Christmas, sledding, and loving, then leaving, Alberta

Here is the tree at Mom and Dad's, all ready for the Christmas frenzy. The stuff on the couch is "in" stockings, except for the Leavitts, who used gift bags and borrowed things since we couldn't find ours. While we are all there, the kids sleep out in the "Bunkhouse" which Dad and the menfolk built out in the yard. It is a building with bunks, like the name suggests. The addition this year was our ZoomBox, that projects DVDs onto the wall. That got them to bed earlier (not to SLEEP, just to bed) and kept them there longer, so it was a win-win! Not all 14 cousins can sleep out there at a time, but I think there was 8 or 9 most nights. There are two sets of bunks and a futon.

There was not enough snow in Pincher to sled, but we drove about half an hour to the ski hill and found a great spot beside the road.
It was chilly, but we had a GREAT time! The older boys built a ramp out of two big sleds so we (some of us, anyway) could catch some air and we completely destroyed a little tree that was in the path of our sled track. Later it got revenge by ripping a hole in my BRAND NEW ski jacket. I KNEW we should've hacked that thing down!

The men were out on snowmobiles, so it was the moms that took the kids to the snow. I am not sure if kids or moms had more fun! Once in awhile the wind would kick up and blow some snow around and we would be cold, but for the most part, it was a good day for it.

These photos are stuff we see on the way home - Southern Alberta. Pincher Creek is a great spot for windmills, since the wind never stops, and they are getting to be EVERYWHERE. Some people don't like it, but I think they are graceful and beautiful. This is pretty typical - blue sky ALL the time, and not alot of snow. It often comes after we are gone home and Christmas is over! But the mountains are close and there is snow to be found, if you are looking.

Notice the lack of people. Isaac says "where are all the people?" we said "what people?" and he says "all the people who live here" and we said "there ARE no people who live here!". It is significant, because in India, there is NOWHERE to look that you don't see people. And I mean that. You can't go anywhere at anytime and not see people. They are everpresent. So to look around to the horizon in every direction and see NO ONE, and not even houses or cars or evidence of people, that was remarkable. And very nice :)

So after the presents, and the gift exchange game, and gorging ourselves on food of every kind, and staying up too late and all the good stuff that goes along with Christmas, we headed to Bonnie's for a New Year's Eve party. I am choosing NOT to add the video of the karaoke that went on, altho it is funny! But here is the group with silly hats on. We are a few kids short- since the older ones were at a New Years Dance.

We had arrived in Alberta a few days before Christmas, so Randy and I headed to Spokane to do some banking, pick up some stuff we had had sent to Clancy's, and do some serious shopping. We took only Alex and Isaac, and it was a darn good thing, because Mom and Dad's van was FULL on the way home! We had been to Costco, Target, Dollar Tree and Grocery Outlet, and man, was it GREAT!! All the choices, all the meat and the cheese and stuff we had been deprived of (mmmm, tortillas). It was fun, walking thru Costco throwing stuff in the cart with wild abandon!

After a few more local shopping trips (because I thought the pile was too small!) we had to buckle down and try to get it all into our suitcases. We are allowed 2 checked and two carry-ons each (unless you go thru London or fly OUT of Delhi- then only one carry-on) for a total of 24 bags, and a weight limit of 50 lbs each. We got out the bathroom scale and started with the biggest suitcases first. We had all the kids taking stuff out of the packages (like packets of oatmeal went into ziplock bags) to reduce volume and weight. We had some VERY heavy stuff and some bulky stuff so the first bags were easy. We had packed 5 or 6 and it seemed to me like it was going to be easy so I went shopping again, but when we started packing the next ones....uh oh. Suddenly we had clothes for 6 people and only one small bag left. So I tried to buy a hockey bag (for you non-Canadians out there, a hockey bag is about the largest duffle known to man. It holds all the players pads, skates and uniform. They are HUGE, and I maybe could have squeezed in one more trip to the store!) but they were very pricey and Byron wouldn't sell me one of his :(. We ended up taking Randy's snowmobile gear out of the large duffle he had and using that for all the clothes. We really didn't have too much, remember, because we left most of the cold weather stuff in Canada. It worked! every bag was bulging, and every bag had been weighed and checked and weighed again. We just really hoped Dad's scale was accurate! (On the first trip, we had thought the limit was 70 lbs and had one bag that heavy, so there we were in the airport, every bag open, stuff all over, frantically redistributing everything so we wouldn't get stuck with a fee of a couple hundred bucks.) Anyway, it seemed all right, so we loaded up the truck and off we went. When I say loaded, I mean it. 24 suitcases pretty much fills the truck. This time. Byron and Kathleen drove up with us, plus Dad and some kids.

