Whitefish, Montana...

Mon 13 Dec - we left Ralston and drove to Whitefish, Montana, USA in 7 hours with a few stops on the way. The drive was fairly painless as the roads were so empty. We arrived at the house we have hired on Big Mountain at 7pm and friends Noo and Richard kindly had tea ready for us all. After a tour round the house, which is brilliant and very comfortable, we ate supper and jumped into the hot tub. The house has 6 levels going from the garage to boot room/den/bedroom/washroom to lounge/kitchen/dinning room to king bedroom to gallery & 2nd king bedroom - more than enough room for us all. Together with 3 balconies and small patio with hot tub where you can ski from our backdoor onto the slopes.

Unfortunately Tue was a day of rain so it became our admin day and food shop. Kalispell is approx 20mins down the road and has all the large shops that you need, along with Churches for every religion. Whitefish is also a lovely town with many boutiques and local small shops.

Wed we were up and ready for skiing, although the lifts do not open until 9.30am so a reasonable start to the day. We spent several hours on Chipmunk (green run) in order to get our ski legs back and then took several high runs including Home Again which took us to our back door - fantastic.

So we have skied Wed/Thu/Fri and the weather each day has improved - today we skied in glorious sunshine still with not many people on the slopes. All the lift guys are really helpful and friendly and the amenities are great, along with gorgeous scenery. Tomorrow it is Tegan's birthday so a surprise party has been ordered by the 6year old going on 7!!!

Dec 10 Catch Up...

Fraser doing a bit of surfing down the only hill in Ralston. Great fun going down shame about the walk back up the hill.

We are in full swing of winter with temperatures going from zero down to -24 degrees - your nose hairs start to freeze at this point!







SSAFA Christmas Fair - Father Christmas arrives by helicopter to the joy of the children.

The fair was held in Ralston's theatre on Sunday 28 Nov and was well supported by the community. It was fantastic seeing Tegan and Fraser's face as the helicopter landed and father christmas stepped out onto the snow. They both decided to whizz inside and get into the queue to see him - their quick thinking got them 2nd in the queue.

During the fair a raffle was held which we bought tickets for. The table was full of good prizes and amazingly we won a prize. Chris let Tegan go up to the table and pick the prize - luckily she chose a nights stay at the Copperstone Hotel up in Canmore - fantastic more skiing.

Treasure Island at Ralston School. The Missoula Children's Theatre came to Ralston School and gave the children a chance at performing. Tegan was picked from Grade 2 to take part - as a seagull. She was thrilled to be picked and thought her seagull costume was great. The children had rehearsals Tue - Thur and then put on 2 shows during Friday. So we all went to Ralston theatre to watch the performance which was surprisingly good considering the very short period they had to learn the play. Well done to everyone.

Canadian Pacific Railway Holiday Train....

Holidays are coming, holidays are coming...

Tegan, Fraser and I took a trip to down town Medicine Hat to participate in an annual community event tonight - to see the Canadian Pacific Railway Christmas holiday train, which visits over 140 communities along its network. This is a huge annual event with lots of locals turning up to the railway siding to witness the magical illuminated train with all its flashing sparkly lights. The Medicine Hat community provided free hot chocolate and cookies (as much as you liked much to the delight of Fraser) for everyone that came with donations made to the food bank. Noo, Lexi and Harry also joined us with all the children very excited, or was that Noo and myself!

After a short wait the train arrived much to our delight, just after 5pm. The main locomotive was lit up followed by four carriages carrying the Canadian Pacific name, two more carriages decorated with lights and then a carriage with a large metal section in the middle, this was positioned infront of the crowd. Then the metal side was lowered and there was Rocking Santa and his band. We were then entertained for 20 minutes by a brilliant band - Noo had a beaming smile across her face - this really felt like Christmas had arrived. Obviously we were standing on snow with temperatures about -15degrees.

At this point we were in high spirits and decided that we all deserved to go out for Pizza. So after a visit to Boston Pizza, which we all admitted was very nice it was time to drive back to Ralston with tired children, especially as it was only Tuesday night.

History:

The Holiday Train Program began in 1999 with a handful of communities and a few lights on a freight train. Today, with its hundreds of thousands of festive lights and a live show featuring well known performers, it's one of Canadian Pacific's main ambassadors in working with communities in Canada and the United States and is the only fundraiser of its kind for food banks in North America. Since the program's inception, more than 4.8 million in cash and over 2.3 million pounds of food has been collected in Canada and the United States.

Winter Has Arrived...

Mon 17 Nov - Chris left BATUS on Monday afternoon for a 1 1/2 week trip back to the UK visiting Engineer Regiments around the country.

