An Early Spring Garden

While the East coast has been socked in with record snow falls and cold weather, the rest of Canada and apparently the world have seen a different picture. In early February I was able to get out and get some gardening done. The lawn was already a foot high in some places so I had to get it cut. The garden was dry enough and warm enough to get tilled and prepped for planting. (I wasn't dumb enough to try to actually plant since there is definitely still a chance of frost in February.) All beds are cleaned and ready for the perennials to get a good start on the year.

It was also perfect timing for cleaning up the raspberries. I always clean out the old canes in the fall but the trellis I had keeping things up had seen better days and was always intended to be temporary. There was also a raised planter bed to the right of the strawberries that was rotted out and was more raspberries than strawberries anyways. I installed two 4x4 posts and strung string in between. I went with string for now but I think I'll replace with wire in the fall as it will be more stable and less stretchy. The canes to the left were transplanted from the raised bed. I should have an excellent crop this year.

Sledding at Seymour

In January we went with the cousins up to Seymour Mountain. Seymour is one of the three local ski hills and Kerry and I had never been though we heard it had excellent sledding. When we first arrived I was a bit disappointed. It had been a bad year for snow so far and as far as I could tell there was just two very short hills with long line ups that seemed designed for three and four year-old's. From what people had told me I was expecting some great sledding but even the tube park was closed. We went on the small hills for a few runs and then realized most people were walking in a different direction.

We looked up and there it was. Four very long hills with hundreds of people looking like they were having a lot of fun. I blame the fog but at least we found the good hills. I would have been very upset had we figured this out after we left. The kids went at least a half dozen times and would have gone more but it was nearing the end of the day. Callie had lot's of fun going in the bigger sled with Ryan. Even the big kids took a few runs with no injuries. We never got a chance to back again with the slow fall for 2015 but we will definitely go back next year.

Schwab Family Christmas

Christmas officially starts with the decorating. Usually this is as close to the beginning of December as possible but this year December started on a Monday and Kerry and I were both busy the weekend before so we didn't get going until December 6th. Lot's of decorating to do with not much time to do it. Our Christmas light display continues to expand. I wait until the second week and head to Rona to buy the lights when they are half off. I got three strings of 200 each this year plus a Snoopy that went on sale for the first time ever since he's usually sold before the sale starts.

When school ends and the the holiday begins we try to go skating at least once. Apparently we need to go skating a bit more often because I think Callie and Carter spent more time on the bench then on the ice. The bench is still fun though because we go to the Ice Palace in Cloverdale. They shut down a whole rink for most of December and decorate the ice with lights and trees. With the main lights turned off it's a great atmosphere.

About a year ago Canada Place replaced the IMAX theatre with Flyover Canada. It's similar to Soaring Over California at Disneyland. You sit in a seat and they suspend you over a curved screen making it seem like you're actually flying. For the rest of the year the scenes are of Canada and that remains for Christmas with a few twists. They add in a few elves in random spots but also add a couple minutes of the North Pole at the end. It was very well done and brought Santa's home to life for the kids.


For the past few years I've been eyeing the Vancouver Christmas market. Oddly enough I first heard about it when someone accidentally drilled into a propane tank a few years ago and there was a small explosion. It's not very big but that just adds to the fun. It's generally German and Polish themed and a majority of the booths are food. We had some great Bavarian sausages, waffles on a stick, hot chocolate and even got to ride on a carousel. We lucked out when someone leaving gave us some coupons for free rides that they had not used.

On the 23rd we went for dinner at the Kilden's and followed it up with an evening of Christmas light viewing. We found a route from someone on Facebook that took us past some great houses.  The really big ones haven't quite all converted to LED's but some of the houses with fewer lights have. I imagine they will continue to grow over the next few years. My favourite was one of the ones that had tuned their lights to music. They broadcast the music on a short range FM channel which I imagine is much less disruptive to the neighbours.

Christmas day was chaotic as usual. Uncle Ronnie slept over so we could get an early start. Callie came into our room at 1:30a which never happens. She didn't stay long because she said the bed was "too uncomfortable." After that they managed to stay asleep until about 6:45a. Gift opening was done by about 7:30a. So early it was still dark out. The kids had a great time opening their gifts though they are now getting old enough that they can guess many of them before they even get opened.

The rest of Christmas day was spent building lego sets. I think each kid got a big set, a medium set, a small set and a few mini sets. Callie enjoyed making her on her own but Carter insisted that I help him. He's perfectly capable of assembling all the sets he got but I think he enjoys the end result more than the process. We put together the Arctic Base Camp, a windmill and some construction equipment. Callie assembled her Heart Lake City Pool, Jungle Rescue Base and Barbie's Superstar Stage. We're running out of room for all these assembled sets.

