... you might spend the first day of winter outside in short sleeves.
And you might spend hours pulling out weeds that grew like crazy (even 20"!) in the last few months on your otherwise dormant lawn.
You might even run out of buckets before running out of weeds.
Sheesh!
Don't these specimens know they are not supposed to go nuts until at least March!
I just hope that Texas farmers have as much success with their crops as I had with unwanted plants.
Since my family didn't celebrate Christmas while I was growing up, I don't have any inherited holiday traditions. So, I try to establish some as I go along. Which is not always easy when you live in a single-person household.
During the Advent season, I try to focus on the internal preparation, but at the same time outwardly building up the anticipation of Christmas season (with a focus on season, not a day). As the title of this book I recently heard of "Happiness is an Internal Affair" suggests, I try to remind myself that the joy of this season does not come from all the outward signs. 
The first Sunday of Advent (Hope) I put up an advent wreath.
That is all the decorating I want to do for that first week. I say a blessing and light the first candle during dinner, if I set it up early enough. Most years, the start of Advent catches me off guard, with how quickly it has arrived, that I take the wreath out of the box just at the end of the day. I don't even get a chance to take all other boxes down from the attic. It happens during the next week
I am usually very hopeful that this year I am really going to work hard on spiritual preparation. I think of new ways to spruce up the faith life this season.
The second weekend of Advent (Faith) I try to put up the lights on the house.
Somehow, the weather always seems to be really cold, rainy or windy when I do this. I often realize that a week has gone by without much internal preparation. The lights represent my renewed faith to allow the Lord to slow me down and let Him into places of my life that need His coming the most.
The third Sunday of Advent (Joy) I have reserved in the last several years for putting up and decorating a Christmas tree.
I get all excited about this one. Just like that pink candle we lit on this Sunday is slightly different, I make this day just a bit closer to Christmas and less about waiting. For those few hours while spreading up those tree branches, putting up small tree lights, and working on a pattern with ornaments, I allow myself to listen to just Christmas music. (I try to avoid Christmas music on the radio, flip the stations to find something else, until Christmas season, but by then most of them stop playing it.) I put a small nativity set under the tree, and hide the baby Jesus until His birth on Christmas. This year, I may have started another tradition. I invited my brother and his girlfriend over for dinner, and I made a feast out of it. I made my favorite whole grilled trout, "Restovani" potatoes, carrots, asparagus with lemon butter, spinach and strawberry salad, and my signature "birthday" cake. We had great wine, exchanged gifts and placed them under the tree, and ended the night with a cute movie.
Yeah, I think I like this new tradition. Spending this Sunday with the family adds even more happiness to this joyful Sunday.
Yesterday I was playing little St. Nick's helper.
At my company, every year before Christmas we have a giving tree campaign. Next to a 2-story tall and well decorated Christmas tree is a table with couple of small trees adorned with tags of families in need of help. They apply through several charities in Austin, like Shoes for Kids, Salvation Army, and many others.
I came in on Saturday to look through the tags without rushing. Each Salvation Army tag had child's age, gender, shoe and clothes sizes at the top, and then space for Wants followed by the Needs section. Most wants listed some toys and games, the wishes that probably came from the child. The needs would usually list clothes, shoes, or some school supplies; something that the parent recognizes as the need, but cannot provide.
I was surprised at how many tags listed things like video games, Xbox, roller blades, mp3 players and such on the Needs list. Those people have clearly confused what the needs are. They either don't need help providing for the child, except for the toys, or they are so overpowered by the thought of disappointing their children by not getting them the toys they wanted, that they are neglecting any real needs that might be there. That also started me thinking in my life what is really a need vs. my want. I, too, sometimes burden myself by missing something that I want, and think I need.
The tag that spoke to me the most was of a little 8 year old boy, who likes transformers, cars, and wrestling. Those reminded me of my brother when he was that age, and how much he loved playing with little cars. The boy needed shoes and clothing, too. So, I went shopping for those items, and felt quite out of place in the kids isles. I observed the other kids there as they were picking toys from the shelves, while their parents weren't watching, to figure out which toys kids like better. The shoe size on the tag said 14, and since this store didn't carry that size, I had to ask for help figuring out what size equivalent to get. The pants also gave me trouble, as different models were even 5 inches longer in the same size.
I ended up getting two of each: two toys, including a set of little cars, one outfit for play with transformers on the shirt and dark tennis shoes, and one nicer outfit, for school maybe, with brown shoes. I put them all in a red mash bag, provided with the tags, and my heart was full of joy for that little boy who will be getting few more surprises from this little St. Nick's helper. :)
It's not quite like the snow in Canada, but it's a rare event for us in Texas, and we enjoy it while we can.
What a beautiful day this was!
We woke up to beautiful blue skies, not a cloud in the sky. We were supposed to get an early start, drive hour and a half to the mountain, and start skiing at 9.30, but that didn't happen. We were about three hours behind, but that was all right. I am on vacation!
