I heart chinooks!

Canadian winter is in full effect!  Temperatures well below zero have become a daily occurrence.  In the midst of the freezing temperatures and snowy days, though, chinooks have become some of my favorite things!  Chinooks, or "snow eaters" are warm winds that come in from the Rockies and warm up the temperatures and melt all of the snow.  They can last a few hours or a few days.  Today, we experienced a chinook and the temperature went from 19F degrees to 55F degrees in a few hours!  There is a downside though - windy windy windy!  Today the winds were blowing over 80 mph and so although it was warm outside, it wasn't too fun to be out there.  Penny enjoyed chasing all of the leaves and things blowing around, though.  AND, we lost power for about an hour and half due to the very windy conditions.

This is what it looks like when a chinook comes through (this was early in the AM)

This past week we celebrated Thanksgiving.  Although, the rest of the country wasn't, Matt and I insisted on having a Thanksgiving dinner, and celebrating the holiday.  I, for the first time, cooked the dinner entirely on my own and I have to say, it is super exhausting!  I made broccoli casserole, green bean casserole, corn, mashed potatoes from scratch, turkey with stuffing, and even a homemade apple pie!  Everything turned out really good but we had TONS of leftovers.  Although it didn't quite feel like Thanksgiving because we weren't able to be with all of our family and friends, it was still a good time.

I finally had to break down and buy Penny some snow boots.  Her poor little paws get so cold that she can barely walk!  So, I bought these (wish they weren't blue but that's the color that her size comes in).  They are basically like balloons that stretch over her paws so that they protect them from the cold and the snow and the salt but aren't so thick/big that she can't walk with them.  She was very hesitant at first and I only put them on her two front paws since those are the ones that seem to be bothered the most.  She walked a little awkwardly at first and wasn't sure how she felt about them but I think she will get used to them!

Penny with her boots on

This picture was right after she ate some snow.  I love that she still has some on her nose :)

Penny has also become much more of a snuggler now that she lives in Calgary.  She works very hard to position herself in the perfect spot on the couch to cuddle up with me or Matt or the blanket!

Matt and I have signed up for an indoor soccer team that starts in January so we are looking forward to getting back to playing and also to hopefully meeting some new friends!