Go Blades Go

Callum and I went to watch our first ever ice hockey match with Eda and Sam. We saw the Saskatoon Blades play against the Prince Albert Raiders. The arena is about 15 minutes away by car and is used for concerts as well as ice hockey matches. We arrived as the teams were doing their warm up on the ice, and even though the match hadn't started, I was amazed at what these guys could do on a pair of skates.

We had tickets in row 6, roughly in the middle of the rink. It was a great spot to watch from, where we could follow the play close up. Neither Callum or I knew much about ice hockey when we went, but we had Sam one side, and Eda the other who both know lots about it, so they were able to explain what was going on.

The game play was soooo fast it was really difficult to keep up with what was going on. You could lose sight of the puck in an instant, and before you knew it, you'd missed a shot on goal. By the end of the first period, I was starting to get the hang of following the play, and really getting into it.

Well, we really got value for money out of our match. At the end of the 3rd period, it went into extra time, which is a sudden death round, and then to penalties. We were all on the edge of our seat by the end of it, cheering for the Saskatoon Blades, willing their penalty shots to go in. Well, in the end the Raiders took the match, mainly due to a better goal keeper. Callum looked really gutted, but after a little consoling, began to agree that it was a great match and that if his home team won every time, it wouldn't be much of a league.

We have picked up enough of the rules for when we watch another match, thanks to Sam and Eda for giving us the idiots commentary, and helping us find where the puck had got to! I have a feeling we'll be getting to quite a few matches in the future.

We have moved into a rented duplex house (semi-detached). It is wonderful to be in our own place, it does not matter too much how much noise the kids make as there is no one living underneath us.

I have now been to two Christmas productions. Tonight was Callum's production of a Christmas rainbow. Callum was green and his class formed a Christmas tree and sung O Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum) in German. For blue the elvis song blue christmas was sung. It amuses me that the other production I saw last week was the Elvish Impersonator with Elvis songs in too. Does Canada have a soft spot for Elvis?

Point 2 had its kids christmas today. We all loved it, especially the kids as Father Christmas gave them a stocking each with their names on them. I was surprised how many of the families had young kids. My eldest was nervous for a while when he realised he was one of the oldest. He still stands up for Father Christmas and so it cannot be an age limit on the party. It was good to see that Point 2 is a really family friendly place. Both kids got presents that really suited them, and we will be able to use the stockings again for Santa on Christmas day.

Prince Philip's school had their Maths and Muffins morning today. The kids were expected to appear with a parent and siblings to the library at 8.15 am where we all collected a game from the correct box and sat playing it. We had one called the two tooney race. Basically it was a spinner with penny, nickel, dime and quarter written on it. (For those like me that needed help - a penny is 1 cent, a nickel is 5 cents, a dime is 10 cents, a quarter is 25 cents, a looney is 1 dollar and a tooney is 2 dollars.) My son had great fun correcting my efforts with a nickel and a dime. He then reminded me that Nickelback got it's name from the nickel in change that band member Mike Kroeger gave customers at his Starbucks job—he would frequently say, "Here's your nickel back".

We received a parcel today. Inside were two books and a message:
"Welcome to Canada all of you. Stay warm and beware the mighty Moose's.
Malcolm."
Thank you and brilliant timing as I was beginning to really miss my friends back in England.

Year 4 of St Richard's with St Andrew's school sent an email out asking how we were all doing and saying our postcards have finally started to arrive. I feel confident to write some more now I know they take just over two weeks to arrive in England.

Our first Halloween in Canada was brilliant, almost all the children were dressed up and loads of the adults too and that was before dusk. We met several rag dolls and thing one and thing two at Market Mall. At Chris's work most of the office dressed up their characters included a Republican and an office ninja. Later we were collected by Aidan to join the other kids meeting at his house ready to go trick or treating. Everyone dressed up and all the houses greeted us with loads of candy (sweets and chocolates). We still keep up with Treating (thank you Aunty Sophie) and all the kids made sure between them a tangerine was handed to each house. A great time was had by all See http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=38621&l=f73b3&id=573408733.

Later the kids and I returned home while Chris and some others ended up at Zach's to play rock band. We visited the local decorated houses with some of the chocolates that had not been collected here. We discovered that there is a family across the road that goes to Prince Philip school and seem to enjoy it.