and so the seasons turn.

...for the worse, Keith would say. And there are some things I agree with him about. Such as:

• Driving the short distance from the grocery store to your home causes all of your fresh produce to freeze and it is ruined. We will die of scurvy! I imagine having to crawl back to the store on my rickety legs, and eating raw potato's from the shelf.
  
• Blinking while outdoors is hazardous. Every time you do, your eyelashes freeze together, and when your eyes open, at least a few of them have ripped out. But you don't feel it, because your skin is frozen. Soon, we will all look like we have alopecia.
  
• Having to really consider whether or not to adjust the rear view mirror in the car. Choosing not to, because if you do, the plastic will very likely break (just like that time the door handle snapped off) and then you won't have a mirror at all. So you drive like Quasimoto attempting to see out the back window when having to change lanes.

These things, and others, make winter awful. But there are also some very great things, and I was trying to convince Keith of this the other day.

• In the morning, early, walking to the train. No one else is around, and yours are the only footprints. It is dark, the sky is clear and there are more stars then you remember, and it is so quiet because of the new snow which is crunchy and sparkling.
  
• The sharp intake of excited breath from the kids, who on seeing the new snow want to go outside immediately, even with jammies on under their snowpants to go and play in it.
  
• Christmas lights. Although those inflatables really annoy me.
  
• My birthday.
• Tobogganing down very dangerous hills. Hot chocolate in a thermos.
  
• The sound of shovels scraping all around your neighborhood. It echo's at night and everyone sounds so industrious.
• Having an unspoken contest with your neighbour to see who can shovel each other's sidewalk the most.
  
• Seeing the city lights when driving at night, well, anytime after 4:30 when it is dark, always reminds me of driving to Calgary at Christmas time and we would be sleepy and excited, and we would drive over that last hill and there would be this sea of city lights in front of us and we knew we were there.
  

And those are a few of my favourite things.

In Lieu of Halloween

Here is Georgia, who I am smitten with. She wanted to play with ME, not her mom! I think I now qualify as a fun favourite Auntie!
And here, Big and Little Red have a fun game of peek-a-boo. Again, very cute.
Ah, the Hogwart's express, with Oakley wandering off to do his own thing. Oh Oakley, we should implant you with a GPS microchip.
Eden and Abby together. They were so nice to eachother the whole time! I expected some girlie disagreements, but nope, they were both very happy and sharing the whole time! I am one proud mamma!
Ah, the Butterbeer. That alone is reason to go back again. Butter beer is like a rootbeer float, but with a butterscotch/caramel flavour. Very good!

We had a great time in Orlando, and accomplished some excellent cousin bonding. Thank you Dad for a wonderful fun trip! Everyone had a blast, and many great memories were made.