Christmas spirit.....

We are definately getting into the spirit of Christmas in the Ralston household. Ever since our trip to the gingerbread house and the Christmas Market it's been Jingle Bells a-go-go! The wreath is hung, the tree is decorated, we've watched Elf twice and Arthur Christmas at least three times. We've even had a fancy new advent calendar arrive in the mail......thanks Pa and Marv, it's very lovely! I'm usually a bit strict about not letting myself get Christmassy until at least December 1st, I think it's mostly down to the kiddies getting all excited, I think it's rubbing off on me but I'm certainly not complaining!

Just in case you're not really feeling it yet, here are a few photos of our house to get you in the mood, it's like the santa's grotto in here!

Now go get that tree up!
Ho ho ho!

I'm a terrible present buyer....

I forgot to show you the rest of my loot from the Christmas market the other day....

As you can see I went totally crazy and bought some beans and honey. Wow! I'm really not the greatest shopper am I? I failed miserably buying any kind of nice presents, other than two sweet little Christmas tree ornaments for my Mum and sister it was all for me. On a positive note I'm always so weirdly excited buying local organic foods from little markets like this. The ginger honey is so yummy and the kids and I will be sprouting the seeds and beans to add a bit of fun to our nutritious nosh.
Looks like I'm going to have to resort to online shopping or get on with a mega knit-marathon for presents this year.
I hope everyone is more organized than me in the present buying. Most people usually are.
:)

There is a place....

...deep in the Rocky Mountains, where the Elk do roam......

At the bottom of a valley by the rushy river's edge, there's a little town called Canmore where the Ralston's park their sleds.

Between the rows of buildings there is a little street,
 that leads you to a tiny park where people like to meet........

Beneath tall trees there is a house as sweet as sweet can be......down a path of candy canes,
 it's gingerbread you see!

If you're smaller than the lollypop you get to go inside, where a friendly elf will show you treasures, Only you can decide! 

NO GROWN UP"S ALLOWED! 


Hehehe! Sorry I've come over all silly! 
 I just think the Gingerbread House in Canmore is pure Genius! Seb and Bel loved buying presents for us all by themselves. I saw the first little glint of Christmasy joy sparkling in their eyes after our visit and now we have two presents under our tree, one for me and one for Daddy! 

Cheeky punk....

Cheeky punk!......That's what Isobel has taken to calling everyone recently. Like the lady in the post office, our new neighbours, random strangers in safeway. Sometimes she varies it up a bit and says Sneaky Chump instead but either way she's using it A LOT and I'm not really sure where she even got it from. Definitely not something I've been calling her! Then theres "crap nuggets!" Used in the context of something not going to plan, like "Crapnuggets!  My chubby mermaid is stuck in Daddy's boot" or "Crapnuggets! I'm too widdle to weach Sebbie's wight saver!" I know for a fact crap nuggets is from the movie Megamind so we can at least blame Dreamworks for that one! The worrying thing is her choice of expletives are quite catchy and now I'm even saying them!
Crapnuggets! 

I bought me a present today....

It's this little oil on board painting. I bought it from the Artisan Christmas Market here in Canmore today and I really love it! When I arrived at the market with both kids in tow I did think for moment I should turn straight around and not bother. Both kids are a bit under the weather and neither of them was in the best of moods when we arrived at the market. I'd dragged them out of the house because I really wanted to check it out and having been cooped up in the house for a couple of days I thought it would do them good to get out even if it was to my choice of destination rather than theirs. The market took place in the high school ( a surprisingly lovely building full of rough hewn timber posts) and as soon as I walked in I saw a sign for the complimentary daycare provided for shoppers by the local pre-school.....Hooray! Within minutes I was strolling through the market with a silly smile on my face, believe me it is a rare occurrence for me to get a chance to enjoy something like this at my own pace without any worries of my kids trashing someones market stand, getting lost while I herd them through a crowd or just tugging on my arm to leave because they are sooo bored. Thank you anonymous-market-organizer-person! Your child care idea made my day! Anyway after stuffing my face with the tastiest waffle I've ever eaten I walked past a stall for the Canadian Mountain Arts Foundation. They had a whole wall of 10 x 10 boards all painted and donated by local artists with profits going to the foundation. Each one was priced at $20. As soon as I went by, this one caught my eye and I slowed down to have a look. It was the least colourful of all the paintings and the most simple almost undetailed piece.  Theres something about it that just totally captures the essence of Canada that I see in my mind. It's by a Canmore artist but something about it reminds of Tofino too, the greyness and tree tops, so similar to what I would look out at from the windows of our house there. Anyway, just as I stopped, another lady started chatting to the woman running the stall and asked about the painting I liked, I listened in to the conversation hoping she didn't buy it and wondering if I should butt in and say I'd have it. She finished her chat and walked away and I decided on the spot to buy it. I would usually have walked away and thought about it and then most probably have lost out on it altogether. When I told the lady I'd like it she smiled and told me that she'd been thinking if it didn't sell today she was going to buy it herself. We laughed and I paid for my little painting. She told me about the artist and told me to look her up via the Elevation gallery in town. When I got home I was really surprised to see that Chrissy Nickerson's paintings sell in that gallery for anywhere between $600 to $1600 even for a piece not much bigger than mine! I think my $20 purchase was a total bargain but more than that, I just felt like I was meant to have it and that's what makes me love it. 

