2022 ends and 2023 Begins - no funny title today! (Still have the usual bad spelling and grammar though - nothing changes!)

If you dont want to read the boring stuff, just flick down the page and watch the video of the kids singing in the car - about 1min 10 secs in is the best place to start.......

Tomorrow Jan 16th it will be a year since Hannah was bitten. 

I don't want to dwell on this too much, and I dont enjoy writing about itbut I can't help but think about that night in the last few days and weeks. It seems to jump out at me everywhere as do the local neighbourhood dogs as I go for my runs. Every run I seem to go on nowadays a dog either gets in my way on a long leash or runs around my ankles as I try to get past. I suppose that this was always the case, but being a dog lover till a year ago, I probably didn't notice or care as much as I do now. The incident changed me from a dog lover to a dog worrier. I no longer see every dog as a fluffy bundle of fun to play with but as a set of teeth to protect myself and most importantly my kids from. It's not nice thinking this way about an animal that I see many times a day, but that is how I feel at the moment. In my way of thinking it's better to be permanently on the defensive and be prepared for something to happen, than try to get over these feelings and 'back to normal'. I am not going to avoid dogs and Hannah doesn't want to either, but we always make sure she is aware if a dog will be at a house we visit and that we are there for her if she needs picking up or protecting. Its just the way things are now. We actually went round to some friends today and they habe a nice dog. But Hannah was very unsure about it when we got there and I couldnt even get my coat off as  she gripped me tightly around my neck. She calmed down reasonably quickly when teh do went outside to play but continued to ask where it was and making sure Buffy or I was neaer to her. Ill fully admit I was on edge and it took me longer to calm down. I am not going to mention names on here, but thanks to our friends for toadys visit and thanks for bing understanding about Hannah, the dog and me. 

The last year has been hard in relation to friends, family and dogs and I don't expect it to get any better. Everyone has tried to be careful with Hannah, us and the dogs and we really appreciate that, so I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has helped out and tried their best to keep their dogs under control or out of the way. I also wanted to let everyone know, that we will not just get over this and it may be this way for years to come. I especially DO NOT want to get over this if Hannah hasnt. It is entirely up to her how she wants to be around dogs and I will back her 100% in every way. I think that being alert and aware if the dogs and more particularly of how Hannah is feeling is very important. so I will try to think like her and if need be put myself in harsm way to make suer she is ok.   

Ok, that's enough of that then.... onto the crazy stuff..... us and the kids......

My last post was on December 9th, so I will use my magic time machine and transport you and me back to last year and see what we were doing then...

Well, the first significant thing I see in my magic time machine (Looking back through Googe photos) is that I finally completed this year's Ice sculpture - complete with a mini-robot on top, so that this year is the largest ever at just a little over 11 feet tall. Inside the tree-shaped structure is a wifi enable lamp which changes colour on command and can be made to flash or breath or just stay steadily one colour. I think this is the best lighting I have had on any sculpture for the last 6years and I thought it was brilliantly original until I found another similar sculpture just a few streets away last week - oh well - great minds think alike!

This is mine (before the Robot was added)

and this is theirs..

Mine IS bigger, but theirs was made from round-shaped bricks so it's even stevens. 

Around the same week that was finished, we took a trip out to Winnipeg's newest tourist attraction - The Leaf. It's a biodome (actually 3 different biodomes) built in Assiniboine park near the Zoo and it's pretty cool. Inside there are loads of interesting plants and trees, good walking paths where the kids loved playing hide and seek a huge indoor waterfall and a butterfly garden too. This is such a cool place to visit in the depth of winter and the day we went it was about minus 30celsius outside, so to be in a lovely warm garden wearing a t-shirt and watching huge fish swim around a lovely pool it was a little surreal to look up and see the massive curved roof with huge hanging icicles at edges. What a good addition to things we can take the kids to (and ourselves obviously too, as there is also a really good restaurant and bar inside too!

Top of the waterfall

Looking down

Ollie loved it!