We got up to the front of the line and started putting the bags on the scale and HALLELUJAH! They all made it!! Every bag was soooo close, but only one bag was over, and that by only a few ounces. whew! I think Isaac's carry-on was too big, but nobody checked it, so no big deal. We have to give all the credit to Randy - he packed and repacked and weighed so many times!
We got all checked in, said our goodbyes, and settled in to wait. I sent Sam down the hall to check for something and she came back saying Aunt Kathleen was down there! Sure enough, on the other side of the bullet-proof glass was some cousins! They couldn't hear us, but we still played around for awhile and took some goofy photos.



Then we got on the plane and left. And I see that this blog is ridiculously long, so the rest of the story will be told in the next blog!

We'll be comin' on the airplane when we come...

The kids are off school for nearly three weeks for Christmas, and our deal with Helac includes airfare twice a year, so we headed home for the holidays! Yahoo! We were all counting the days. We are always excited to head to Canada for Christmas, and we always have lots to do and prepare, but loading up the van is a bit different from packing suitcases for a trip to the other side of the world. We tried to take as little as possible and nest our suitcases so on the way home we could bring as much as possible. We only had 7 suitcases but that was still too many for inside the Innova so on the roof they went. We didn't have any warm clothes here in India anyway, so that helped. We had been making a list on the fridge for 5 months of stuff we wanted to bring back with us. I had left winter clothes, ski pants, coats etc and (I thought) the stockings in Pincher Creek at Mom and Dad's so we would be all prepared. Turns out, altho I may have taken the stockings there, we never did see them :(. Anyway, the flight leaves in the middle of the night, so we were way early at the airport, but that was good, since they changed the gate and nobody announced it, and we stood in a line for 20 minutes before someone came along to tell us that altho there are no signs to indicate, it was the first class queue so we needed to be somewhere else, etc etc. I wish I could show pictues of the airport - I think you can't take any, but you wouldn't believe it. It is so not modern. Low ceilings, no restaurants or bank machines, no signage, very prinmitive security (Xray your checked bags here, then get them back and walk around for while then they will Xray your carry-on -and of course, yoiu have already moved the drugs and weapons to your other bag in the meantime- and if they are ok we mark them with a tiny sticker and we zip-tie some of the pockets, but not all - you get the idea), lousy facilities for screening (everybody packs into a hallway to remove their shoes, get wanded, patted down, bags searched and re-shoed while others try to get past you down the narrow hall) very little seating, etc etc. NOT what you expect from an international airport. Anyway, stand here, move there, wait here, sit there, stand here some more and then we were on the plane. It is a LOOOOOOOOOONG flight direct to Chicago - about 15 hours. They like to put us in one long row, since I guess it is preferable to climb over ones family members than strangers when you have to go potty, but we hate it. Everytime we ask for window and aisle and everytime we get the long row in the middle. And there is 5 seats, so Randy sat across the aisle. And I sat amongst the kids. Is he slipping them a fiver to make that happen?? Anyway, we were tired so we all slept a long time, arrived in Chicago to discover delightedly that you can drink DIRECTLY from the water fountains (oh joy!!) and ALL the toilets have seats (no squatters!) and McDonalds serves BEEF in their burgers (we'll take 8 cheeseburgers please), there were wreaths and Christmas trees to look at, and (in the immortal words of Isaac Leavitt) "we have our camoflauge on here" when he noticed that it was harder to find his family among all the white faces waiting for flights! Isaac was the most vocal in expressing happiness to be in North America - he spontaneoulsy burst into My Country Tis of Thee in the bathroom :) but it was relaxing to be where things were familiar. The airport is huge, of course, and had some really cool lights in the big underground walkway - Sam took photos.
We changed to a smaller plane for the trip to Calgary (we got to walk across the tarmack - I love that!!) and sat in pairs all over the plane. In Chicago we had realized that Randy's blackberry didn't work, so we couldn't call to say flights were on time. We were not sure what would happen in Calgary, but when we walked out of customs we immediately spotted Dad, and Aunt Dora and Uncle Bill! Dad had just made it there, because on the way, he stopped for gas in Claresholm and didn't have a wallet, so he had to wash a lot of dishes to get out of there :) No, but he did have to wait for someone to bring his wallet from PC. Aunt Dora got quite a bit of mileage out of that story :). It's fun when your little brother loses his marbles first, I guess. Anyway, Randy had dreamed of a Peter's burger for about 3 months, so we loaded up and headed directly to Peter's. It was a nice day, but still a bit nippy for eating outside, especially when you don't have a coat! We were saved when Bonnie and Janae showed up, with coats, to eat lunch, and to take us and our luggage, which certainly wouldn't fit in one minivan. Afterwards, the girls went to Ikea (aaaah, the promised land) and the men went to a tool place (aaaah, the promised land) then to Pincher Creek.
Stay tuned for the return trip! (with 24 pieces of luggage....)




This is Calgary from the Deerfoot Trail. Look at the blue sky. And hardly any trash on the roadside. And barely any smog. Aaaaaah, home.