I'l Be Home For 1 Minute Of Christmas ...

Yesterday morning Dave and I were to leave for Ontario, however, we we ended up in the hospital emergency room instead. I contracted what was probably a terrible case of food poisioning or the stomach flu that incapacitated me for about 24 hours. Instead of sitting on an airplane I was hooked up to an IV while Dave spent time on the payphone cancelling and rescheduling all of our arrangements. Fortunately we had gotten insurance on our flight so we were able to reschedule it to leave Christmas day instead. So for all our friends and family in Ontario, we'll arrive home on Christmas day at 11:59 PM.

Santa's Coming To Town!!!

Just a short clip from my favourite Christmas movie "Elf" to get you in the holiday spirit. Enjoy!

No Mo' Snow!!

I believe the first official day of winter is December 21st. However, we've been getting snow since the last week of October ... and it keeps on coming! Finally last week we had our street plowed for the first time this year. This was good because I (Erin) kept getting our Honda Civic stuck only a few feet from home. However, instead of being extremely happy, we were extremely surprised to find that the plows put all that snow from the street, over the boulevard, over the sidewalk, and into our front yard. Apparenly the city has claim to the first 3 meters of your property past the sidewalk. Unfortunate for us our front yard is probably only 5 meters deep. The result is a 12 foot snowpile (mixed with dirt and sod from our lawn) outside our bedroom windows. At least it's a snowpile right now. Come spring I believe that large hill will turn into a large flood. At least what grass wasn't dug up should be exceptionally green.

Celebrity Look-a-likes

I found this cool website off a friends blog today that scans a photo of you and compares it to those of celebrities. It tells you which famous person you most look like. Since Dave and I are the perfect couple that means our celebrity dopplegangers are totally with the wrong people.

Of course the site also tells me that with any photo I put in, that I'm a match for Charlize Theron (96% in fact!). If that's truth ... I should be getting better work. Guess Tom and Katie might be right for each other after all.

Our Life Right Now

This year our church has started a new Christmas outreach ministry called Bethlehem Live! The concept is to have people participate in an actual live journey to Bethlehem and to experience the Christmas story as it unfolds right before their eyes. Travellers, led by their guide, encounter beggars, bandits, roman soldiers, shepherds, live animals, a market place, and a prophetess as they pay their taxes, and attempt to find a place to stay in the city. At the end of their journey they are directed to the stable of the inn where they find a couple, an important baby, and the meaning of Christmas. All of this is topped off by live music while they await their tour as well as christmas baking and beverages to warm up with after their journey is completed.

Dave and our friend (and music & creative arts pastor) Kris have been busy heading up and adminstrating this event for the past several months. Needless to say, there are a lot of details in a production like this, so they have been very busy doing everything from recruiting, to snow removal, to hooking up heaters and building fires to keep our actors warm, to putting up sets, to conducting interviews, to ... well you get the idea. They are very busy guys missed much by their wives!

Bethlehem Live! runs for 3 nights and started last evening. So far the response has been great. Infact we had to turn people away near the end of the evening. However, tonight we should have it worked out so we can take more people, more quickly. If you live close to Grande Prairie, you should come check it out. For those of our friends who live out of reach, you can check out some pictures that Melody has put on their blog http://www.krisandmel.blogspot.com.

I'll Be Home For Christmas ...

We just want to let all our friends and family back in Niagara to know that we'll be home for Christmas (finally) this year. We will be arriving December 22nd and returning to Alberta January 8th. We would love to get together with everyone we can, so shoot us an email or give us a call. See you soon!!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas ...

Last Monday we (well me, Erin) decided to put up our Christmas Tree. It may seem early to some but it made sense to us since:

A) We'll be in Niagara from just before Christmas until well after New Year's and ...

B) We've had feet of snow here since October.

If you have an artifical tree like we do you know it takes a lot of work to put it all together, so you might as well have it up for a while to make the effort worth while. If you're reading this blog, feel free to help us finish off our Christmas decorating by adding a few presents to the bottom of our tree :)

P.S. I like Lindor chocolates!

Love The Bug

Dave loves this video because it stars his favourite car ... the classic VW Beetle.

Howl'oween

What better way to commemorate this time of the year than with a little skeleton dance. Enjoy!

Finally The Finished Fence

Okay, so you're probably wondering if we ever finished our fence. We did in August but its just taken us a while to get around to taking some photos and actually posting them. So without further fanfare here they are ... the completed fence. Thanks to all our friends and family that helped us (Dad, Wes, Kris & Mel)!

Winter Wonder What?

Some of you may have heard about the recent storm that hit the U.S. and southern Ontario. In the eye of that storm was Fort Erie, Ontario where half of Erin's family lives.

The storm was pretty bad dumping a foot of snow and leaving my grandparent without power for 3 days. These are pictures of their house after the driveway and roof had been cleared as well as their flooded basement.

Ahhh ... It's good to live in Northern Alberta!

A Long Day's Night

These are our friends Kris and Melody.

We had them over to watch a movie last week but Kris forgot something ... to sleep the night before. So here he is catching a few zzz. Guess he'll never know how X-men 3 ends unless he rents it again.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving and to tell all of our friends and family how thankful we are for all of you.


