December

Tomorrow is December, it still feels like August to me.
Not weather wise, but time wise.

Tomorrow we will start our second year of using our two advents to count down to the big night. I was super excited for this year, due to a change in Papa Bears job in September, he was going to be able to be with us every night! Last year he missed a few night because of school related things. I was looking forward to this holiday season, I had plans galore! Concerts, activities, Little Bear is in a play, the town has lots of stuff going on, and I was going to do it all.

Not anymore.
We got word that Papa Bear has a job he needs to do, out of town. Way....way....out of town.
12 hours away. For 24days. He left this morning and is expected home on December 23.

so. sad.
It's just not the same without him.

Pumpkin Patch

I have never been into decorating for Halloween, never been into Halloween either. This year, I really wanted to decorate for fall, but not have an overly Halloween themed house. Now, this craft is not one of those super cheap ones, but it is one that I can use over and over. I wanted to celebrate fall, and the harvest, and Thanksgiving. Since Canadian Thanksgiving is squeezed into the beginning of October before Halloween, I think it largely get ignored. I mean, it's not as though we delicate an entire month to decorating and celebrating it. This year, I decided that I was going to make something that incorporates both days. So was born my pumpkin patch.

I don't like pumpkin as a general rule. Not in pie, or muffins, or the like. I don't carve pumpkins with Little Bear because I cannot stand the smell. So, I saved my pennies and waited for those fake pumpkins to go on sale at Michael's (Canada's version of Hobby Lobby).

I then picked out a sweet font, and made the type huge, I think it ended up being 460 or something like that.

Then I traced the letters onto my pumpkins.

Used some craft paint to fill them in.

And set them up outside, where, in this crazy wind they promptly fell over. So I drilled a small hole in each and put a few rocks inside to help them stand up. Not the cheapest craft ever, but one that I can re-use.

Forum Lake

Another post about hiking! We here at the Bear house sure like our hiking, and this one was my current favorite. The trail head for Forum Lake is just north of Cameron Lake, this trail has several branches that can be hiked. One can be done over the course of 3 days, doesn't that sound like fun! The entire trail is called the Akamina Pass, and it goes a long way.

This trail was quick rocky, compared to others we have been on. It gets steep pretty quickly, and is a steady uphill walk for about a kilometer, then it is kind of an uphill/downhill for a while. One of Little Bear's favorite things about this hike was hiking all the way to B.C.! 

That's right! You cross the Provincial boundary on this hike. Not long after passing this sign, the trail forks, we took the main trail. The trail we were on on also leads to Wall Lake and continues the Akamina Pass. Further along there is a second fork, this time we took the smaller trail and boy did it get tricky after that. 

These 2 are so funny!

Once you branch off on the Forum Lake trail things get super steep, for a long time. I would like to do this hike again with a GPS of some kind to measure how much elevation you gain. You are in the trees from here until you nearly get to the lake. One thing I liked about this trail is, there's a ranger station! Which means a bathroom! Which means, an outhouse, but that sure beats a tree in my books. Just past the ranger station there is a little trail that forks off and takes you to Forum Falls. It is only a few dozen meters, and well worth the few minutes,

We took our time on this hike, partly because there was so many pretty flowers and other vegetation to look at and mostly because it was really steep! Little Bear was a champion on this hike, it was taxing for her, but she pushed to the end. When you get to the end you can see this

It was another successful hike, and we had a lovely picnic on the shores of this little lake. It was cloudy when we were up there, and I wish I could have gotten a picture of the lake when the sun came out for a few seconds. The lake turned this incredible shade of turquoise, It was breathtaking. If you ever feel like taking a hike that will challenge you, this is a good one. It is about 4km each way, and should take you 3-4 hours depending on how fast you can scale those inclines.

Looking down from above the falls

On the way back down we decided to hike the cut line along the AB/B.C. border just to see what we could see. Papa Bear always the surveyor noticed this. It is the official marker of the border, or something like that, ask him, he knows all the real words. 

