Day 50 in the Arctic

For those of you who have read the December issue of Canadian Living, you may have read the following little gem:

"This is the true north strong and free, and cold and wet and icy and dark-sometimes all at once. It's why God invented long johns. This is Canada. We have winter. Life sucks. Get a toque. And embrace it."

- Rick Mercer

Words to live by - especially when you live in the Knife!!

With the weather hitting -20 degrees Celcius, we definately are feeling the need to bundle up more and more. I cracked and bought winter boots from Weaver & Devore, which are wonderful as my feet are staying toasty warm and I am not slipping and sliding all over the dense ice packed roads. I am surprised at how "not bad" -20 is in Yellowknife when you dress for the weather! ("Not bad" is my discription for all things Yellowknife -tee hee!) I think I may have to purchase snowshoes... maybe cross country skis, the winter wonderland outside looks far to enticing to not be out having some fun!

Elliott and I have been meeting many new people in the past little while, which has been great. A few days ago we watched the Santa Claus Parade, which was an absolute hoot! All of the quads, skidoos, trucks and floats in the parade were lit up with christmas lights, all the townsfolk were just a waving away at everyone. When Santa came it was sheer magic. Even Elliott was waving and cheering for Santa. (Actually - he did the same when the fire and police floats drove by... lol, how old is he?)

Life continues to roll along in the Knife!

A wintery scene in Old Town

Malcolm in his personalized snowsuit

And Liv

My two babies

Ell et moi on our one year wedding anniversary!

When I was a Southerner...

I thought the Arctic was a wild, untamed, bitter land of nothing. Hey, I wasn't that wrong as it turns out! Just kiddin, Yellowknife thankfully has most of the major requirements for any city dweller to survive.

Before the Big Move, I became somewhat deranged and obsessed with finding the warmest parkas manufactured for the average Arctic dweller to survive in the ridiculously cold -50 degree Celsius weather. So I set about Googling, as any gal would do in my situation, and then weeded out the imitators and discovered the mighty Canada Goose parka. Ever heard of them? I sure hadn't, however, numerous internet sites and blogs rated them as being a must for every North of 60-er. Excellent. Next came the process of locating where to buy them, I mean, surely they would be hard to come by in YK....... Surely they would.

I located a retailer in Kelowna who sells them and Elliott and I set off to discover the magic that is the Canadian Goose. When I first saw these fashion "nightmares", I was sure I would Never don such a garment. There was just no way. These things are gigantic, heavy as all get out, and sport a massive, coyote fur lined hood. I remember clearly standing in my cute summer outfit, starring at myself in wonder and revulsion in the tiny mirror in the store. I had FULLY convinced myself that I would just have to freeze "up north", when my wonderful husband said these life changing words... "Awe Hunny, you look so cute wearing that!"

Seriously. My husband who does not compliment me after I say, change my hairdo, or sport a fab new outfit... thinks I look cute in a Canada Goose parka? Sold.

Last night Elliott and I tried the Muttluks on the kids once again. Strangely and somewhat miraculously they "got it" and did not resist the Muttluks! All of a sudden they were prancing around the house in ALL 4 booties!! Even Malcolm!! Unbelievable! So out we set to try them outdoors. That was the second time I wore the parka, and I must say I am very, very happy with it. Not a breath of cold air can penetrate the beast that is the Canada Goose. They truly are a must for every Arctic Adventurer. (And I filmed some hilarious "Malcolm barreling through the snow" actionnnnn! Tee Hee!)

Life in the Knife continues on!

xoxo

(P.S) When we were at Mark's Work Wear House the other day, I noted that they probably had... oh at leaaaaaaaaast... maybe... two hundred or so CG parkas in stock...

Here are some of my favourite photographs to date that I have taken with my new camera! (Old uploads! Still boycotting uploading new ones until the new XPS arrives!)

My beautiful girl!


(I love that Alex P. Keaton is on t.v. in the background of this shot... lol)

Happily celebrating a Rangers win! Livvie looks disturbed by all the commotion!

Handsome Elliott

LOLs! No, I didn't take this one, but for those of you who need a laugh, go to www.yearbookyourself.com and you can also create a beaaaautiful yearbook photo as well. (Sister - isn't it spooky how much that ressembles your Grade 12 grad photo?!?!?!!!!!)

Pictures!!!

Here are some photos from the past month for your viewing enjoyment!
Since being in the Arctic, I have aged another year and Elliott and I celebrated our one year wedding anniversary.


For my birthday Elliott bought me beautiful flowers, a lululemon outfit and took me to the nicest restaurant in town. It was a beautiful meal with a lovely bottle of Okanagan wine! So delish. So thoughtful and well planned by my wonderful husband! *Tear* ;-)




We also made it through Halloween and had lots of cute kids come collecting candy. (My kids being the cutest, of course!)






In celebration of the big ONE YEAR of marriage, Elliott and I went to the swanky Sunday buffet at the Explorer Hotel. Again, it was fab! For all of you who are planning a trip to visit us... (Haha!! Please, someone come!!) we will hit up both of these places as they are a must.

Miss you all!!
xoxo

Snow

Ahhh!! It is working!! For the past few weeks, I have been unable to write anything on blogspot! Tonight it works.

It's snowing in the Arctic. Let me clarify: I am not talking about "scattered flurries". Not "light snow". It is full on heavy snowfall. The last time that I have saw snow at this magnitude was back in the day of good old White Juan, when the snow in Mom and Dad's driveway higher than my waist. Sigh.

