so this is christmas...

well first of all MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

im still over herein canadia and enjoying very much my first ever white christmas! everything looks beatiful outside and im hoping we'll get some snow this afternoon to frollic in! im spending christmas at the Daniels house, they've pretty much adopted me as an extra daughter so its been fun! very differnt to home in Australia but still great!



the lead up to christmas has been sooo crazy busy that ive got myself sick! i had kirks wedding last weekend in washington state which was awesome....ill do a separate blog on that later! and things at the ranch have been crazy in preparation for christmas! there was much baking to do for the ranch and then yvonne and i had christmas baking fest 2007 with heidi late on saturday night! with all we had to get done, we got to our beds finally at around 6am! but we did have a very productive evening of baking, wrapping, packing and dying my hair!



its been pretty cool being over here for christmas! the snow is amazing (theres about 2 foot at the ranch!) and it makes everything seem more christmasy! theres lights everywhere and we even put some up outside our apartment! we had our apartment christmas on saturday morning before everyone went there separate ways, and i made mums crepes and we opened our gift. was really fun!



hmmm so thats pretty much it for now! we are off to lauras grandparents for dinner so i must get ready but i hope you all had a great christmas and enjoy the rest of the year!

whoops

so i missed a week....sorry and this has to be quick because its 4:30am and i really need to get to bed!!....

so the past week. i guess the biggest things have been my first snowboarding experience last wednesday! it was awesome. the next day my whole body hurt! muscles i didnt even know existed were mad at me for snowboarding!. we wnet very early to blue mountain and got set up with a lesson. rachel, luke, stephen and i all had lessons together on the little hill and we learnt all the basics. which pretty much took us til lunch time. after lunch janet and sarah somehow manage dto convince me to go down one of the big hills with them....let me tell you the difference between the 2 hills was beyond imagination! i gave sarah instructions to send my body home to australia if i died! standing at the top of that hill looking down was one of the scariest momments of my life!!!


so as expected- i fell ALOT of times on the way down!!! and spent alot of time on my butt! it took me at least 15mins to get down the hill!!! but.....i did it! and i was learning all the way! after that i reverted back to the small hill and practiced more, even made it all teh way down without falling on my last run of the day! all in all it was an amazing day! everyone said we got the best day ever to learn. the snow was freash and there was heaps of powder so it didnt hurt very much to fall in! and we just had so much fun.....and yep i love the snowboarding!

in other big news....julie came to visit for a weekend and i got to show her the ranch in winter!! we went for a snowy trail ride wher ei thought my legs fell off because i lost all feeling to them! went skating by ourselves at the rink! wnet to the best resterant in town wher ei even got aussie rack of lamb- AMAZING!!! and even got to go down to church in oakville. all in all it was awesome to get to hang out with her and show her more of where i live!

today, steve, stephen and i all got up very very early and headed down to the state sto pick yvonne up from buffalo airport! was a nice little road trip and an eventful boarder crossing. stephen got mistaken for a dude who'd gone on a nice little crime spree throughout america!!! we picked up yvonne and made our way back up through niagra falls. i got to drive for the first time in canada! and we checked out the falls because stephen hadnt been yet and as he leaves on fridya it was kinda his last chance. they were amazing in the snow!!! we found this awesome tree that was totally covered in ice!!!! so cool!

so this week is full of airport runs and mixed emotions! i fly out tomorrow to go to kirks wedding which is really exciting! i cant wait to see kirk and the mellers and andrew, fiona and lucy and get to see kirk get married!! but this week also holds sadness as stephen heads back to scotland. its going to be very weird and quiet not having him around and we're definately going to miss him!

ooo and i almost forgot- we christmasfied the apartment!!!! sunday afternoon ashley, sarah, jon boy and i headed out to the front field, cut down our very own real live christmas tree and dragge dit all teh way home!!! set it up and decorated it! and tonight sarah and i put lights up in the hedge!!! it all looks so lovely and christmasy!!!!! i love it and yes indeed it really is begining to look alot like christmas.....

so if you've no place to go...

so its winter!!!! outside is covered in snow, and its not an uncommon sight to look out the window while working toe see snow flying around. it makes you feel like your in a snow globe. pretty fun!!
ive learnt that when snow stay son teh ground for a littel bit it get sreally really icy and really really slippery!!! so there has been many a slide on the ice walking to work.

i have also learnt that as its soooooo cold outside and soooooo warm inside everytime you enter or leave a place it takes a good few minutes to dress or undress yourself tpoo fut the temperature. i bougty a winter coat and snow pants on teh weekend and it was perfect timing because i wouldnt have made it this far through the week without them!

turns out everything is brigher in the snow and i can walk around at 1am and i can see evrything almost like its the middle of the day! the swimming pond look particularly amazing in the middle of the night and ive decided its my new favourite place. as you get to the end of the forrest just before it opens up into the campfire area, the trees are a littel further apart but still shade the path enougah dn it feels like your walking through narnia. absolutely amazing!!!!