Next on the agenda was Christmas, which this year was actually pretty great. I didn't really enjoy last year as the kids were still a bit too young to appreciate things and I found it pretty hard to keep calm with al lthe complaining from them - plus covid was still ongoing so there was nowhere to take them and we spent a lot of it inside at home or at Jon and Susans. This year was great as we got to visit friends and family as well as a proper Christmas day out at Meg and Brents after the kids spent the morning opening and playing with their presents. 

Ollie and Hannah also got involved in picking little presents for each other as well as Buffy and I, so everyone got the excitement of opening presents as well as seeing the delighted or dumbfounded faces as the gifts they gave were opened in front of them! Heres a few highlights..

For some reason too, Hannah decided to put on her sunglasses and do some tap dancing in the kitchen a day before Christmas.

I also took the kids out for our big Christmas food shop a couple of days before Christmas- which was fun when they started singing frozen songs in the car again! 

THIS IS THE VIDEO YOU HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR!

Wait till 1min 10sec

Anyway, the Christmas afternoon and evening was a big get-together at Meg and Brents - there were about 16 of us this year and we all enjoyed a good meal and some fun times. The kids enjoyed sleeping in the basement and actually slept in past 8am on Boxing day which was a lovely surprise for me and Buffy who were on the sofa bed in the same room. We were expecting 6am not 8, so that was wonderful. The kids had a lovely time showing off and playing with cousin Austin too!

Its amazing how much shit you need for one night away with two kids!

Singing!

Ollie and Austin - like twins!

Playing on the weights before bed

Watching 'Frozen' (What else?) on Boxing day

It was actually a really nice Christmas week this year - My work was great and allowed everyone to take the week between Chrostmas and New Year off, so we had a really great week together - Chrostmas at home and then to Meg and Brents - then to Jon and Susand on Boxing day for Family presents and a day together the kids went to daycare for a couple of days which gave me and Buffy two full day at home together - which is teh forst time forEVER, and we took advantage by having a lie in each and popping out for lunch together as well as massages and a lot of just vegging out!

We went to  a party at one of the neighbours houses the day before New Years which was really nice - especially the punch  - which I may well have had a teensy weensy bit too much of!

On New Years eve the weather was lovely - just about -6 or 7 and so we took the kids to see the 8pm fireworks at the Forks - before whoch the enjoyed  a dance at a kids dance party. It was all a really nice family week - Here are a few higlights- including me getting my toenails done by Hannah!

New Year came and went and luckily, the weather has been pretty good here for the last week or two - Its been hovering around minus 15 or so, but actually reached 0 today - which is crazy as January and February are often the coldest most extreme months and minus 30 or below isnt that unusual. Its been lovely and as there hasnt been that much snow fall either, the roads have been pretty good and my back isnt as bad as there hasnt been that mich snow shovelling to do! The weather has made everything really pretty and so I actually took a few photos as it was so nice!

One really cool thing that has happened is how Hannah has responded to Christmas. She seems to have really enjoyed giving presents. (she actually wrapped up a load of toys from around the house into tea towels the day before Christmas and gave them out on Christmas day to us all!) 

She enjoyed it so much that she cant stop now - twoce this week I came home and it was 'dads birthday' again and I had drawing and boxes of toys to open. She even saw a cute soft Robot at the Thrift store and talked Buffy into buying it for my 'birthday'. It was so loveley and I was s surprised and proud of her. She is really doing a great job of sharing and doing things for other people at the moment. It really melts my heart!

  

  Ollie on the other hand is just crazy! He is throwing homself off the sofa and climbing everything he can - He is a proper little boy at the moment and he is so much fun to be around! One of his Christmas presents is a little Cash register and he spends a lot of his time with that or in his little kitchen doing his 'work' s he says! You will be sitting there and he suddenly turns up and asks is you want pizza - then goes away and pretends to cook it all before inviting you to sit down and he serves it to you - usually with sugar-  he is so much fun and they are getting along pretty well at the moment too!

Thats all the news for now - We have an exciting few weeks coming up as we are off to Mexico soon - Ollies first time away and Hannah and ours first trip for 3 years. Its been a long time coming and we really cant get there soon enough. I will leave you with this last photo though... It is Ollie yesterday when United beat City in the Manchester Derby. He is going to be a big Football fan I think!