - a scarf over my mouth (so I could breath) and long johns and believe me they were silver when I got back. It literally took me half an hour to thaw out and I was only out for half an hour. I didn't really warm up until after supper (that's Canadian for tea). We are becoming multi-lingual already!
Ralph Feenstra - Janice's Dad - and the owner of our house gave me a serious coat that is too small for him now. (He thinks it would need another two feet at the front to fit him.) It is some coat - and looks like a water proof quilted sleeping bag with fur around the hood. He said that should keep me warm when I go walking. It might - if I ever go walking again.