We had a nice breakfast with the family, waffles with extra yellow eggs from their chickens, and pork sausage fed by all natural food, and organic milk. And the Bosnian coffee! This family lives in a small town where they grow their own vegetables on a large yard, your neighbour is some distance away, with mountains in the background. 
We arrived on the mountain just in time for the half day fares for ski lift tickets and rentals. Those two together were less than half the cost of just the tickets on Whistler. And the conditions: clear blue skies! What a difference it made! The view of the mountains was gorges. There were some low skies in the valley and the peaks were visible high up. The mountain reminds me of the place where I used to ski in my childhood, Jahorina, with not so wide trails and side way roads. There were more people on the slopes than on Whistler, but still it wasn't busy at all. The only negative was that the ski lifts don't have the ramp that goes down to rest your skis on, so on the longer lifts my legs get tired from hanging. We covered almost all the lifts and slopes from left to right. I was able to catch the very last run at 4 PM, so I used the tickets to the maximum. I am so glad we had one day of skiing with such nice weather.
At home we had some homemade spinakopita and then arranged to meet with the Bosnian couple that was there the night before, Gordana and Nenad. First we stopped by their house to see her art studio, she is a painter and a sculptor. Next we went for a stroll by the pier and another old Bellingham downtown area. Too bad it was dark and I wasn't able to fully appreciate the area. We ended at Boundry Bay Brewery for a pint of Bellingham Blonde.
Somehow, we never managed to go to sleep before midnight, at this night was no different. My flight was around noon the next day, but we still had to leave the house little after 8 (it ended up being closer to 9) to make it down through Seattle in time. We said our goodbyes in hopes it won't take another 15 years to see each other again.
The flight was long but with no delays and the luggage made it as well. My brother picked me up from the airport and we went to celebrate his girlfriend's birthday with her family. A great ending to a great week.
Today was a beautiful day in Vancouver. A lot to be thankful for: I am on vacation, in Canada, my leg feels better, the clouds are thinning out, and I finally had my Bosnian coffee in the morning!
After saying goodbye to my friend's mom, since I won't see her tonight, we started our day with breakfast at a Balkan restaurant, Bosnian 'pita', spinakopita. We stopped in couple of stores where I was looking for a few souvenir shirts and then headed downtown. We first walked through a mall and then onto the busy city center. I must say it again, I like places where there are people on the streets. And I noticed there were no extra overweight people. Walking takes care of that. I picked up coffee at another local coffee place, Blenz, and felt like a real tourist with all the picture taking. Hey, it's my vacation. I am aloud to have fun. :)
One interesting thing I noticed is that there are many places associated with the British, there was London Drugs, London School, London Place, and a sightseeing tours bus with huge Britain flag on it. Apparently, they here pledge to the queen and pay her taxes. Who knew!?
The weather was nicer and nicer, so it was just begging to be outside. we next went over to Kinston park and walked all around the east side which has great views of the downtown. There were many locals there jogging and playing with their dogs. I saw a holly bush grown into a tree, some Canadian ducks, and many crows. 
We left the park as the son was coming down. We drove through the china town, another parts of down and then all the way to the other side of Burnaby to a small mountain with beautiful views of the city, now all lit up at night. By the time we got home, it was already passed five, and we just took a quick bite, packed all our stuff and headed toward the border. 
My friend's sister lives north of Belinggham, just some 30 miles away, but there is a border in between. The weight was close to an hour, because all the people were going over for the black Friday sales. They require people to turn off their engines while waiting in the line in front of a special traffic light, which made our car quite cold to be in. We should our documents and were back in the US close to 9 PM.
My friend's family had some friends over for Thanksgiving and it turned out that the Bosnian lady that was there, was my ski instructor when I was a kid and gone skiing with group from my mom's company. This lady, Gordana, also worked there, and now lives in Belingham with her husband Nenad. We gorged on some good eats, as is common for this holiday. There was some politics discussion at the table, again what is common for the holidays, but I just tune out to that. The house was warm, fire in the stove, food and wine and friends, memories of the old days shared and new ones made. Oh yeah, I have lots to be thankful for.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Note to self: avoid skiing in the rain!
Today started with the rain. We were awaken by neighbours in the room next door to us at 7 am. The sun was still up, and even if it was we would not be able to see it from all the clouds. It was raining. It actually never stopped raining from last night. There was still snow on the ground, but it was definitely liquid precipitation that was coming down in the morning.
The front desk told us it was raining at the top of the mountain, too. It was 6 degrees Celsius at the base, 3 mid point, and 1 at the top, so not freezing yet. But, the temperature was supposed to go down during the day, and start snowing in the upper part of the mountain. So, I was hopeful.
We checked out of our room, went to a near-by restaurant for breakfast, rented the skis and boots, and were at the ticket counter at about 11.30. I was able to save at least on the rentals, and use some points from a credit card to get a free rental. The lift tickets here in Whistler were almost twice as much than in Colorado. Fortunately, today was the last day for the pre-season prices, which were some 20% less. Skiing in Canada, this part at least, is a very expensive sport. Many of the folks we saw working there, helping with the ski lifts, in shops and hotels, were from abroad, Australia and Latvia. 
