December 19 - 20th - Early Christmas in Toronto...

We arrived in Toronto in the late afternoon. Tiiu and Peter had a beautiful dinner already underway.
Peter's brother, Andy, arrived a little while later to join in on the celebration. We all got dressed in our Christmas rags and the festivities began. We enjoyed a first course of traditional Estonian fare with a Tiiu/Peter flair. We then moved to the living room where Santa's helper, AKA Rein, passed out the gifts. We then went back to the dining room table where we enjoyed a delicious roast and all the trimmings. Our stomachs were groaning when we retired to the living room once again. We greatly missed not having Lembit and Asta, Mark and Juta there. Tom and I were lucky to have a wonderful visit with Lembit and Asta the next day at their condo. We sat and savoured very special words and moments in front of the panoramic view of Lake Ontario that stretched out before us. The clear, shining, glorious day we took in reflected what we shared on the other side of the glass...

We wish all of our family and friends the most special of times during this holiday season.

December 19th - Skating Season is open!

Before leaving for Toronto for an early christmas with Vanaema, and Peter, we stepped out onto the ice. Tom did a couple of tests for ice thickness and it was already 6 inches thick! We have dug out our skates and will be gliding on Buck Lake over the holidays...

Rein's School Christmas Concert - December 16th

Rein and is class sang their own version of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', and their song was wrapped up by a one-handed cartwheel by one of his classmates, Emma. We were impressed. You could hear Rein confidently sing the words he had practiced for the entire week before.
When Rein came on stage, Silka could not contain her excitement from seeing her brother up there. she belted out a 'Hi, Rein!' that everyone in the gymnasium could hear before they started singing.

December 11th - First Ski of the Year

It was a beautiful, wintery Sunday afternoon....
We drove to an entrance to the Cataraqui Trail (old railway bed) not far from our house. We strapped on our skis, Silka included, and headed off on snowmobile tracks that already marked the way. We skied a lot longer than Tom and I expected. We stopped for a snack along a cliff wall and then headed back. Rein skied almost the whole way and Silka stuck with us either on skis, on foot or riding the sled pulled by her dad.

December 6th, 2009 - It's a winter wonderland at Buck Lake!