heading back to the north country

 On December 22 we left home bright and early

(actually it was still quite dark)

for our trip north.

 Fifteen hours of driving on clear roads took us just west of Edmonton

where we spent the night at Howard's sister's.

 Sunday morning we began the last leg of our journey.

It turned out to be a bit more challenging as we had 4 hours of glare ice

to deal with.

And of course there's always the constant threat of those pesky

moose who love to cross the road in front of vehicles.

 We were shocked by the amount of snow.

It definitely felt like a winter wonderland.

 And we were shocked at how people were driving in these conditions.

 More moose signs.

 For a reason.

Baby moose was already across the road waiting for mama.

These were the only 2 moose we saw on the way up to Peace River.

An hour into our trip on the way back, we saw 8.

our radio debut

By 8:30 tomorrow morning this room will be buzzing like a bee.

My choir will be gathering bright and early, warming up,

and heading out to the buses which will take us to two singing engagements.

The first will be at a local home for the elderly.

The second at the Steinbach Credit Union

where we will be broadcast live at 10:15 CT

on CHSM AM 1250.

I hope you can tune in and enjoy my choir of 89 kids.

They are one enthusiastic bunch!

queen's brigade

 Beth's band performed at a benefit concert on Friday night.

This is Joel, the lead singer.

 Our Beth - songwriter, pianist, vocalist and glockenspiel player extraordinaire!

 Dan and Ryan.

Dave playing just one of his many instruments.

Christkindlmarkt

 Sometime during our first fall back in Canada 

we heard about the German Christmas that was held in Winnipeg

each year.

This year we decided we would get there before it was over for the season!

The venue was quite spectacular.

 There were some promising signs of echte (genuine) German items.

 And St. Nicolaus was even on hand.

But for me, this was the best part of the market.

I will show this picture to my fledgling recorder players at school!

howard out east

In October Howard traveled east almost as far as China

to visit one of our school teams.

He was treated to lots of good stuff - including food.

The country he was visiting still looks very Communist.

In many ways it's still a very sober place.

This work of art depicts the transforming of the society.

This young, energetic teacher is building a greenhouse

from an old shipping container.

He is developing sustainable agricultural methods

to teach his students and help local people.

Hockey is popular in this country - in different forms!

the carrot quandry

 Howard dug the last of the carrots between snowstorms

last Saturday

After this batch I gave up and left the final bucket in the garage.

 These carrots netted two of these - packed full.

 Which gave me two double batches of carrot/chocolate chip muffins.

 And still left this much behind...which I put into little bags and hid in the freezer.

 In the meantime I was cooking up my second batch of cream of carrot soup.

When it looks like this one doesn't like to think much about the colour or

the consistency.....

But believe me, once the cream and spices are added

you forget all about what went before.