This is a picture of the view of my in-law’s backyard. Seriously, how winter perfect is that? We have been in this winter wonderland of central British Columbia for the past 8 days, and it is doing amazing things for my search for Misha. When I see thick layers of fresh snow it always leads to day dreaming of snow men, snow ball fights, cross country skiiing (or downhill), sledding and ice skating (All of these to be followed by hot chocolate of course). My inner Misha has not been disappointed yet.
On Christmas Eve my sister-in-law and her fiance rented out a local ice rink for their families for a couple of hours. This was a brilliant idea that resulted in my husband putting on skates for the first time in over 2 decades, and my father-in-law donning his first pair ever. Those who could handle a stick played around with a few pucks, while those of us a little unsteadier kept nearer to the boards. We had everyone a good mix of ages, from 3 years old to those who decline to say and everyone had a great time.
I left about 15 minutes ahead of the pack and came back to quickly finish up some Elfing that I had been stalling on. I needed an couple of moments where my father-in-law was unlikely to walk in (he’s awfully quiet on his feet, so having him out of the house was preferable). The result was probably Misha’s greatest joy of Christmas morning: The Minion.
Now, last year I gave my father-in-law the movie “Despicable Me” and it turned into one of his absolute favorites. My husband and I also loved it, so earlier this winter when hubby was a little stressed out with work I started thinking about how I could make his life easier. The obvious answer was that he needed a minion! So I got to work and came up with this:
Well it was such a hit that my lovely husband turned around and asked if it would be okay to give it to his Pa instead (provided of course that I agree to make a couple more for my husband). This sounded like a good idea so with the giggles of everyone else in the family backing my efforts, I personalized the minion for my father-in-law and ended up with The Christmas Minion:
It was a hit. Apparently the minion has a name now, but he who knows the name controls the minion, so I don’t know what it is. I do know that I definitely have the best in-laws around to help me get back in touch in with my inner 5 year old!
Christmas was a family day with lots of visits and great conversations. My mother even managed to ship a bunch of presents to us here and had a struck a crazy hit with one book in particular. It is the perfect OCD crafty person’s baking cook book. Seriously. “What’s new Cupcake?” is insane, and I am definitely going to have to try out a few of the less extreme options.
The outdoor activities took a little bit of a hiatus for a couple of days as we spent a lot of time together eating, playing board games and visiting. However, on the 27th my mother-in-law outdid herself. The family, grandparents included this time, bundled up and went on a horse drawn sleigh ride up in Rossland, through the woods on old abandoned roads. It was so serenely beautiful, and a lot of fun. At one point four of us got out of the sled and held onto ropes which then towed us along, skating on the surface of the snow in our boots. I fell, but it was fabulous!
Not that this was the end of our winter fun, but I am going to leave you for now with a couple of the stunning pictures of our ride. Enjoy! 
Finding Misha 