Today was Patrick’s birthday. They had been predicting a snow storm of ‘bring in the army’ proportions all week but I wasn’t worried. The party was maybe 6 blocks away. We are Canadian - we can drive 6 blocks in the snow.

I have no idea how much snow we got. I did wade in some stuff that was well up to my knee. I also have no boots - I threw my old ones out in a tidying fit and it’s been on my list since October.  So anyway I got all three bundled up while John cleared the driveway and warmed the car. He was taking a really long time so I brought the girls out myself one by one. He was pretty skeptical that we’d be able to even get out of the driveway. I wasn’t. He was right. We got stuck half way out the driveway and then about 10 more times on the 100ft journey to the end of our street. Before the last push that got me on the more travelled road, he told me to wait for him once I got going. I was all set to stop but there were 2 more stuck cars and I thought I should keep on moving and save John having to dig us out again. I  went what I thought was really slow but still John wasn’t coming. Finally he appeared in the rear view mirror running in the snow. As he approached I yelled out the window for him to jump in the passenger side so I didn’t have to stop. He then disappeared from my sight and I had a moment of panic where I thought I’d run him over. I stopped the van I found out he had just stopped running in exhaustion. He was not impressed that I hadn’t stopped. I couldn’t stop laughing.

So we got to the party and had a good time. It was fitting that Patrick (the true Canadian) got a blizzard for his birthday. The girls had their cake and played with the other kids. Claire crawled around after Patrick but thankfully only tried to tackle him once.

So then we had to get home. We borrowed the Dempster shovel in anticipation of another rough drive. We didn’t even make it out of their driveway. With the help of the neighbourhood we were on our way again until we once again got stuck in the 100ft drive to our house. This time our neighbours came to our rescue and we were finally home. They still haven’t plowed and it’s safe to say we’re not going anywhere until they do.

Emma and Leah thought the whole thing was a very funny adventure. The highlights were when John and I watched in horror as a tandem plow blocked our way in and Leah piped up with ‘That truck is clearing a path for us’. We then did a family cheer when John got up enough speed to blast through the drift. And then with John and two neighbours pushing, the girls were chanting ‘Go Mommy Go!!’ at the top of their lungs. It was a tiring but entertaining day.

Yesterday we were in Sarnia celebrating Christmas at John’s Aunt Tina’s. The girls were really excited to go see Jeff, Tom and Steve and they had a lot of fun. When we got there Steve asked if they wanted to go play downstairs and off they went. We didn’t see much of them for the afternoon.

Last weekend we were also busy. John’s parents came down on Friday night so we could go to the Umbra sale early Saturday morning. We got there early this year and we had a lot of fun and got a ton of nice stuff. Saturday night we went to a Christmas party with my bookclub friends and then Sunday night we went to dinner. Monday we went to see Golden Compass.

The weekend before that we had John’s children’s Christmas party at the Science Centre. Emma and Leah really enjoyed the party and they got to sit on Santa’s lap. Claire was on his lap for a second but then started crying. After the party we went to the children’s exhibits which they loved. On that Sunday Drew and Jen came over to watch the girls while John and I did some shopping and then went to see a movie.

Those are the highlights of the past couple of weeks. December is always so busy. Next week the girls finish preschool til the New Year with a class party on Wednesday. They are teaching them all about different holiday traditions and they are really enjoying it.

Claire is eating well and sleeping well. Leah had another ear infection but it’s all cleared up now. All I want for Christmas is 3 healthy children and maybe some sleep!