A Backwoods Christmas.

Not much different than other peoples Christmas’s, but here is how our Christmas traditions go about. Well the craft sales, the Santa clause parades, and Putting the tree up (as I already posted) are the first of our Christmas traditions, but what's after them?

My nine year old sister was the angel for
the school Christmas concert this year.

Well the next step closer to Christmas for us is the school Christmas concert. This year four of my siblings were in it.(My brother chickened out and went to cadets instead) After that things start to really feel like Christmas.

I took cow with us to my uncles.
Here he is on my shoulder
during the ride there.

Our next tradition is celebrating Christmas a few days early at my Uncle and Aunts place. This year the day we intended to go visit my relatives, the roads were really bad because of a storm the day before. So our uncle escorted us all the way to his house incase we slipped off the road. When we got there my aunt had a feast ready for us. (She knows us kids eat a lot) Then we hung out for a bit, and then opened gifts.                    

Siblings opening gifts. They are excited!

Our first video game. I wonder what mom thought about that?
(Uncle laughing in the background)

After that comes Christmas Eve. We went to the evening mass and my mom played her flute. My siblings made up most of the pageant. (The play that describes the birth of Christ) and my three year old sister brought the baby Jesus up all the way to the manger of the church nativity set. When we got home my parents sent the kids off to bed and they wrapped the gifts while I decorated the tree and house. Then came Christmas morning. I’m not as young I was before. I didn’t want to get out of bed, but I new my siblings were eager to open gifts, so I dragged myself out. We all gathered around the tree, still in our pyjamas, and began to open our gifts one at a time.

While decorating I decorated my baby sisters head too.

Eagerly waiting to open the gifts.

Wearing the pretty head pieces my
eleven year old sister gave them. 
Well now it’s New Years day. I’m not at the best start for a New Year. I’ve got a cold/fever/flu all in one. (Not a surprise, I rarely get sick in the summer, always get sick in the winter) My wish for this year is that I don’t get a cold again. (Not very realistic) so maybe I’ll wish that my whole family and pets will live another year. Or that I will be able to see the next part of the hobbit in the theatre when it comes out. Or that I won’t fail my exam. Or that less people will go hungry, or maybe all these wishes. Anyhow I hope you all enjoy your New Years more than I am. 2013 here I come.( with my fever, flu, and cold.)

  
 

 Experimental Crafting.

Today was a snow day (a day when buses don’t run because of weather) so all us kids were home. My sickness is starting to go away so I felt that I could at last do something productive. I fed my duck, chickens, and cats, did some writing, and even ate some breakfast. (Which I don't normally do) Then my little sisters gave me a problem to solve. Every other tree in the house has something like a star, angel, or Santa on top except for theirs. Unfortunately we don't have any more store bought tree tops to put on top of their tree. So that was my mission. To provide for the top of their tree. So this is what happened.


I went to my jewelry box and pulled out my beads, wire, and tools, and decided to try to make a tree top star out of all this. (My brother and I make jewelry for fun, so we have a lot of stuff we use for jewelry making) I was a little disappointed that my wire guage was a very thin one, not very stable, but I didn't have any thicker wire left so I had to make do. I called my little sister down and we started our experimental craft. I let my sisters choose the colours and they chose pink, red, yellow, and orange.

Little brother exploring
my collection of beads.

Sister threading her beads on a strand of
wire.

We decided that it should be a four point star, because it would be easier to make, so each girl Start to thread a wire with their colour beads. After four strands of wire were strung with beads, I attached two wires together, then crossed two strands of these strands, and added a bead in the middle, which was the hardest part of the whole project. After that, excited by the looks of their creation, they eagerly headed for their their tree and we attempted to put up their star. Unfortunately as I had suspected the wire was to flimsy, and the star kept toppling over. However we found that if we hung it on the tree it looked very nice. So our tree top story ends as we didn't get a tree top, but we did get a very pretty Christmas tree ornament.


Our finished creation.

We liked them so much we made more.

Candles, Candles,

 and more Candles!!

One very popular craft or trade that we do in our house is candle making. My mom has a table covered in candles and stuff she uses to make them. They cast such a heavenly smell throughout the house, it’s really very pleasant. Just the right smell for the Christmas season. She does the candle making most of the time by herself, but sometimes she lets us help with stuff like cutting and hanging up the wick.

My mom's collection of candles.



The stove she heats the beeswax on.



The melting beeswax



Snipping the wick on the candles to proper size.

The hanging wicks just dipped in wax. ( babies love to play with these)

Oh Christmas Tree!!

Today we (well my family, I was too ill to go) hiked in the bush and came out with Three Christmas spruce trees!!! One for the main room, my room, and my sibling’s room. My parents let each bedroom have a tree of its own, because we kids love to decorate. They find it too stress full having all the kids helping out on the main tree, so us kids do the trees in the bedrooms and my parents do the main tree by themselves.

Laying down the garbage bags to catch the pine needles.

My sister puting a bucket of sand down that will used
to keep the tree upright.

Another sister lifting the tree into the bucket of sand.

One sister holding up the tree, while the other sister puts more
sand in the bucket, and adds water.

The tree is up and our gifts to friends and siblings
are under it. Tomorrow we hope to decorate!!

Cow’s Morning.

Hello there, can you open the window and let me in?

This is more like it.

Until she comes to play with me.

   My Cats.

 I (at the moment) have four cats. Rather upset about Tints death, I have gone overboard in keeping my remaining kittys alive. Even though my mom’s allergic to cats, I’ve managed to be allowed to sneak them in through my basement window at night.  The weathers getting colder, and I don’t want them to freeze, or be run over by night drivers. I’ve taken some cute pictures of them playing in my room.


Cow goes for Starburst's tail.



Starburst's tail goes up, Cow eyes it playfully.

Cow jumps, and pulls Starburst's tail down.

Snowy days.

Well this week the snow fell for good. We are stuck with it, probably till April, unless global warming kicks in (which it never seems too) Still snow has its good times as well as bad. Unfortunately I just had an ear surgery, so I can’t enjoy the snow like my siblings can. Instead I’m stuck in bed with something pathetic keeping the blood from dripping out of my ear. Still if I was in good condition, this is what I would be doing.

Picking up a sled and heading to the hill...



Getting on the sled...

then going down....

then picking up the sled and doing it all over again.

I know this is an average thing to do in the winter, but hey, it allways is lots of fun.