HOPE

The Christmas spirit, the spirit of hope, the spirit of giving, is something most people give up when Christmas is over. Even now as I shove the last of the leftover turkey in the fridge, return the last gift and shelve my Boxing Day bargains, I think about how I have already shifted my personal focus from giving, to getting. Getting things done, getting things put away, getting things cleaned up and getting back in shape.
I have to admire people who are able to spread the spirit of hope and giving all year long. For some it comes naturally and effortlessly, I wish I was one of those people. Apparently some of this spirit spreading exists in my genes, but my sister got most of it.
Right now, while I, a self absorbed, single white female, lick the icing off the last Christmas cupcake, my sister, Nicole Farn and her husband, Troy are stepping off a plane in Costa Rica, all of their possessions on their backs, ready to learn Spanish and spread hope and empowerment to several Central American communities!
She, a successful Civil Engineer in Edmonton and he, a city fireman decided to sell their acreage, most of their material things, and trade in the life of a “dual income, no children family” for a selfless, simple life of helping those in need! They have signed up to be part of several volunteer projects in various different villages and countries. These two are on a mission to keep the Christmas spirit, the spirit of hope, the spirit of giving, alive for a whole year and they intend to keep it alive for people they don’t even know!
Not everyone can, or even wants to give up all possesions or comforts. Not everyone can imagine a year without turkey, shopping or cupcake icing, but, somewhere deep inside each of us, we wish we could be a part of the incredible unselfish quest that some embark upon. The Farns are going on selfless journey around the world and we can be a small part of it by following along with them on thier blog: http://thefarnyard.blogspot.com/2008/11/sold.html Bon Voyage Farns! Good luck, we love you!

CHRISTMAS ANGELS

Have you ever seen a more angelic bunch?  

We got Tucker when times were sad,

To cancer, we had just lost our dad.

 Tucker, all furry and black,

 Gave us all our smiles back.

We had someone to fill the empty space,

someone who licked kisses on every face.

For loving us through the pain felt in our family,

Tucker will always be an angel to me!

Duke came as a Christmas mystery

a gift of love for Troy he was meant to be.

But his freckly nose and his wicked farts

quickly won over everyone's hearts.

He has grown to be a giant who's gentle and kind

athletic and loyal with a super sharp mind.

The way he gives the Farns and mom unconditional love

I gotta believe he's an angel from above!

Scout came to us just because, 

and she brings us happiness like nothing else does!

Her tongue licks at warp speed

and on the carpet she has peed,

but that's what adorable puppies do

 and it won't stop us from loving her too!

For cuddling with everyone all the time

Scout qualifies as an angle of mine!

Jasper wasn't here to celebrate this time around

and though he pees when you make a high pitch sound,

he loves to chase his ball and swim for sticks

in fact he's got a wide array of tricks.

He'll follow a mountain bike for miles

and lick your face until it's covered in smiles.

He's a protector, sleeping at the foot of the bed,

and for that reason he's an angel in my head!

This season, whenever a bell rings,

I am sure one of our puppies gets their wings!

CELEBRATE!

Happy Holidays!! I am still riding the "high" that Christmas brings! I gotta say, this was one of the best Christmas' I have had in a long time! All 7 of us, mom, Nic and Troy, Aim and Shane and Marty and I were together for 5 days over Christmas.  The 6 of us and three dogs walked into mom's house and it instantly felt like Christmas! Everything was decorated, the tree was up, there was food galore and big hugs all around.  There was nothing but happy memory making from the minute we walked in the front door until the minute we stepped out to head back home!  

This Christmas was extra special,we got to celebrate a lot! Christmas morning came, we clebrated! News came that my cousin had her baby, we celebrated.  Nic and Troy were preparing to leave on a journey of a lifetime, for them, we celebrated.  Mom, Nic and Shane all have birthdays in January so, since we were all together, we celebrated and.....Aimee and Shane got engaged so we were lucky to be able to celebrate that too!  It was weird how all of the things we celebrated brought both smiles and tears to the party.  Christmas morning always first brings smiles, but tears soon fell when us three girls opened a special gift from mom. She had made a book for each of us with photos of all of Dad's race T-Shirts and his other favorite shirts. Outsiders may not understand, without seeing the book, how something like that could make all three of us cry, but just seeing the T-shirts brought back so many happy memories.  The tears were right from our hearts, not tears of sadness, tears of happy times remembered.  

News of my cousin's baby brought mostly smiles, but some small tears over the fact that we couldn't be there to help welcome the new miracle into the world.

Nic and Troy having the opportunity to travel and volunteer and explore the world is exciting but tears came when we realized these were the last few days we'd be seeing them for a WHOLE YEAR!!!!  

The birthdays brought mostly laughter and smiles, but since the celebration involved a trip to a comedy club, there were tears of laughter streaking down most of our faces at some point or another.

The engagement was incredible.  It happened right there in front of the Christmas Tree and our whole family right after gift opening Christmas morning!  As soon as we saw the box, we started crying from sheer emotion over what was about to happen!   Laughter and smiles soon followed as we realized how lucky we were to be chosen to witness the event!

Yep, this was a Christmas of celebrating as a family and it will be one we we remember for a long time.  We laughed, we cried, we loved and we celebrated all together!  

Happy Holidays!