True to our luck, we saw a Mama Bear & 2 cubs while driving out of the park. Un-lucky was that I was not camera ready! But that brings our bear count to 10 this summer! 

Christmas Already!?

On Sunday, when I arrived at Church, I saw in the hallway 3 table full of things that a person could make during the "Super Saturday" that is coming up in November. This is an annual event, where ladies can go and make all kinds of crafts or food items to either keep or give as gifts during the upcoming Christmas season. I know right!? Did you just think, as I did, it is SEPTEMBER! Why are we already gearing up to get Christmas ready!? I was really taken back by the fact that these tables were there, and had people crowded around them.

This display at Church caught me off guard a little, because I had already had Christmas on the brain for the whole week prior, but not in the - what am I going to buy!/make! for people - run around crazy - kind of way. I have been pondering lately the well known statement "Christmas is always so busy." or, something similar. It puzzles me, a lot. Last year (2010) I made a comment that went something like this - "I don't understand why a lot of people say that they are so busy during December." After making this comment in a group of people, I heard this - "You aren't busy because you only have one child." I really don't think that is true, or at least not the whole reason. I honestly feel that my lack of busyness, during the Christmas season, is due to the choices I have made, and will make.

I long ago got over the idea that I had to go to everything that is going on in town. I don't and I survive. My child doesn't and she survives. I heard a lesson given in Relief Society years ago that talked about priorities. You know the lesson that comes around every so often to remind us we don't have to do everything, because there is no way we can, and how to deal with the stress that life brings. Well, if you ask me, if Christmas is stressing you out! The meaning of the season is missing. Anyway, I took that lesson to heart that day, and my priorities changed. In my world my family comes first. Always. Period. The End. If something will interfere in anyway with my family than it is not something we do.

Speaking specifically about Christmas. About 6 years ago I hated it. Yup, totally disliked it. Felt like it was hardly worth the effort to put up a tree, and the only reason I did was because I had a little kid who wanted one. I never felt like Christmas was the meaningful event that I heard others talk about. But, as I said above, that lesson changed my priorities. I changed my attitude. I changed my outlook. I changed what Christmas was in my home. Last Christmas was perfect. The tree went up early and we decorated it together as a family. I have learned not to re-do anything that Little Bear does to the tree, yes it bugs me and my OCD ways, but it is her tree too, and she loves it. Our tree stayed up longer that it ever did before, in the past is would come down on boxing day, but it stayed up until New Year's. We didn't go to any events that didn't interest us, which gave us lots of time at home, together. We didn't do any Christmas baking, because we didn't want to, and you know what? Our friends & family still love us.

Perhaps my favorite thing about last Christmas was something new that we tried, and advent or countdown to Christmas. Each night we gathered around our lit tree, and we would pull from a bag a picture of Jesus Christ and read the scripture printed on the back. Then Little Bear would find a place on our tree to hang the picture. The spirit of Christmas, or Jesus Christ, was in our home during the season, and I know that made all the difference in the world. I know that it impacted Little Bear, she asked me last week when we could start our picture count down again.

Do I have a point? Maybe I do, and it's really just for me. Choose wisely what you allow to fill you life. Don't forget to leave room for what is really important. Perhaps like me, you too will find the busyness just fades away.

Day 9

Today found us in the book of Daniel, reading about "Messiah". I didn't really didn't feel like the scripture was quite right, so I found a different one. So, we then moved to 1 Nephi to read a second scripture. Todays little discussion was nice, Messiah is a word that Little Bear has heard before, so I didn't have to define the word for her. I tree is getting fuller of little pictures, I will post a new picture of it soon.

Last night we had Papa Bear home, and we carried on with our evening Advent project. We sit around our tree, and read some of the Christmas story from the Bible, then we gather around the piano and sing a Christmas Hymn. I get to be the pianist, and so I stumble through playing the Hymn. Papa Bear & Little Bear are such good sports with my solidly mediocre playing, and all the stopping & starting.


We hope you are enjoying your Christmas as much as we are!