Well for the new year we went up to visit my family. It really seemed like I had seen most of them just a little while ago, since we had seen them around "US Thanksgiving". At the same time the visit was way to short... especially when you consider the time of year and how busy it gets when you add a few family get together's. That really fills a day up quickly!
We drove up on Wednesday, and actually had fairly nice roads.. other than the rain and slush for a few hours. Could have been worse though and been horribly icy, which it wasn't. I was shocked at how little snow there is in the mountains though! Especially considering it is already December... hopefully they get dumped on in the next few months! (It's one of those things, you grow up on a farm and your dad relies on irrigation for his crops so when there isn't a lot of snow you start to get worried)
Thursday I spent the morning puttering around doing things for my mom, running into town for some odds and ends. Then in the afternoon we drove up to Calgary to pick up my sister, her husband and little girl from the airport. Stopping in for a quick visit with John's cousin who had just had a little baby a few weeks earlier. On the way home from the airport we got pulled over in a check stop. Usually so not a huge deal... but this time.... hmmmmm well... what should I say. Kinda?! lol :) Since we drove my dad's truck up to get them that's all fine. But when you get pulled over they kinda look at your license, and then at the insurance/registration papers. I'm sure the R.C.M.P. put two and two together since my driver's license is still in my maiden name. Either way, we had a problem!!!! The papers for insurance were the outdated ones from last year... ooops! Since it is a law in Alberta that the driver needs to provide proof of insurance the cop told us that technically we would need to park the truck and couldn't go any further until he saw the papers. The other side of it was because I have a WA state drivers license, he asked if we all were from the U.S. I told him no.. we were on our way back from the airport, where we had picked up my sister/hubby/baby who flew in from B.C. Thanks to having a super nice cop that evening. He told me that he wouldn't leave us sitting along the side of the road tonight with a little baby. Pheww! When I got home obviously that was something I had my mom take care of immediately. Just something else to tack onto our experiences :)
Friday: Now that was another super busy day! In the morning we had a family get-together with my mom's family, for lunch. Usually they have their dinner on Boxing Day, but the last few years it's turned out that it is whenever my sister and I come home so that we can be there as well. Which is nice, otherwise we don't get the chance very often to see all our aunts/uncles/cousins for a while. Granted we still don't see all of them, but at least it's most of them! In the evening we had a get-together with my dad's family, that wasn't a dinner though.. just a fun evening to hang out and have some coffee, visit with family and play some games!
I also had skirt that I needed to finish sewing. I had taken it along to have my mom look at it since something wasn't working for me and I had gotten frustrated and thrown it in a bag to take along. My mom sewed most of the elastic but told me she would do the 2nd last one and show me how, then I had to do the last one. So at least I had one more skirt!
Saturday was a little more of a relaxed day! I did some baking for Sunday, and we made oliebollen. For those of you who don't know what oliebollen are:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliebol It is a dutch tradition, and our family usually has to make them at least once!
On Monday we were on our way home again! It sure was good to be back in my own bed again :)