Christmas Tree Hunting

I'm not sure what the trigger was but this year I decided it would be good if we got a real tree. I had real trees growing up because in Prince George you can't spit without hitting a tree that someone wants to cut down but since I'd moved to the lower mainland we've always had an artificial tree. Not one we bought ourselves but one that Kerry's parents had given us. I'm fairly certain they used it before us so it's probably seen 25 Christmas' by now. (Or maybe Kerry bought it when she moved down.) In any event, it was just not the same as a real tree.

I naively thought that the kids would be excited about a real tree and Carter was, however Callie was not. We couldn't quite get her to verbalize her issues but I think she thought the act of cutting a tree down would be traumatizing for the tree and wanted none of it. My back up plan was to find someplace that sold live trees in pots. We have a spot in the back yard that we could plant it and probably get a few seasons out of it since our living room is too tall. In the end we managed to convince her to take home one of the cut ones in the tree lot by telling her that if we didn't take it home it might not have a home for Christmas.

The Christmas tree lot we went to was much more than just a parking lot full of trees. It's the same location as the pumpkin patch we go to in the fall. I think it's only been doing it the past few seasons as they were probably jealous of a much larger tree farm that is just a few minutes away. The one nearby is quite hilly and looks fun but we decided to go to the pumpkin patch one since it had animals as well. It was a nice day with marsh mellows on the fire, a petting zoo and of course a beautiful "Noble Fir" that the kids named Firy Spike Spikefir. Now I just have to figure out how to get rid come January 1st.

Grey Cup

This year the Grey Cup was being held in Vancouver. I wasn't planning on going but Dad called up about a week ahead of time and said he had got some tickets for free via a colleague at work. His plan was to fly down with Eric and pay for Jordan to fly in as well, so all the Schwab boys got a pre Christmas treat. Even though it was the Grey Cup, they had some difficulty selling all the tickets. Vancouver is a long way for the east coast teams to travel and I think the home town fans find it more exciting when the home town is playing.

We had planned on going down town to see Saskatchewan house at the convention centre the night before however Jordan's flight got postponed. Initially both Dad and Jordan thought it was postponed from 7:00a to 8:30a but it turned out it had been moved to 8:30p due to weather. A bit of a surprise for everyone. In the end we decided we would go for dinner after the game instead. The game was very exciting. The predictions were for Calgary to win easily and the first half looked like that was going to be the outcome.

The second half however was a different story. Calgary was not as dominant and Hamilton snuck back into it. The whole game came down to a single play. A kickoff to Hamilton that their punt returner took all the way to the end zone. The only problem ended up being a flag on the play and not enough time for Hamilton to make their way back down the field. A fun finish. Dad would have missed one of the most exciting finishes ever had it happened, as he was busy taking a taxi to Joe Fortes to hold our table. We had reserved for 6:30p knowing we might be a bit late. Turned out okay though because almost everyone with a 6:30 time slot was late. Dinner was excellent and it was a fun weekend with Dad and the brothers.

Surrey Nature Centre

In November I went with Callie on a class field trip to the Surrey Nature Centre. It's land that was donated by a couple who was concerned about the urbanization of Surrey and is tucked away right in the middle of the city. I go by it every day on my way to work but I had no idea it was there. We started the day with a game that teaches about the urban food chain. Kids were either squirrels, raccoons or coyotes. Callie got to be a squirrel and it was her job to find food, water and shelter while not getting caught. Looks like she got caught by a Coyote here and had to give up one of her life cards.

The afternoon was all about habitats. Callie's group got to be the coyote this time. They learned what they ate, where they lived and what, if anything, ate them. There was also an interesting history lesson about the Surrey Nature Centre property, right back to when it was first logged, destined to be athletic fields and then eventually saved and turned into the nature centre.

After some classroom learning on her animals habitat we went outside to a clearing in the woods to build them. Not life size of course but to relative scale out of whatever they could find. Some of the kids got very creative with beaver dams and eagles nests. The coyote groups struggled a bit since the habitat was just everywhere in the woods. They put together a few standing branches as trees and made a little nest of leaves for the coyote to sleep. I noticed Callie spent much of her time directing the work and not quite as much time actually doing the work.

A Pile of Leaves

This might be the last year of leaf pictures in front of our house with our own leaves. The tree on our front lawn belongs to the city and was unfortunately poorly installed. I don't t think the hole was big enough and someone put lawn edging too close. The end result is root girdle and it's choking off the rest of the tree. The branches spread in crazy directions and it's not as big as the healthy ones on the street. This year they cut down three and I think a fourth fell over. It's too bad too because I really liked seeing the trees in the spring with the new foliage and the colours in the fall.

It still did it's job this year providing a giant pile of leaves. With a bit of raking in the neighbours yard we had a great pile. Last year Callie wasn't too excited when she jumped in because the leaves were wet. This year she was expecting it and went back for more. Carter went out a half dozen times. My favourite outing was when he was naming his jumps before he did them. There was the "Super Hero", "The Zombie" and "The Ninja". Very creative.