This happened tonight

I think you missed a spot

Our annual "Christmas eve twinkle tour" is in the books.... I think this guy may be an overachiever.

That feels like Christmas

You know those clown cars at the circus.... the tiny ones that hold like 674386789376 clowns and how when they start getting out of the car you think "How many more of them could there be in there?"

That was our house last night - only in reverse!

We had most of the Estevan area Muller connection over for supper last night.... 21 people in all loaded into our less than 1000 sq foot house.

It was cozy!  But it was fun.

Big suppers with large crowds in small spaces with fogged up windows and watching World Jr Hockey - that seems like Christmastime.

An Early Christmas Present

My kids gave me this book for Christmas (we opened some of our gifts early).  Really interesting read so far.

10 Unexpected Gifts to Give And Receive This Christmas

The title of this post is taking from an article written by the woman pictured below.

The article is a little long and a little too "fluffy" for me, but it is worth a look even if you only read the headings so that you get the 10 gifts. Then you can read more about the ones that interest you.

Something to think about. Click on the picture to go to the article.

No Half Measures

When our buddies Nathan and Melanie do things, they do them big.

For example.... "Come to the farm for a bonfire" means this.....

(Oh - and they had four of these on the go with three or four more to light up another day)

Well that was certainly..... something

We went to Sari's work Christmas party tonight and it was fun!  Nice people.... good food.... lots of laughs.

They did the traditional gift exchange (where you can either choose an unopened gift or steal an opened one from someone else and make them go back to the unopened pile).  As usual, someone of the gifts were good and some were gags.  Sari's were both "gag gifts" and they got the biggest laughs of the night - so that was fun.

All in all, not a bad way to spend an evening.

Our weekend

In a word, our weekend was..... full!

It started Friday night when Sari mentioned that the drain under the kitchen sink was leaking.  When I took it apart to check it everything fell apart!  The basket part was all rusted as was the pipe leading to the trap.  You could literally break it into little pieces with your fingers. A quick trip to Canadian Tire solved nothing as they didn't not have what I wanted, so it was off to Home Hardware in the morning.

Long story short, I ended up changing everything from the strainer to the drain (the trap, the pipes, etc),  I usually HATE plumbing.... I would rather do electrical or construction or anything thing else any time.... but this ended up working out well so that was good.

Megan's weekend mostly consisted of working..... and she would tell you that while it was "ok" and "good" it was not that interesting (No good stories to tell).

After the plumbing problem was fixed, Sara and Katie spent most of the day doing this.....

So that is nice!  Megan got home and helped and I contributed by eating cookie dough!

Then today after church we had a "Hot Pot Luck" meal and people were encouraged to invite someone who could use a meal or just some friendship,  Several people came out and it was a really nice time.

Then I jumped in a car and headed to Weyburn for a camp board meeting which turned out to be better than I expected.

Back home by 5:30.  Then we ate quickly and headed off to the "Rotary Carol Festival" which was really nice.  Here is our "Carol Festival Selfie" (We are much happier about being there than it looks.... I was trying to take the picture without anyone really noticing so that is what happy looks like when you are in spy mode).

So there you go!  A weekend in our life.  :)

I went to noon hockey for the first time this season and 20 minutes in I felt like....

Fortunately, it got better from there.  :)

Actually it was really fun!  We had 9 guys out there which is about right.  We could of used 3 or 4 more so you would have someone to switch with when you got tired - which for me - as I pointed out already was like three minutes into skating.  

Anyway, I hope to get to play a bunch more over the holidays since we are going to be home anyway.  My NHL dream is not dead yet (Unfortunately to me these days "NHL" stands for "No Hurt Ligaments" or "No Hemorrhaging Later" or "Need Help Leaving" or "New Hernia Limitations")  :)

Sara's HIllcrest Christmas store

Click on the picture to read a story from the paper about the Christmas store at Hillcrest

Tree Trimming 2015

This happened tonight.....

Hmm - Maybe we need to leave town more

So yesterday we went to Minot to shop.... I did not get to a bike shop.... I did not buy anything for myself..... I just went shopping...  and I did not get mad inside at all!!!!

No real grumping!

No hissy-fits!

Nothing!!

Either I am very proud of myself or I am very concerned!

I think it is a sign that I need to get out of town more when getting out of town to go shopping is ok.

Tear down continues

Yee Haw!!!

This came in the mail today.....

It is a cheque for Sari,  In fact, it is her first paying art gig cheque!  Her photography club had pictures on display at the local gallery and, initially, she thought that was all there was to it.  It was just going to be fun having others seeing her work.

And then the big money rolled in!!!

So I am currently trying to decide whether it would be better to travel North America in a Lamborghini or a Ferrari.  Opinions????  As well, how much notice do I have to give at the church before I quit (I have not reviewed that with them in a long time).... oh and I guess we will have to think about whether to keep this house as well as the new one in Italy or whether that is just silly.  We will see I guess.

Oh.... hang on..... I just looked more closely at the amount of the cheque.   Ummm - I guess I better hold off on the Ferrari and the job quitting for a while.....

But we are still proud of her and think that she is super talented!

Besides, baby steps are the first steps, right?  :)

Cool pictures from space

I know that I have posted pics like these before, but I still think that they are cool.

Western Europe (Italy etc)....

Florida and southeastern states.... 

Blog 30: Brain dump

So here we are.... at the end of another "30 blogs in 30 days" (it took me 34 days this time - give or take - I think).

Anyway, just to round out this round, here are some random thoughts.....

1.  A quote I came across recently....  "We used to be proud of what we made and could fix and now we are proud of what we consume"......  I think that is a step backwards.

2.  Coming up with something to write about every day for 30 days is hard!

3.  I need to find a new squash partner or a hockey team to play on or something.... It is gonna be a long winter if I don't!  Any takers????

4. Find me on Twitter at "@timpippus"..... I could use some more followers and some more people to follow

5.  This being December 1 means that today is the official start to the Christmas season in our home. There is a moratorium against Christmas lights/trees/music before this date!  Otherwise, it would be Christmas all year around here.

6.  I am not done blogging....  I don't want to commit to another "30 blogs" with holidays coming up, but keep checking back...... I will still try to write something every day or every other day till the end of the year.