I've been tinkering with things to put on our mantle and right now it's my new painting, a few pine cones and pieces of driftwood from various walks and this little jar.......

It's a bit of Mckenzie beach scooped up on a wet and blustery evening last April....our last evening as residents of Tofino :(  I told you I am weirdly sentimental. I made it look a bit prettier with some washi tape just because otherwise it looked like a jar of grey mud. I'll keep it I think and return it one day......who knows we might end up there sometime :)

Speaking of talented artists....I've also managed to find a spot for a couple of my sisters pieces from Squid Ink designs and I think they look beautiful!

Evening sky...

The kids and I walked up to the little playground in the neighbourhood yesterday evening  in an attempt to burn off some of their everlasting energy. While we were there the sky turned pink and beautiful. I took this as we headed back home. It seems these Three Sisters look pretty in pink. 

Fancy a tour?

So this is our new abode. I always enjoy a good house tour so I thought you might like to see the place. Let's start outside shall we? Here's the view from the driveway to the front door.......nice cedar siding with a few shingles in the eaves. It's cute and a lot more understated than some of the other houses in the street which I quite like.

This is the view up the street. It's kind of a double ended Cul de sac so it's makes a nice safe place for the kids to play. Our house is close to one end and at the other end, looking in the direction of this photo theres a trail through the trees that leads across the creek and down to the Bow river and, if you keep walking, eventually into town.

Here's the back of the house and the deck.....

The deck is nice and big and luckily we don't have any houses behind us, just a few trees and squirrels. Theres the road into town a little way down from the house which seems to be a popular Elk grazing spot and makes for some nice deck views. 

Moving inside, theres a small entry area with a closet that I forgot to photograph, the door to Seb's room immediately on your left (from the photo below) and a corridor leading down to the bathroom, Bel's room, the garage access and stairs up to our room.

If we don't go down that hallway we walk into the main living/ kitchen/dining area. It's all one room and it's quite compact but feels larger than it is thanks to the nice vaulted ceiling.
We have the kitchen....

Dining area.....

And living area.....

and  heres my favorite feature of the house......the fireplace!

Oooh its such a cosy spot to sit it makes me want it to be Christmas already! I'm picturing a dark night snuggled on the sofa drinking hot chocolate with snowflakes falling, the fire blazing and the tree lights-a-twinkling! Haha! I wonder if it will still make me feel this way in July?

Here's a night time shot to give you an idea of the mega-cosyness :)

Oh and I forgot to mention the "study" or in other words....little corner of the room that holds my computer. It's tucked in behind the dining table and is actually far more efficient storage-wise than the entire room we used to have as our den. Our little rocking footstool tucks in under the desk like it was made for it and all in all I like that its a more sociable place to sit and work. 

Moving on......back towards the front entry theres Seb's room......

We haven't done too much in here yet but it's still cosy nonetheless and he seems to like it.

Now down the hall to Bel's room.....
There's a bathroom and laundry cupboard on the way but I don't want to bore you silly.

Bel's room faces the deck and has this lovely view though the trees to the mountains beyond....

Let's head upstairs, as you walk up this is the view from the window.....

There's a balcony up here. The three peaks to the left of this photo below are known as The Three Sisters and they are quite spectacular!

And then there's our room.....

We've got some built in shelving.....

and another fireplace :)

Other than that we've got a basement room with it's own bathroom that will be a perfect guest room once it's got some furniture......so when are you coming to visit?? :)

Are we Canmorons now?

 Canmore has been our home for nearly two weeks, sheesh time flies! So far, things have been pretty great! Everyone we've met has been super friendly, ridiculously friendly even. Seb is at a lovely school with an amazing teacher. He's already got a buddy, Dale, who lives three houses up the street. We've had our first invitation to dinner from a family who's little girl is in Seb's class, her Dad's name is Neil and he's from England too! We love our house and it seems as though everything we have just magically fits here. It's just the right size, no wasted space, cosy and felt like home almost immediately. I wake up and see the mountains out of my windows every morning, elk grazing as I drive Seb to school, squirrels running up and down the trees as I sit on the sofa and these are the things that make me smile and know that we've done the right thing. In Edmonton I didn't want to go outside. I didn't want to drive past another strip mall with row after row of the same shops, the same restaurants the same soulless, sprawl of grey houses stretching into oblivion. That's not why we came to Canada.  Now I can walk outside and within minutes be in these trees, walking over this creek looking up at these mountains.
I breathe the fresh air and feel it feed my soul.