This year, our winter reflection can be broken down into two distinct phases: winter pre-Eloise, and winter with Eloise.
We moved out to our acreage last year, and while I love our acreage life, I’ve found myself missing city sidewalks and streetlights during the dark and icy months. When our children are older, I imagine them spending hours outside in winter, building snow forts, having snowball fights, and only coming in for hot chocolate and a dry set of mittens. Right now, though, the snow gets too deep for Addie’s little legs to carry her through, and our yard more-or-less becomes unusable.
This year, we were also home with a newborn, adjusting to life as a family of four. Addie was born in the summer, and I remember feeling like I missed the summer, as it was spent in a sleep-deprived blur. With Eloise being born in winter, we hibernated. January and February were the perfect months to stay inside and simply be together. The challenge with having a winter baby, though, was that when we did want to leave the house it was so much more difficult! Will the baby be warm enough? What are the sidewalks like? Can I take the stroller? What if I slip on the ice?
Still, winter didn’t entirely slip away from us.
We took Addie skiing and snowboarding
I grew up on skis, and I knew that I wanted to teach Addie to ski or snowboard so that she could join me on the slopes. It has always been one of my absolute favourite parts of winter. However, I couldn’t decide which of the two winter sports I wanted to try teaching Addie. I’ve snowboarded in the past, and in many ways prefer it to skiing, but I started snowboarding late in life and never quite got good at it. I wish I’d learned to snowboard young, and, let’s face it, snowboarding toddlers are adorable. Skiing, on the other hand, I felt more comfortable with, and it seemed like the easier of the two winter sports to start a child on. I spent an afternoon in the fall researching both skiing and snowboarding with a toddler, trying to decide which sport would be best for Addie to try first, and in the end I bought her both a ski set and a snowboard set, because why not both?
Pre-Eloise, I was limited in what Addie and I could do together at the ski hill because I didn’t feel comfortable skiing while massively pregnant. I took Addie up the bunny hill, walking behind her as she learned to get her balance. We tried the skis and the snowboard, with her showing a major preference for the snowboard from the start. An ill-fitting pair of ski boots turned her off of skiing, and I haven’t managed to get her to give it another chance. Grandpa did convince her to try skiing the big hill with him once and she had a fun day, but still, she asks for her snowboard every time.
Once Eloise was here and I was fully recovered, I got to take Addie out to the big hill myself. It has been such a joy to watch her confidence and balance develop. I love listening to her giggle to herself as she rides down the hill. It has been a fun mother/daughter activity that we can enjoy together. Just the two of us.
When we got on the chairlift for our last run of the season, I said to Addie “Okay, this is our last time for the year,” to which I got an emphatic, “No! It’s not the last time!” I agree, Addie, I wish the ski & snowboard season wasn’t ending, too. But we have garden, hiking, and camping season coming up, which is just as fun!
I had wanted to take Addie for a snowboard trip to the mountains this winter to ride some of the green dot runs together, but it was too hard to coordinate between busy schedules and the newborn. Hopefully next year, though, we can take a little family ski trip.
We attempted winter camping (with disastrous results)
When our summer camping season ended, we were not eager to put the tent away, and we bought a canvas bell tent with the hopes of attempting winter camping. I write a blog post HERE about our attempts, which went horribly, but long story short, we froze and almost burned the tent down on two different occasions.
After our disastrous attempts at winter camping, we were slow to put the tent away, and we went out one day and discovered that our tent had collapsed beneath the weight of the snow. The pole had ripped the canvas, and our tent was stuck in a heap beneath the snow, with the pegs stuck in the frozen ground. It is going to need some major repair to get the bell tent functional again, and we still haven’t been able to get it out of the ground to see the extent of the damages. We’re waiting for the snow to melt off of it, and then we plan to hang it in our greenhouse to dry.
Hopefully we can get it patched up, with a new stove jack sewn in, and then we can set it up to enjoy in our yard over the summer. Maybe we can attempt some late fall camping this coming year. I’m not sure how much we’re going to embrace the winter camping idea next year.
We took in holiday lights and ice sculptures
In December, we made the best of the short days by going to see as many holiday light displays as possible (and there were lots in and around the city).
We went to the Winter Wonder Forest out by Gibbons,
Luminaria at the University of Alberta Devonian Gardens,
Zoominescence at the Valley Zoo,
and, Candy Cane Lane.
We also went to Hawrelak Park to look at the ice sculptures at the Silver Skate Festival.
We kept busy attending activities and events, and still, there were a number of events that we didn’t get around to attending this year (All Is Bright Festival, Deep Freeze: A Byzantine Winter Festival, Ice on Whyte, and Flying Canoe Volant) that I look forward to checking out next winter.
Sandra has always made it clear that she struggles with the winters here, and that she’d rather live somewhere tropical, so I was shocked when she turned to me at Luminaria and stated that, this year, she thought winter might be her favourite season. It’s cold and dark, but getting outside and keeping busy as a family helped stave off the worst of the season.
We watched Christmas movies outdoors by the fire
This activity started as a way to help us achieve our 1000 Hours Outside goal for 2021, and might be a new family tradition for us.
In the summer, Sandra bought a little projector so that we could watch movies by the fire, but with the long days, we didn’t get much chance for outdoor movie watching, because the projector really only works when it’s dark outside.
Winter movie-watching by the fire took a bit of set up. We had to run power from the house for the speakers, Playstation, and projector. We also plugged in an electric blanket to help fight the cold. We carried out a large stack of blankets, and piled them on top of us. We watched Christmas movies while cooking berry rhubarb crumble over the campfire and drinking tea and hot chocolate. It took somewhat generic screen time and turned it into an event. It was a winter memory we won’t soon forget, and we will definitely have outdoor Christmas movie nights next year.
We went swimming. A LOT!
This one wasn’t an outdoor activity, but it kept us busy and sane throughout the winter months. At the end of November we bought a family pass for the City of Edmonton recreation centers. We wanted an activity that could keep us busy in the evenings so that we weren’t stuck inside from 4:00 p.m. sunset on, running down the clock until bedtime. We are about to pause the pass for the summer, but we got good use out of it. We went swimming almost every day at some points this winter, and both girls have come to love swimming. It is an activity we can do with both Addie and Eloise, and it helps tire Addie out before bedtime in the evenings.
We know that in the summer, we will be outdoors, camping, visiting playgrounds, or playing in the yard, and so the pass won’t get much use, but we were very glad to have purchased the pass for the winter.
With the spring weather, we are happily saying goodbye to winter, but this past season we kept busy and made some unforgettable memories.