THE VENTI

I got a venti coffee this afternoon and then headed to the airport to pick up my sister and Shane from the airport.  They were flying in from Colorado to spend Christmas with all of us here in Canada!  I was sooo excited, Aimee hasn't been home for 2 years and I got to be the one to pick her up from the airport!!  

I am fairly anxious when it comes to being places on time, especially places I am not familiar with finding in Calgary's crazy traffic, so I left early, really early.  I got to the airport with plenty of time to spare and drove through the "Arrivals" loop twice, just to make sure I knew where I was going to pick them up. Satisfied that I had a plan, I drove to the new "Cell phone waiting area" and parked my car.  I had my coffee, a tabloid magazine, the Kenny and Dolly Country Christmas CD and my seat heaters so I was comfy while I waited for Aim to call.  There were several other cars in the lot, obviously waiting for planes to arrive so I wasn't alone.  I caught up on Tom and Katie, Paris Hilton, Jenn and Brad and Angelina while I sipped my Starbucks Venti Latte.  Delicious!  It wasn't long before I felt the urge to pee. It was just a little urge, so I ignored it.  Eventually the little urge turned into one I could not ignore.  I looked around but there were no washroom facilities in sight.  I tried to tell myself I could hold it and wait, but I had already been waiting and I could not wait anymore.  The feeling became overwhelming, almost painful.  Apparently a Venti is way bigger than my bladdar!  The car at the end of the row left to meet his passengers and I steered my jetta over to his spot.  I was going to have to pee right there in the parking lot, I had no other options!  I got out of the driver's seat, walked over to the passenger side, opened the door, quickly squatted beside it and peed.  I only had enough nerve to squat there for a few seconds, peeing long enough to relieve the pressure before pulling up my jeans and heading back to the driver's side!  I can see the headlines now "French Teacher relieves herself in public...." let's hope no one got a real close look!!!

Mental Note, "do not drink a venti coffee while sitting in the Cell Phone waiting area!!!!!"

TAZMANIAN DEVIL

I often feel like the Tazmanian Devil, like everything I do, is done in a whirl wind at top speed!  Marty one the other hand is NOT a Tazmanian Devil in any way, shape or form!  This means we are complete opposites and most of the time, this polar difference creates an awesome balance that makes our lives peaceful, exciting and fun.  Every now and then though, it drives us crazy!  Tonight is an example.  After supper we had to head into the West Hills shopping area as Marty needed to pick up items to create booze gift baskets for the head offices of his accounts.  I figured while we were there, we could swing by the grocery store so I could buy some pie making ingredients (I am making cherry pie for Christmas dinner at mom's.)  The shopping trip was actually pretty quick. With the crowds in this city, how can you not be motivated to get the hell out of all shopping centers as quickly as possible.  Once home though, Marty's productivity level seemed to slow way down!  At least in my eyes!  

I bounded out of the van, carried my groceries up the stairs and immediately started making a batch of caramel popcorn twists.  While the twists were baking, I put together my pie and made a pitcher of Irish Cream, mom has a great recipe for this.  :) In between all of this I must have done the dishes a dozen times!  Marty, carried up all of the booze, arranged them into three baskets and wrapped them in cellophane....that's it, nothing else.  Oh, my pie just came out of the over (it is 10:50) and Marty has just now started writing cards to put on his baskets.  I am not leaving anything out, he didn't take breaks, he didn't even turn on the TV, he has been making three baskets since 8:30pm!  The baskets are perfect though and to be honest, I think his progress was slowed by his little helper....check out the photos and you'll see what I mean.  :)

BOOTIES!!

Wow, 'tis the time of year when life is crazy busy, not much time to write...not until I am ready for Christmas!  Between the baking, cleaning and present wrapping, Scout and are suffering from "cabin fever!"  We are tired of being contained in this little condo because of the weather!  This cold snap has been hard on us both, so the other day, I went out and bought Scout some booties, so that her feet could handle some cold weather walks and the salty roads!  She hated them at first but after today's walk, I am sure she has changed her mind!  I let her off leash and she ran and ran and played in the deep snow with her booties on!!!  I had sooo much fun watching her and she had so much fun enjoying the freedom that having warm feet gave her!  

END OF MY LEASH

Today I went to see the chiropractor. My shoulders were sore! Not, "I just did 3 sets of 15 shoulder presses" sore, but weird, not normal sore. The chiropractor confirmed that I had pulled the muscles in my shoulder and that some of the joints in my neck were out of whack. Wait, let me rephrase that, Scout, had pulled the muscles in my shoulders! She is a big girl and she and I love to walk together, but Scout has become very curious, as puppies do, and though she tries, she can't always resist the urge to run after fat, furry bunnies, coffee cup lids, candy wrappers, snowbanks, and strangers...while I am attached to her!! I get that puppies chase after things, and at first it was kind of cute and only slightly annoying, but now that Scout is HUGE, her, more than occasional "pulling" has become irritating and painful! I woke up this morning and could hardly lift my arms above my head!

I had seen on the show "End of my leash," the dog training show, that it is more effective to have the lease around your waist than in your hand, so I decided to try that today. Talk about awkward! I had the retractable leash and huge mittens on, not a combo for success!

We start puppy classes in January, sure hope my body can hang in there until then!