This morning

It is still really icy.... and really, really cold! I had to take a picture of the way that I was feeling.....

Say no more! Not impressed!!!

Ice, ice, baby.... first day of school...

Well, at least, *I* had a first day of school... and Oliver went back to daycare. Nicklas' and Alexander's school had no electricity so it was closed (yes, the ONLY school in the ENTIRE school board... how lucky for them @@) and Andreas decided to work from home. In short, after yesterday's storm: THERE WAS ICE ABSOLUTELY EVERYWHERE!!!! Seriously, I had some pretty good winter boots on and I couldn't walk on the sidewalks. It was actually a bit funny; everyone was shuffling around, one step forward and two big slides back ;) I have to say it was funny.... until people fell and hurt themselves. A friend of mine ended up in emergency today because she fell and hit her head, hard on the ice :( She seemed to be OK after all but, still, what a crappy start to the new school semester!
On the bright side (OK... I am trying to be positive), we made it to the BBC news! Ice storms in Canada and wild fires in Australia.... Those pathetic colonies! ;)

Hope you all have a great return to routine! XOX

Yups.... that is a bit of ice.... ;)

No way that these bikes are coming out until spring ;)

Ice storm

We had lots of snow last night, which turned into rain today. Problem is that the temperature was supposed to go up to 6 degrees C but it didn't get above -1! There is ice absolutely everywhere; the roads are a skating rink and everything is covered with a layer of ice... including all the trees and power lines! A similar thing happened here in 1998 (on January 4 as well... imagine!) and many people were without electricity for over a month. The city shut down for a good week... very strange to be walking downtown Montreal and it looking like a ghost town! Here is a brief trailer for a National Geographic documentary about the storm:

Anyway, although around 92,000 are without power now in Québec, I hope that it won't get any worse. It is still raining.... ugh! Bummer is that the holidays are now over and we will all be stuck in the morning traffic, sliding along ;) Welcome to Canadian weather! Wish us luck!!!

Here are some photos from today:

Happy treat

Yesterday evening, I went to the airport to pick up the son of a Danish friend of mine (a colleague from the lab I used to work at). He will be studying in Montreal for this semester as an exchange student. I am not quite sure why he picked the winter semester (!) but he seems excited by it ;) To remind me of Denmark, he brought some yummy lakrids treats.... Needless to say, there aren't very many left :) THEY ARE AWESOME!

I thought I would take a picture of them because they weren't going to last long ;)

Absolutely lovely....

Today, I opened my mailbox and, tucked between the adverts, was a lovely package from my blog friend Ageeth! What an absolutely lovely surprise- thank you so much! This is one big bonus about blogging- you meet super nice people from all over the world!

Ageeth: could you please send me your address? The one on the envelope wasn't so clear... it must have ended up blurring in the cold ;) I have been sitting on a little something for you too :) Don't worry- it is NOT snow!!

This package really made my day! xox

Couldn't start 2015 without....

.... a bit of ABBA..... Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2015 :)

Happy New Year! May 2015 be filled with health, happiness, love and peace!

Last night, we celebrated at home with the boys. Nice and quiet. My mother came over for the night and we had some good food (thanks to Andreas), good bubbly wine (if it is not from Champagne, then it is not champagne... I have been well trained!) and good family time :) I finally finished my corrections earlier in the evening so that was also a reason to celebrate! Whew!

Hope you all have a great/quiet January 1! Thank you for coming to visit my blog :)

Lebkuchen Hertzen..... my fave!

Round 1 of many.....

Today, we are getting some of our snow back :P

January 1 is tough when you are a cat ;)