Winter Solstice/Yule

"The Winter Solstice, sometimes referred to as Yule, celebrates the rebirth of the sun to the earth, and the solstice itself is the longest (hence, darkest) night of the year. Throughout the world, from Scotland to Iran to the Americas, ancient and modern peoples have called forth the sun on the longest night of the year."

You may have noticed that the solstice falls near the Christian holiday of Christmas, and that the word Yule is usually associated with that same holiday. Upon closer inspection, you will find many remnants of the pagan holiday within the current Christian celebrations. For example, the Christmas tree that is erected in many homes is a nod to the original pagan celebration of creating a Yule tree. The sturdy, evergreen tree represents life surviving in the darkest time of the year. The Yule tree was decorated with natural ornaments such as berries, rosebuds, and cinnamon sticks. Candles adorned the tree, representing the light of the sun, soon to be reborn. In many traditions, a Yule log is burned throughout the solstice night to provide a light in the darkest night, symbolizing hope and a belief that the sun will return.

December is here with a bang!!

Wow, I am sitting here drinking hot chocolate after spending 20 minutes digging out the back door.  The dog run gate has a 5 foot snow embankement against it, I decided not to dig it out just yet!!  The dogs are out and in almost right away.  Though a few try and brave the blowing snow a tad longer.  Scandal came in and half of her body was reminicent of a snowman, the other half was dry as a bone.  I almost lost poor Pirate in the snow, he was burrowing his way to the back corner of the yard, his favorite "place".

We have most of our indoor Christmas decorations up, including the tree!!  Lochlan really enjoys sitting in his seat under the tree just admiring the lights.  Of course with the decorations and snow the kidlets are convinced the big fat man is coming "tonight"!  We have our activity advent calendar up so counting the days is a little easier, but not much LOL.

Yesterday my sister, her husband and their first child flew in for a visit!  I finally got to meet Keaton, he is so so so so handsome.  I hope our boys grow to be fast friends as well as cousins.  Missing from the picture is Devlin, who at the time was downstairs with Uncle Luke.

And of course with being the end of the year I hav started planning my show/trial calendar for next year.  I do know there few shows I wouldn't miss.  One being the 3rd CNASA Nationals in September, the Lakes & District Kennel Club show in May (Burns Lake watch out for the invasion!! lol) and Prince Albert (the judging panel is excellent).  Added this year is the NACA show in June, I am sure we will be going to the Calgary and area shows. Though if the trend of $28+ for each show continues I will have to pick and choose who shows which day. 

This year Trynity is going to be competing in Junior Novice.  She is so excited, practises her anatomy and patterns religously and seems to understand she has to work at winning those placements.  I know I am nervous but Tryn is so excited!  Keara has expressed interest in competing this year as well, she would be in PeeWee and is learning all she can from her big sister.  Devlin is looking forward to starting Karate and I think he would do quite well.  As I have said many times, even though I enjoy showing dogs it is not something I PUSH on my kids.  Yes they enjoy showing and if they ever decided not to want to play the game anymore I encourage them to do different things.

There will be some exciting news coming in the next few weeks.  Stay tuned!!!