Oh and for those who can put up with my sense of humor ... a Thanksgiving joke for you:

Q: If I were in a gravy boat, do you know where I'd go?
A: Turkey!

Hey... just be thankful it wasn't a longer joke.

(This picture is pretty funny too!)

M.I.A.?

I realize its been a really long time since you've heard from us. Our life has been neither too eventful or too boring - we've just been on vacation in the Okanagan. Yeah it was tough having to do things like enjoy 30 degree weather, find the perfect spot on the beach, reapply sunscreen all day, or decide what 2 out of 50 icecream flavours to choose ... but we survived. We're still enjoying the memories as our sunburns peel.

Too Much Excitement For One Day

Three major events have taken place at the Brown household in the past 24 hours. First we finished our fence, except for the gate at the front of the driveway. There are a few more nails to be hammered in on all the boards, but we left that job with Dad while we're at work today. Secondly we received our very own tree in the front yard, last night around supper time. Finally, to our utter surprise, we looked out our window early this morning to see people laying sod in our front yard. We were truly ecstatic, especially since it rained shortly after which is a good thing, since we have yet to purchase our first sprinkler. It was also garbage day, but that wasn't much to celebrate.

Footloose and Fency Free

Dad has finally come up North for a visit, so of course we put him to work builiding our fence! There hasn't been much excitement to speak of. Just a lot of mundane and back breaking work and a lot of elbow grease (actually I think that grease dripping from my elbow is sunscreen mixed with dirt and sweat). Fortunately we've had nothing but sunshine for our latest backyard project. Unfortunately, we've had the hotest sunshine on record in the city's history for this time of year for a couple of days in a row. That's made for some pretty exhausting days and a couple of nasty sunburns (Dave now officially belongs in "red-neck country"). Pretty soon no person or blowing garbage will be able to trespass on our private property (aka our dirt pile).

All Is Lost

Unfortunately as of yesterday evening, the Edmonton Oilers lost the Stanley Cup to the Carolina Hurricanes :( Spirits were very low as our whole party watched the celebrations (for the other team) in almost silence.

Also lost last night, with the end of the hockey season and subsequent Oilers playoff run, was Dave's beard. Well at least Erin has something to be happy about. However, I'm still doing a double take every time I see him.

Done Like Dinner

It has taken a month, but our deck is finally done and the BBQ is all settled in. Now all we need is a few nice sunshiny days to enjoy it and perhaps some patio furniture - but that will all come in time. We did christen our new structure with a dinner of hotdogs and iced tea. It was a little breezy and we had to re-light the BBQ four times, but we enjoyed every second of it.

Birth of The Beard

For those who have not seen Dave recently, you would not know that his face looks a little different these days. That's right ... he has decided to grow a beard. What started as a couple days of laziness has evolved into a physical declaration for his love of hockey and the Stanley Cup hopefuls, the Edmonton Oilers. Erin has been quite torn between her dislike for the beard and her hopes for the only remaining canadian team (now that her Leafs are gone). Oh well there's only one more round to go - Go Oilers!

A Deck For We

Well the weather has become enjoyable once again, and that means its time to build the deck now that all the materials have arrived.

With the help of our friend Wes, our patio paradise has been coming together in no time and with few casualties (except for the drain spout Dave bent when he threw a rotten board off the side)!

Stay tuned for pictures of our railing and stairs as we complete them. Our lawn chairs can hardly wait to make the trip from our driveway to our new backyard oasis.

Yes, It's Ours!

Last May, we bought our first house. It's a 884 sq.ft., 2 bedroom bi-level with an unfinished basement, and as you can see ... an unfinished yard. However, now that we have our income tax return, that won't be the case much longer. This summer a deck, lawn, and fence are in the plans. In fact we've already bought the deck materials. We must say that we are very excited and so is our BBQ which has longed for a home of its own for the past many months. We hope to bring you pictures of the progress as soon it begins.

Our Pets (Kind of) ...

To answer everyone's burning questions ... Dave and Erin are still without kids. We don't even have any pets because Erin is allergic to anything with fur. We had a fish once, because Dave thought a fish tank would look pretty, but that only lasted as long as Erin could tolerate doing all the "fish care" herself.

So now we've opted for animals of the stuffed kind. We have two "pets". Our dog Russell is a lathargic little fellow who enjoys long naps on Dave & Erin's bed as well as being regularily vacuumed and the occassional snack of green shoe-string licorice.

Last summer we added Shaemus the sheep to our now growing family. Shaemus joins us from Victoria, BC where we adopted him while tourist shopping downtown. Being not so bright (as most sheep are) Shaemus follows his animal instints by habitually snacking on just about anything within his reach. Erin is currently in the process of writing down his unruly eating habits in the future hopes of publishing a children's book entitled, "Shaemus the Sheep Likes To Eat ... ".

Our New Blog

Hey there, we're glad you decided to check out our site.

We hope to keep you updated on all the recent, exciting and mundane events happening in our lives - so check in any time and keep in touch!

Dave & Erin