Winter Wonderland

This Christmas we got over 2 feet of snow! It is absolutely beautiful. We live on a pretty quiet street that has a lot of mature trees. So going for a walk or a drive is just amazing, the snow on the evergreens is magical. Yes it does make it a little bit more difficult to drive, but it is truly beautiful. I often think that I would love to live somewhere warm for the whole year, but when we get a snowfall like this one, I just know that I would miss having the snow. The snow is also a lot of fun to play in. The snow banks are really high, they are definitely taller than my oldest son Clayton. Clayton and Cooper stayed overnight with their grandparents this week, the night that we got a lot of snow. My dad and Clayton went outside to play in it, and Clayton literally couldn't walk in the snow, so my dad ended up putting him in a really big snow shovel and pushed him around! I wish they had got a picture! Ben set up a slide in our backyard, and a path to the slide, so the kids have had a blast going up and down that. The same morning that the kids were at my parents place, Ben and I went for a long snowshoe. We went to a place in Ottawa called Bruce Pit. You can walk your dogs in there, and there are a lot of different paths. Ben and I didn't want to go on the beaten paths, since we had snowshoes, we figured we should make our own. At one point we had no idea where we were, we thought we were headed towards our car, however when we asked a couple of guys that we ran into, they said we were going in the complete opposite direction!! Oops!!! The snow was so fluffy and light, and the trees were  very picturesque, at times it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere, in the mountains somewhere. It was great and a nice treat to be kid free for a  while. 

Previously I have posted pictures of Ben's man cave, in the fall, but here it is in the winter. Doesn't it look cozy? It also gives you a good idea of just how much snow fell this week. 

This is the view of the backyard from the Maple Room. Today was a perfect day with the clear blue sky, and the sun shining!

This room is really great at this time of year because there is a fireplace. It is so warm and cozy being able to sit inside by the fireplace, with a good book, and just look out at the view. I could spend hours in here!

One of the coolest things about Ottawa during the winter is Winterlude. This is a festival that celebrates winter. In Ottawa there is the Rideau Canal, and in the winter it is the world's largest natural skating rink. One of the biggest attractions for Winterlude is to go for a skate on the canal, and while you go for a skate, you can't leave without getting a beavertail. This is another Ottawa tradition  It's a pastry that typically has cinnamon and sugar on it. There is nothing like skating and then warming up with a beavertail and a hot chocolate. The beavertail gets just a little crispy from the cold, but still warm.....mmm so good.

There are a lot of other things to do in Ottawa during Winterlude, but the other 2 more popular attractions are the ice sculptures, and Jacques Cartier park. If you are in town you definitely need to check them out! The festival runs for almost three weeks in February. Febraury 1 to 18! For more information check out the website,
http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/celebrate/winterlude

And of course our Bed and Breakfast would be the perfect place to stay while enjoying the fun of Winterlude!
http://www.canadascapital.gc.ca/celebrate/winterlude
Happy New Year!!!!

Christmas Time

Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year. It's a great time to be with friends and family. There is always a lot of good food to be had. I looove food, so that is very exciting for me. If there is snow, it's usually very beautiful, especially the snow covered evergreens. The decorations are beautiful. There are always a lot of fun parties happening! And most importantly we get to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I think that our pastor on Sunday morning said it best, God did not send Christ, so that we could have a holiday. God sent us Christ so that we could have life! A life full of love, grace, hope and peace!

This past weekend we started off our Christmas season with a bang! We had 2 potlucks. One was at our church. It was a lot of fun. There is always good food and a ton of laughs to be had. This year we had a photo booth, with props for people to put on to take their pictures in. There were santas, and elves, and reindeers!! It was hilarious! Then on Sunday, Ben and I hosted a Christmas party for Ben's team. It was great. This is the first year that we had our own team party. We had over 25 people come!!! That means our team is growing and that we have some really amazing people in our lives who we are getting know, and who we are having a ton of fun working with!  The food was also amazing; there was some chicken that was just incredible, as well as some homemade dumplings! So good.

For our party of Sunday I decorated our house all Christmasy and stuff. Here are some of the decorations that I put together this year. This is an idea that I got off of Pinterest. It's not exactly what they had, but I was working with thing that I had in my house. I didn't want to have to go out and buy more things. I love it because it was easy to do. All  I had to do was spray paint some wine bottles we had around the house, and then put some pretty flowers in.

 I think that this is the smallest Christmas tree, that we have ever gotten. But it fits perfectly in the space. After getting this smaller one, I am not sure why I ever felt the need to get  a bigger Christmas tree. They just take up a lot more space. Clayton helped us decorate this year. He was so excited to help! It was great! He put all the hooks on the decorations, and he put the beautiful "star" on top, his choice...

Here you will see our stockings. We really only had(have) three, but it didn't seem right not to have anything up for Cooper, so we added an Elmo slipper that we had lying around the house for him! It's so little and cute!! Today a friend of mine asked Clayton what he wanted to get from Santa Claus, and Clayton's answer was that he wanted a stocking to put on his foot!!! The story behind that is while we were putting up the stockings Ben put his on his foot like a sock, and then of course Clayton proceeded to put his stocking on his foot. Monkey, see monkey do right. Anyways I guess Clayton thought that was pretty cool, and that was what Santa would be doing with the stockings.. I am not sure he fully gets Santa yet....

Anyways I hope you enjoyed the blog today! I really do hope that you enjoy your Christmas season, and that you have a ton of fun while you are celebrating this absolutely wonderful time of year! And if anyone would like to come on over for some breakfast just let me know, we would love to have you over! Blessings!