Ten on Tuesday: Merry Christmas!

Ten on Tuesday being completed on Wednesday!

The view outside my patio windows. 

1) Firstly, Merry Christmas!!

2) We had a white Christmas all around. My home in Sorrento has tons and tons of snow and the family home in Savona also has lots of lovely snow. It really is beautiful.

3) On Saturday I got to shovel some snow from in front of the Cathedral. I know this should sound tedious and like a chore but it actually was a lovely break from the "normal". It was nice to do repetitive activity - the night was quiet and peaceful. The slowly falling snow had stopped. And the geese sang their lovely song high above the thick fog. Following this peace filled activity was the Holy Table Holy Word service at the Cathedral filled with scripture, song, silence and the sharing of the Holy Meal.

4) The kids spent two weekends with me over the month of December - it was so wonderful to have them up in Sorrento, to have fun with them and to spend hours of play in lots and lots of snow! I'll write more about this in the coming week or so as well as share the pizza recipe that we tackled with great success!

5) Christmas Eve was a marvelous night at the Cathedral with a very simple and yet oh so amazing sharing of the Christmas story by our children. I loved it. And I loved even more how many children who are not from the Cathedral community joined us in telling the story... how many children felt comfortable enough to join us in that story sharing. This is Christmas.

6) It will never be "normal" to attend Christmas Eve services on my own without my family, but I am so grateful for the family I have in the Cathedral community. The family with whom I don't feel so alone.

7) My family gathered together in Kamloops for Christmas Eve celebrations that were fun, high energy and filled with excited children. It was a lot, a lot of good but also just simply "a lot" at the same time.

8) Christmas Day started with sleeping in until 8am - this was a first and oh so very much appreciated. And of course the day was filled with piles of wrapping paper, much joy and excitement and a delicious dinner.

9) This is the first Christmas in a few years that has all of us children together. It's great and of course has also resulted in family photo taking... photos soon!

10) I'm kind of glad that the "big-major-crazy" part of Christmas is over so that the slower pace of the celebration of the birth of the little babe can be enjoyed.

A clean house, glass of wine and triple chocolate chip cookies!

My reading break started today. This is the break where many take off to warm places or back to home to be with their families and find some time to rest. I started my break today with a 9am meeting with my professor so we could sort out my graduating essay details (let the research begin!) and then finished up a paper I needed to hand in. And that will continue to be the pattern of my reading break... I will actually be reading this time around. 

Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies

Don't worry... there will be some time for rest, kitting, napping, and the start of all things Lenten (I get to make Mardi Gras masks with children and the young at heart at our Shrove Tuesday Pancake supper this year!)... and yes, that will all be great and well deserved. Just don't let me get too caught up in it all that I forget about my studies... okay?

Tonight though, after the school work and catching up with my mom and brother... I cleaned my whole house! I've been wanting to clean, clean, clean for the last week and it feels completely wonderful to have it all done. What a great way to start the break. After all... a messy house begins to make a grumpy and stressed Melissa. 

TRU Campus during our recent snowfall

So, after all the cleaning was done I really wanted to bake with my almond flour that had arrived that afternoon. So I went to the store to purchase my missing ingredient and ended up also picking up a bottle of wine. The rest of my evening consisted of making Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies... as my first almond flour baking experiment I must say they are amazing! I'm going to have to freeze some so that I don't consume them all at once. And probably share some with friends so they can enjoy the small bit of heavenly like delight. 

So, an evening with a clean house, delicious chocolate goodness, a delicate glass of wine and some time catching up with a good friend via amazing technology means that I'm pretty content! 

Side note: we got another dump of snow yesterday... 12cm of unexpected beauty. Today it started melting... the world will soon be a bit sloppier! 

Jack Frost comes again!

I was stunned by the beauty of the frost covered campus when I went to school yesterday morning and was saddened that I didn't have my camera to capture the delegate frost covering. But this morning Jack Frost and come again and left his gentle marks all over the earth... or at least all over campus! Absolutely beautiful.

Snowfall and New Years Pictures

Today was one of those beautiful snow filled days. It started coming down this morning and continued until late this evening. I hope that I never stop enjoying each moment I get to spend outside in the snow, I even enjoyed shoveling the driveway this afternoon. It is always just so fluffy, soft, peaceful, and full of calm joy. It falls everywhere adding the pure white color to everything in sight. So much beauty!

Along with today's beautiful snowfall I had some errands to run including getting this semesters textbooks. Seven novels for one course, otherwise things weren't bad. Here's to forming a loving relationship with this semesters books!! I start classes next week, so this is my last week of holiday's and I plan on reading some more, resting, preparing for the semester and getting some youth plans for the coming months down on paper!

For now, here are some of the pictures from the New Years Eve gathering with the kids! Enjoy!

