Baby, It's Cold Outside

Sunday night Andy and I came out of the home our small group was meeting in and I was surprised to find there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground that wasn't there two hours before! The weather forecast has mentioned snow almost every day for the last two or three weeks, but it never amounted to more than a centimeter and it always melted in the next day or two. Sunday it came to stay. I'm told by those in the know that this is it - no more bare ground until April!

When we got home from Bible study, the first thing I noticed were footprints in the driveway - BARE footprints! My foolish son, I thought. But no, it was Shawn & Joanne Greek's foolish son who went outside in his bare feet, just for fun! Keep in mind that it was about -17 outside, not factoring in the wind chill! The kids were inside in the process of bundling up to go sledding (at 9:30 p.m. - no school the next day). So off they went, first down our sloping driveway, then to the park 3 blocks away, which has a substantial hill. They lasted about 20 minutes before they realized that snow in Alberta is not the same as snow in Abbotsford! Janelle said she'd never seen her legs that shade of red before....

Yesterday was -27 in the middle of the day with the wind chill, and it's supposed to be getting colder over the next few days! Let me sing it again - Baby, it's cold outside!

A Unique Cultural Experience

This past week Andy's uncle (his father's brother) passed away. Although Andy hadn't seen him or talked to him in over 25 years, because the funeral was in Edmonton, we went out of respect for Andy's dad. What a unique experience!

Andy's extended family comes from a Ukranian Orthodox tradition, and the funeral was conducted by a Ukranian Orthodox priest. The entire service, with the exception of a short eulogy by Andy's cousin, was sung in Ukranian. The priest sang a portion, answered by the congregation, led by a female singer. There was plenty of sitting and standing and making the sign of the cross. Those of us who were not Catholic/Orthodox and/or who did not know Ukranian just stood there respectfully. The priest was not much older than us, but he was apparently straight from the old country, as his English was extremely limited.

The internment was at a cemetary several miles away. When we drove into the cemetary, I was stunned. I knew Edmonton and the surrounding area was home to many Ukranians who arrived here in the 1920's and 1930's, but the cemetary was like a trip to another country (actually, the whole day felt a little like that!). There were literally thousands of tombstones engraved with Ukranian names. About half were in the Ukranian alphabet, the rest were the English tranliteration of the Ukranian names. It was an incredible sight.

The funeral was great time to get together with relatives - Andy's brother Chris & his wife Melody came out from B.C., and their daughter Stefanie & her husband Justin came up from Three Hills, AB. Andy's dad and younger brother Lorne came from Red Deer. After the internment, everyone was invited to lunch at a hotel. It was a great time of meeting Andy's aunts, uncles, and cousins, and even a few of Andy's dad's cousins. I never knew Andy had all these relatives! It was a lot of fun. And of course they served cabbage rolls and perogies. We learned how to write Andy's family's original last name in Ukranian (it sounds a bit like Small, which is what Andy's great-uncle came up with when he landed in Canada), and heard lots of family history. I absolutely loved it!

And to top off the day, Andy's dad, brothers, sister-in-law, niece, and nephew-in-law all came to our house to hang out, followed by a trip to WEM for shopping and dinner - a great ending to a great day.

We went away for our anniversary...

and we didn't take any pictures!

But we thought we'd let you know we had a lovely dinner at Tony Roma's a lovely night at a hotel in Edmonton with a jacuzzi in our room, followed by brunch this morning.

It's lovely to be at that stage where the kids can stage by themselves and get themselves off to school alone too (yes, in non-union Alberta, today is not a holiday).

Halloween 2008

Calvin & his friend Connor amassed great amounts of candy trick-or-treating, while Janelle and four of her friends gathered at someone's house to watch a video, and James, Andy & I stayed home to hand out candy. James bought and carved his own pumpkin.

Hubert the cat greeted people at the door (this photo was taken from outside looking through the screen).

And here's the loot! James is....well, James didn't go trick-or-treating, but he somehow ended up with candy....