New cold snap

It's really getting cold now.  We had freezing rain and it got very cold last night.

So, of course with all the slickness - we had a small accident.  There was alot of snow and they had just come through to plow all the snow out of the parking lot. What we didn't know was that under all that snow in the parking lot, was a lot of ice!

We went out to load some boxes in the car. I got in the passenger seat and Roger was going to put the boxes in the back of the Trailblazer.  He was holding the boxes and trying to open the back tailgate and suddenly I heard a thud. I got out and ran around to the back and found Roger on the ground.  While holding the boxes he tried to open the tailgate and as it started to go up, his feet slipped on the ice and the tailgate hit him in the mouth!  Our first accident of the year!  

Of course, he didn't want to go to the Dr. or hospital, so we just put a couple of butterfly bandages on it... He looked really GOOD!!  But it DID get us out of any work that day. Roger had a pretty bad headache and was a little dizzy - so we stayed home.  A tough way to get a day off.

Our last Zone Conference

Here it is... our LAST Zone Conference... It always seemed so far away....
Here we are with some Elders who are also having their  last zone conference.

                     
Elder Bell - who gave us a box to take home for him!! ha! and Elder Shaver. Both are in the Mandarin program and will be leaving the mission soon as well.

Elder Austin Heder - our zone leader- who lives close to us in Pleasant Grove. He is such a great elder!  AND... he plays football for BYU!!  I knew we liked him for a reason!

The Cornwall Ward

Knowing we would be leaving soon, I wanted to get a picture of many of the wonderful people we served with in the Cornwall Ward.  Here is the group:

Top Left and around: Agnes Greaves, Ann Gaudet, Robert and Chona Ayotte, John & Carolyn Brady

Top: Raymond & Barbara Bilodeau family, Lori and Tim Schnell- Bishop, Vince and Gillian Bluff

Top: Dan Bourgeois and family and  Jim,Gaile, and Chris Hynes

Dan & Angie Campeau and family, and Linda McCaskill

Mitch and Sandy Denis with Christine Russell, Earl and Chris Bridson, and Felicity Svenson

Glenn Keyes (passed away just after we left), Larry Spinella, Judy Maylon, and Scott and Dianne McIntyre

Top: Connie Cadieux with 2 daughters, and Shane and Paula Burgess and family

Bottom:  Meghann Vogel with Miguel and Seth.

 Maryanne Givogue, Muriel Bower with Mary Carney, Judy and Tim Willard with Tim's mom Eileen,

and Judy's sisters: Barbara Merpaw and Darlene Brauchaud. (also Judy & Tim's daughter )

Kathy McDonnell visited us in our home in Sept. 2013.

Left: Francois and Marlene Lupien family - Top; Connie and Sheila Merpaw, Bottom: Nancy Sheedy

Others we grew close to but I never got their pictures: Steve and Cait Bergeron and baby Alanna, Julie Blais, Denis and Bonnie Caron, Violet Dawson, Jennifer Gaudreau, Dan and Lori Graves, Carl Hansen, Mike and Cathy Maillet, Gerry and Sandy Mazzerole, Terry and Michelle Mazzerole, Mike and Denise McDonald, Noreen McDonald, David O'Neil, Suzanne Rogers, Saravanamuthu family, Joanna Svendsen, Walter and Sherry Svenson, and Ralph Theodore.

We're gonna miss these wonderful people!

New Year's Eve

To celebrate New Years - we went with the Merpaws to Willard's Hotel in Upper Canada Village.

This old-time pioneer type village is open all summer, but only opens during December for their ALIGHT at NIGHT experience.  The old time hotel is now a restaurant and we enjoyed a great dinner.

 I made SURE we came appropriately attired to bring in the New Year....

Then we went out to walk around the village to see all the lights.

It was REALLY cold out there, just walking around.... so I made sure I was adequately clothed:

Hood, scarf, long coat, long skirt, boots, and gloves!  I looked kind of crazy, but I was warm! Happy New Year - 2013 !!!@

Canadian Winters

This winter has been a hard one,  but today a really HUGE storm hit!  Poor Roger tried to go out and
shovel during the blizzard, so it wouldn't be quite so hard when the storm was over.

Here he is showing how deep the snow was at that point - about 16- 18" deep by then.

By the next day when the skies cleared, we were walking out of our apt. through snow that was 4 feet deep. We had to wait for the snow plow to come and clear our parking lot to be able to get out!

And we are just getting STARTED with winter..... Yikes!

Boxing Day 2012

Boxing day in Canada is a huge holiday when all the stores put everything on sale. It is sort of like our Black Friday.  Since it is a holiday for everyone, we don't get much visiting in. So, the Merpaws invited us for dinner.  They wanted to share with us their tradition of having "crackers" at the table:

Crackers look like a gift wrapped toilet paper roll.  When you open them, they POP... thus the name.
Inside are little gifts, a tissue paper hat in different colors, and a cute little poem or question . Each person's is different. Of course... no food until we put on the hats... ugh....

We enjoyed a wonderful meal with Connie and Sheila and Sheila's son & family from Toronto.
Happy Boxing Day to all !

2nd and Last Christmas on our Montreal Mission

It's our last Christmas. We had already had the kids do things for the missionaries, and the Elders from Hawkesbury were staying there for Christmas, so we didn't expect much of a Christmas day.  But, it looks like we did okay....

Linda McCaskill gave us a present with All Things Canadian inside....

Mark & Debbie Davis remembered us:

Connie & Sheila Merpaw:

Cameron and Lindsay Sanders:

And the Monroes:

who also sent their pictures:

Then I gave Roger his CAN-MAN:

And he gave me some photo albums and a Hippo necklace:

There's a story behind this. All during December we would hear on the radio a song called: "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas".  So, as a joke I started singing it all the time. So, E.Mahaffey actually went on line and searched and searched and found me a blinged-out Hippo necklace!  We really laughed and laughed.  How many other women can boast of having a Hippo necklace? What a wonderful companion I've got!

For Christmas we made Transfer Board cards to each of our grand-children. We made them look just like the real ones we used in the office for the missionaries we had.  We sent them a picture of our President's office where he uses the transfer board cards to place each missionary in a certain area and with a certain companion:

We put each of their pictures on the card and the year they would be eligible to go on a mission. Here are some pictures of them on the refigerator of the Mahaffey home:

and the Monroe home:

(of course, when we got them all done, we mailed them all out before we took a picture...  so I had to get a few pictures after the fact.)  We are hopeful that every time the kids look at the cards, they will be reminded that it won't be long when they can serve a mission.