Preparing snacks, lounging around, Jan. 1st game of Quelf!

Decorating wine glasses for our sparkling juice to ring in the New Year!

Aaron, Oliver, and Rhys even after staying up late engage in Wii Dance while I make breakfast for ten!

Christmas and New Years Adventures...

It has been an amazing Christmas season starting with great worship on Christmas Eve while surrounded by wonderful friends and now I’ve just ended a marvelous New Years Eve celebration with my youngest brothers and sisters, cousins, and some long time friends!

Christmas Day saw all of us children together for the first time in almost a whole year, which is very sad but was also just completely joyous! I suppose this is the part of us older kids growing up… I definitely always seem to be off at some meeting, busy with school, or engaging in some piece of ministry… so I’m not helping with the "being present often" task!! So, we took the advantage of being together and got a few family pictures taken. The weather was fall-like with no snow in site so our pictures look like they were taken in the fall. But they turned out really good, yes, of course our group pictures did not have everyone looking in the same place at once and so on and so forth… but there are eight of us – one can only ask for so many miracles at a time!

I spent the days after Christmas sleeping, playing with the children, being the big-sister/house-making type person, and reading. Oh how completely lovely it was to read novels that are not on a required reading list… it has been months since I delved into such pleasure! Reminded me of how important and amazing it is!

I came back to my house in Kamloops on Wednesday hoping to run some errands but ended up sleeping almost the whole entire day, I must have needed it. And it didn’t help that a horrible headache took over. Ah, well as I was reminded a day of “nothingness” can be important every once in a while! So Thursday was my massive “prepare for New Years Eve” day and it was exhausting… the stores were packed full of people – and we all know how much I enjoy that…

So, New Years Eve this year… well, I hosted what I have been informed is the annual party this year at my place in Kamloops. So I currently have my four youngest siblings, three cousins, and two long time friends at my house taking over beds and floor space… I have somehow been kicked out of my bed and bedroom and sent to the air mattress on the living room floor. 3:00am and I am still hearing moments of laughter and the sounds of distant movies playing. Now I wonder, will they sleep in? And when will I be required to make breakfast?

Ah, it is all in great joy and we’ve made wonderful memories. Shared dinner, laughed lots, watched movies, played games, ate way too many snacks, and rang in the New Year with our sticker decorated wine glasses and sparkling juice! It was great!

Now… maybe sleep? I’ll share pictures from tonight when I can think properly again…

I thought Spring was coming...

I love the snow. Those of you who know me well know that I love the snow with a huge passion. It's peaceful, beautiful, white, pure, pretty, and just coats our world in a blanket of elegance. Well, the last few days Kamloops has been very warm with the most beautiful blue sky's and bright sunshine. It's been lovely and I started getting excited about the green grass, trees with leaves, no winter jackets, and flowers blooming. Especially excited about the blooming flowers. I think I spent all of yesterday with Spring Fever, my two hour lecture felt like days long because all I wanted to do was be outside, I even felt like running - which is almost a foreign concept! :o)

So, I wake up this morning, open my blinds, and guess what I see... snow! It was snowing, big fluffy white snowflakes. I had no idea what to even think, my brain was lost in a world of confusion. I guess I'll see what the coming days bring. Spring excites me but the snow is still elegant. 

On another note, I start reading break next week, and I keep forgetting about it. Now, that is a crazy concept, how does one forget about not having any school? I think I am feeling that a week off in March would be better for me, I am busy every weekend so being able to spend an extra few days somewhere without missing classes sounds like a nice idea. But that's okay, March will just be like October! 

Other than the three to four assignments I will be working on I'm hoping to spend some time back up at Skeetchestn Community School (where I graduated) and maybe in a few other places visiting people and catching up. And maybe, just a bit of time for relaxing!

New Years Eve and Winter Update

New Years Eve was amazing. Wesley, Taylor, Rhys, Aaron and our cousins Wylie, Brandy, Oliver, and Drew all joined together for a night of celebration. I of course found out I was hosting this amazing event just weeks before, and of course responded with complete excitement. I made tons of food, snacks of all kind from fruit to pizza bagels. We watched movies, played games, and had tons of fun together. We rang in the new year with sparkling apple juice in fabulous plastic cups. I was informed that I couldn't make anyone go to bed before 2am by Rhys, so I listened to him. It was great, it was peaceful, and it was fun. I truly can't imagine celebrating the new year any different.

My aunty Janice and I took my cousins Oliver and Travis, alo

ng with my brother Rhys on a great winter adventure. The earth was covered in ice, what was once a creek was ice. The boys had a ton of fun, and we all laughed when I successfully fell through the ice, it hurt, thankfully it wasn't that deep and I only had a bruise or two as a result. The most amazing image was when the sun was shinning on the snow and it all looked like diamonds. It was pure beauty.