It just keeps falling. In the Okanagan we would have flurries. Scattered flurries. I grew up with snow in NS. I grew up with cold in NS. However, after two glorious years sans neige et sans froideur, I feel incredulous at the amount of white stuff coating everything and the dry, bitter cold seeping into my bones. Last night Elliott went out shovelling and was up to his knees in snow on our back patio. He was wearing snow pants and his Canada Goose and was so hot from his gear, steam was coming off his head when he stopped for a break. (Will post photos soon! Waiting for the new laptop to arrive before I upload new photos.)

Life in Yellowknife continues. The roads are ridiculously snow and ice covered. There are already mammoth snowbanks growing on the sides of the road and in parking lots. People are zipping around towns on their skidoos, or sleds as they are called in YK. (Wanna go sledding?! Has a totally different meaning north of 60 than at home!)

Tonight was grocery night, a night I a beginning to dread. A LOT. Walmart in town is tiny and very gloomy feeling inside the store. It is like a mini warehouse with Walmart crap plunked down inside. It is a common sight to walk down an aisle and see the majority of the shelves empty. However success was had tonight when I found a new shower curtain!!! Yippeee!! For all of you "Southerners" (This is what you are called by the population of us crazy north of 60ers) finding a shower curtain at Walmart may not be a "BIG DEAL". In the Knife, we have maybe 3 stores that would even sell them, selection is paltry to pathetic on a good day, so I almost leapt out of my skin with JOY! when I found my treasure.

Then we slipped and slided over to Extra Foods. A lovely store for this town with the same phenomena occurring, where half the shelves are empty at times... For the most part, I love this store. It carries an amazing selection of items for this tiny, isolated town in the middle of nowhere. For that I am thankful, believe that. HOWEVER. The checkout system at this store is enough to make my worn, fragile nerves dissolve into thin air.

Picture this: Elliott and Natalie, cart full, overflowing even, heading to the checkout. Normally there is a line up of fellow townsfolk about ten people deep. Of the 12 or so checkouts, two, MAYBE three will be open. Everyone stares at the closed checkouts praying and plotting on how to overtake the crowd, incase a new one opens up. (Ok, maybe that is just me. ) The cashiers are all young, teenyboppers possessing zero experience in the cashiering world. Ok. Just breathe. So, Natalie starts to unload the groceries from the cart onto the conveyor belt. Teenybopper is deeply engrossed in a conversation with "SHUT UP!!!" "No WAY!!!" "OH MY GAWWWD!!" being exclaimed numerous times throughout her important, work related conversation with her colleague and customer. Natalie then discovers the cap to her Organic Milk (Which she was so DARN happy to find... seriously, organic milk tastes soooooo much better than the regular) So the cap is half off, and the contents of the container are half leaked all over her massive cartload of groceries and there is now a big blob of organic milk spreading along the conveyor belt. Danggggggg y'all, that sucks. So, very politely, professionally even, Natalie interrupted this worldly and highly important conversation. Teenybopper glances at Nat and continues chattering away. Natalie stays calm as that is one of her finer qualities in life and repeats, "Excuse me, do you have a cloth or something, so I can wipe up all this spilled milk that is everywhere." Teenybopper is then able to acknowledge this ridiculous request from this clearly crazed and unreasonable customer. "No." Natalie maintains her cool and requests if maybe she could find something as there is milk covering her groceries and now the conveyor belt. Crying over spilled milk would of course, be silly. Teenyboppers starts shouting out..." Umm, Nicoleeeee, do you like have any paper towel or something. Yeah. I need some. No. Ok. Marrrrrrrrrrrrrrrk. Um, do yooooou have any paper towel or something? Yeah, there's milk spilled. Oh you do? I don't have any. Can I like, borrow your roll? Yeah, Thanks!!"

Natalie cleans milk like a trooper. Elliott has gone off in search of a non faulty topped milk. Groceries are being scanned. We had many, many groceries. (I only grocery shop once every two weeks as I cannot handle the continuous bizzare behaviour of the staff of the Extra Foods... I digress. ) Sigh, back to the Great Grocery Escapade... Once I get all the groceries loaded onto the conveyor belt, I realize that the scanned groceries have ended on the other conveyor belt, *surprise* there is no one bagging them. Elliott has at this point just returned with the wondrous Organic Milk. (SERIOUSLY... it will be worth the hassle.)

Now the process of bagging one zillion groceries with no help begins... fine, I am not physically handicapped in any way that would prevent me from doing this, but after spending $350 at Extra Foods, wouldn't it be nice to have a littllllllle help? Am I out of line on this one... clearly I am. I'm such a dang southerner. So, the grocery order has been paid for and Elliott and I are madly trying to bag and load up the cart. Teenybopper, starts ringing in the next customer. Before we realize, their groceries are piling up next to our groceries... it was a madhouse. (Where did Third Person Go? I was enjoying it... )

Then I realize that my orange juice carton has also been half ripped open and is leaking everywhere.

BIG SIGH.

I alert Teen. to this fact and request she call someone to get me a new one. Teeny2 comes along, repeats "Tropicana" and is on his merry way to find me a replacement. By the time we finished, Teeny2 was not to be found. I had to set off to find him. He was just stopping to chat to his coworker, then couldn't remember what oj he was searching. Not kidding.

Should this be highly complicated procedure of buying groceries? Nope. Is it every time I go? Yep. (Coop, the "other" grocery store in town has much higher prices than EF. So I shop at EF.) Intentions people, it is all about intentions...

Snow... crazy grocery shopping... waiting for new laptop so I can upload photos... that basically sums up my life to date.

Till the next time,
xoxo