so my extra exciting news for today is the purchase of a snowboard!!! yep its true, im now a snowboarder. im gonna go ahead and guess at least for the first little bit ill be a bad snowboarder but one none the less!!!! tomoro if i get time im going to try it out on the hill in front of the hosue and pray that i can stop before i get to the pond and crack through the ice!!! so sarah and simon you have a new snowboarding buddy when i get home!!!!

thats about it for now. really should go to bed cos its late and i have a ridiculously long day ahead!!!

quick....

hey ho,
just a quick one....about to finish wokr and the internet is still down at home so here it is.....
getting very veyr cold!!! wnet to guelph on teh weekend (about and hour from here) to watch a mates high school footy match! very funny! and very veyr cold. minus 6 infact and we were outside!!! crazy huh! he's definately the most popular guy on his team now aftre having 3 girls 2 of whom are foreign cheering very very loudly all game for him!

the ponds froze over the otehr day but with a little rain and slightly warmer weather they defrosted. apparently this is just temporary.....

tomoro i heda to pennsylvania in the states to do some hardcore shopping with hardcore sales. apparently its nut so im excited!!1 and we are expecting a huge snowstorm 2mroo so that will make driving fun!

we've put up the christmas decorations in the main places at the ranch in teh last 2 days so thats been way fun, listening to christmas carols and decorating trees and putting up lights. i love Christmas!!!!!! we even had a nice little christmas family dinner last night squishing 10 of us around the table and eating by the light of a canlde an dteh tree, and today at lunch we lit the fire in teh dining hall for the first time. tahtw as fun and smokey!

now im off to shannons for a while, shes up from college for the weekend and we're gonna go watch hairspray because frankly who doesnt love hairspray????!!!!

snow and other such things

so last week we had an amazing snow fall- well amaizng for the aussie at least! it stayed on the ground for a whole day!!!! so heres some pics!

the coach house


the hill outside the dining hall across to the circle


the fence...typical canadian country fence


yvonne and i in the snow with our retro headbands

thats pretty much it for now.....maybe heading to guelph for weekend to see a friends championship high school football game. im kinda excited! and also singing at a youth group this friday which is exciting- been missing singing alot. headed to the states the weekend after that for black friday- the hugest sales of the year!!! so shopping spree ahoy!

other than that things are going along as normal. the internet is down at the hosue which sucks, and means blogging n all that jazz gets done less!!! as does booking flights....whoops.

ive found a church that yvonne and i have decided to make our home while we are here. its calle dthe meeting house and its amazing. the idea is that its a church for people who dont like church. the music is top notch and the teaching is just as amazing. the preacher bruxy cavey does an amzing job at getting into the bible in depth while holding your attention. its pretty much everything a church should be. its huge as well which i guess is maybe the one downfall in taht its hard to get to know people (also enhanced by the fact that its an hour away so its hard to hang out with people) but bruxy has adopted yvonne and i as his new foreign friends which is cool. they try to get around the fact that its so big by making home churchs (bible study) their focus for community building. so if we get the chance yvonne and i might look into one. but yeah its great. you should all go and find the sermons on podcast, go to www.themeetinghouse.ca to check out more about it!

hope your well! more soon!

do you speak french?

so we have a band camp in this week at the ranch and tonight they had a latin band come in to play for the kids- it was AMAZING!!!!!!!

the band was absolutely tops, and yvonne being the amaizng pro dancer that she is, taught us how to salsa. so we got to spend the night salsa dancing to sweet music!!!! n then we hung out with the band after and they are great guys. all from cuba- Emmmy you would have LOVED it!

definately the best night ive had in a long time!

viva musica e bailar en cuba

SNOW DAY!!!!!!

so i woke up this morning to my room mate proclaiming that it was snowing out.....in my sleepy daze i fell back to sleep......but when i did ventur eoutside with yvonne an hour later- to our amazemenet it was indeed snowing!!!!!! we laughed all teh wya to the kitchen at the sheer absurdity that it was snowing in november when in theory i should be at the beach with all you sydney siders......i slipped on the stairs to the dining hall! and continued to laugh at the whole thing!

so from there on i ventured into the snow many many man y many times today as i was hosting a few groups in teh ranch and shifting meals from building to building. i also gave anice little introduction speech to a group of school kids who are at ranch for band camp...yes i said band camp......in the snow!!!!! it was fun!

just after lunch it began to snow more and yvonne and i went skipping and running and cartwheeling in the snow!!! much much fun!

sadly though- its not yet cold enough to actually have snow collect on the ground....but we are meant to get about 5cam overnight so hopefully when i venture outside at 7am....it will be venturing into a white covered winter wonderland!!!! heres hoping.....