Tuesday morning I woke up to hear a message on the radio announcing that Ralston school would be closed for the day. I then looked out the window to see a snow storm going on and 70mph winds, by which time Tegan and Fraser were excited about no school. Some of the day was spent in the gym and ice arena and then an afternoon at home, during which time the snow storm had not stopped and the village was covered in snow but also ice due to the high winds and low temperature. Needless to say it has snow for the last 6 days and it looks like christmas has arrived - or so says Fraser.

Each morning now begins 1/2 hour earlier in order to put on all our winter clothes, including Jinx with her coat. Instead of cycling to school we are back on the sledge. So with Chris in England and a broken arm shovelling the path is not much fun but Fraser does insist on helping - then I'm back to square one. Some of the days have been sunny which makes everything look beautiful, once the sun disappears it is time to hibernate.

BFBS Tournament...

Sat 13 Nov saw the start of a weekend full of hockey. All day Saturday the BFBS tournament took place in Ralston's arena which was hosted by BFBS radio and the Devils. The BFBS tournament is a big part of the season as all teams play against each other including 2 Devils teams. The first puck drop was at 8am (much to Chris's disappointment no lie in for him on a Saturday morning) with the Icemen vs Orange Oilers - unfortunately the Oilers won. However I have to say the Icemen played really well during the tournament probably helped by the brufen and beer in the changing room during breaks!

The Devils had a table full of fantastic raffle prizes along with an auction for several activities/donations given by other players such as sports massage, personal training, karate lessons, swimming lessons, brownies, photography and a cooked meal for up to 6 people. The tournament is a big fund raiser for the Devils so everyone helped out. The Wildcats (junior hockey) also had a table selling cakes and hot waffles which went down very well.

All the games lasted 20mins with a constant turn over of games. During some of the floods BFBS held games for the children including 'pass the parcel' and the best one - pushing children sitting on a tray down the ice, not sure who had more fun the children or the adults pushing. Picture Fraser 2nd from left.

The final game took place just after 5pm with the Flyers vs Black Oilers. They had a great game but unfortunately it came down to penalty shots. After both teams scoring 1-1, then both missing the tension was great, finally the Flyers scored.

That evening we all got dressed up - well put on a pair of jeans and our respective hockey tops and went to party. So along with lots of drinking, a good curry, disco and Sam T doing the auction it was a fantastic day. Chris and I left just after 1.30am.

Sunday Tegan and Fraser had their skating lessons after which we jumped into the car to go and watch the NHL Oltimers vs Med Hat Fire Brigade ice hockey game in Medicine Hat.

The Oltimers had two Hockey Hall of Fame members - Bryan Trottier and Glenn Anderson. The rest of the team was Bob Bourne, Dave Ellett, Jimmy Mann, Warren Skorodenski, Thomas Steen & Jack Valiquette. They were all amazing skaters and such good entertainers especially considering they were in their 50's. Game play consisted of 3 x 20 mins and inbetween 2 figure skater girls came on - also very good. The other highlight was a group of junior hockey players (aged approx 4-5 yrs old) who came out to play with 3 of the oltimers, the guys were so good with the boys and it was very funny. The final score was 14-7 to the favourites, a great Sunday afternoon. Tegan left with a loud mini horn and Fraser bought a signed mini goalie stick.

Remembrance Day...

Wed 10 Nov Ralston School held an assembly for Remembrance Day.

All pupils attended along with parents and invited guest from the military. Pupils from Jenner School also attended as they are located fairly near to Ralston and only have about 14 pupils.






All year groups either sang a song or Kindergarten recited a poem whilst holding pictures of poppies. It means a lot to the children of the school as most of the pupils come from a military family, either British or Canadian and are aware of the current wars. It is also good that they learn the history of previous wars.








On the day of the 11th Tegan, Fraser and myself wrapped up warm and set off to attend the official Remembrance Day service at our own cenotaph in Ralston. Luckily the sun was out but the temperature was fairly cool which was not good for the children standing around, or adults. Tegan joined the Brownie group as they all sat together. There were many representatives from the local community, military personal from BATUS and CFB Suffield and guides and scouts. As always the service is very touching especially when the helicopter flew overhead at 11am and dropped hundreds of poppies onto us all below.

Foothills Brass Band...

Thursday 3 November Ralston School had the Foothills Quintet Brass Band visit the school for the day. Each grade had time with the band and got to learn all about music especially the sounds made from the brass instruments. The members of the band were extremely good at explaining music in the form that children could understand and kept them entertained.

A friend called me to say parents could go up to the school at 2pm to listen to the quintet along with the whole school in the gym. So on with my coat and off I went. It was lovely listening to them play Star Wars and Harry Potter along with many other different tunes. A great experience for the children to be so near to the instruments and players.