When we boarded the gondola that would lead us almost to the top of the mountain, it was still raining. I actually looked at few shops there for a rain jacket, but they didn't have any. I was hoping to maybe at least get one of those disposable once, but they told me last year they were giving them away at the guest kiosk. I was able to get us the last two they had, but they were a strange kind that didn't have sleeves; it was more like a pullover. Better that than nothing. Our jackets were feather filled, and not rain resistant.
The Gondola ride was about 15 minutes. It was still raining at the top when we got off. There was plenty of snow from before, but it was getting wet and heavy to ski on. The sleet mixed with rain would stick to our goggles, fly into our face, and wet our jackets. After two rounds, our gloves were soaking wet. We literally had to squeeze the excess water out of them. The lift chair were covered with wet snow, and even though a guy was quickly cleaning each chair as it turns around, there was still enough to slowly soak into our selves. We started to feel cold riding up on the lift when the wind would blow through the jacket that was getting more and more wet.
I decided after hour and a half that we should stop at the rest center at the top and dry our gloves. We spent about half an hour in the restroom drying ourselves under the hand drier. It helped with my gloves, but jacket was drier only on few surface areas. There were many other people there doing the same thing. On a related note, there were not that many skiers today, for obvious weather reasons, which made it easier to ski down the slopes without the crowds, and there were absolutely no lines on the lifts. The silver lining.
After we dried our gloves, we continued skiing. By this time, the snow started to fall in the top one third of the trail we were skiing, the middle third had sleet, and the bottom part still rain. After only one run, our gloves were again soaked. From then on, I continued to drain the water from the every time we reached the top of the lift. After 4-5 runs, I felt my arms were wet. The water soaked through the jacket, sweater and a turtle neck, because the sleeves were not covered by the rain poncho. Runs 7 and 8, last one, I felt water all over my body, and the fingers were really cold. But, when you pay as much as we did for those tickets, plus everything else that was needed to allow us to ski today, we wanted to make most use of those tickets.
At 3 PM we caught the last lift from half of the mountain to the top, and then started to make our way down to the mid station gondola. There we unbuckled and took a few pictures. As we were walking back and forth for picture taking, just in few minutes, I started to feel my right calf muscle started to heart. It was kinda hurting during the last two runs, but I just figured I am getting tired, plus that booth seemed too tight from the start. When we started to go down with the gondola, the pain really intensified. I couldn't stand on the right foot, and I could feel the muscle contractions every 5 seconds. I was bent over trying to find a good position where it was hurting the least. At the bottom of the ride, I had to use the poles as crutches to get out of the gondola. I could not move that leg at all. The muscle was completely in spasm.
My friend went to get the car so I don't have to walk to the ski rental place and the hotel. While waiting, a ski patrol guy came out from one of the gondolas and offered to help just after dropping some stuff off. I was just sitting on a bench, all soaking wet, and holding my right leg to keep the muscle tight. Applying the pressure to the muscle seemed to help. I managed to take the ski booth off, which is hard even with a good leg, so I just did it very slow and bit my lip through the process.
While I was waiting, at one moment I remembered that I was wearing a St. Bernard (patron saint of skiers) medal, which my friend Joe gave me for my last ski trip and reminded me to wear for protection for this trip. I thought that maybe, because of his prayers, I avoided a bigger accident and was just left with a pulled muscle. The silver lining.
When the paramedic, Kenny finally came back, after what seemed like half an hour, my foot was locked in one position. The slightest use of the calf muscles sent a throbbing pain down my leg. He, of course, had to examine the muscle by applying pressure to it, which was extremely painful. I already took three Advil's in the last 4 hours, but that wasn't helping. Kenny said that the muscle, after being really tight while skiing, was now loose after unbuckling, and it started to twist. If I still had the booth on tight as it was while skiing, it probably wouldn't heart as much. He then put an elastic wrap around it which felt comfortable after he stopped touching it. There was no traumatic incident that caused this, like a fall or a hit, so he just told me to rest it, keep it tight, elevate the foot and apply cold patches.
My friend then came with the car, I hopped into with with few people helping me, and we went to the hotel. Kenny was kind enough to take our booths to the ski rental place, so we didn't have to. At the hotel, I again hopped inside with my friends help, and I asked if we can use their restrooms to change, since we already checked out of the room. My friend went to bring our stuff, and brought it back in on one of those luggage carts they use in hotels, with metal handles on the sides and top. I then sat on it and he wheeled me into the elevator and to the changing area. It was oh so good to get out of those wet clothes. Every clothing item on me, except the socks was dripping wet. I have never skied in worst weather conditions. Snow storm and strong winds are not as bad as being wet, cold, the soaked jacket weighing you down, and sleet into your face. Brrrr.
During our two hour ride home, I took another Advil and massaged the muscle. By the time we arrived, I could again stand up, although limp a bit. We even went to couple of stores in the mall, and walked to a pub for drinks. I'll just have to take it easy tomorrow so I can be ready for another day of skiing on Friday. :)
