Christmas Gift Guide for Your Husband/Boyfriend and All of the Men in Your Life

Every year I write a Christmas gift guide on what to get for your husband/boyfriend and all of the significant men in your life over at JordonCooper.com.  It has become quite popular and I encourage you to wander over and check out my holiday gift suggestions.  Let me know what you think over there in the comments.

The last weekend at the cabin

We just got back from the cabin after an interesting week.  We were supposed to leave right after I got off work but Jordon needed to do something with the City of Saskatoon and the police.  As he said, “don’t worry, we have police backup” which didn’t make me feel any better about it.  It did give me time to pack and by 9:00 p.m. we were heading out of Saskatoon and at the cabin by 11:30ish.

It was –8 degrees Celsius inside the cabin when we got there which meant for some cold beds.  Mark was able to tough it out but Oliver demanded to sleep with Jordon and I.  While Jordon warmed up Oliver, I got some heaters going and unpacked.  Oliver crashed with us and managed to kick Jordon and I all night.  We didn’t freeze to death and in the morning we went for a drive.  We got to Lumsden and instead of going to Regina, Jordon took a cross country route to Moose Jaw. 

One the way there, you drive through the heart of Lumsden which has some of the province’s most incredible homes.  I could spend all day just looking around Lumsden and it’s architecture.  Maybe next summer.

Once in Moose Jaw, we looked at where Jordon once lived, went to college, and stopped by the Lieutenant Colonel D.V. Currie, VC, Armoury where we saw…

Jordon pulled over and we got out and took a look around and (obviously) took some pictures.  Marks is a big fan of the show Tank Overhaul so he got a kick out of seeing some of the old (and no so old) tanks and armoured vehicles.  It’s kind of a cool display but I was a little sad to see smashed windows in some of the jeeps.  They are an easy target but this is a memorial site. 

We checked out the new Mosaic Place.  We loved the location but weren’t fond of the design.  Moose Jaw has some great architecture but I am not sure Mosaic Place ads to it.  When Jordon showed Mark the old “crushed can”, he told Mark that the Moose Jaw Warriors could only use really short players because of the low roof.

After heading back to a much warmer cabin, Oliver was more than ready to crawl into his own bed.  We are putting in a loft next year which means for this year Oliver gets a fold out mattress.  Maggi and Hutch beat Oliver to his bed so it was nice and warm by the time he crawled into it.  You can also see his ruggedized flashlight that we gave him a couple of weeks ago.  He loves it and wanted it to keep it close in case The Scary Monster made an appearance.

We expected it to snow on Saturday night but we were surprised when when we woke up to this.

It`s always sad to shut the cabin for the last time but this was the latest we have ever stayed up there.  We had a good opportunity to talk and make plans for 2012.  We hope to…

• Build a 8x12 front porch/deck.  It will go from the end of the cabin to just past the front door right where the chairs are sitting in the photo above.   It will have a closed railing which will give us 96 more square feet and some privacy while being a place to entertain.
• On the back we will have a 8x10 deck for eating outside and enjoying the evenings.  It will have the same kind of railing (horizontal 1x6s to provide privacy).   Between the two decks it will ad about 180 square feet of space to the cabin.  I am excited
• We will be planting four trees.  We talked about poplars but probably will go with some Green Ashes.  It’s hard to plant trees at the cabin because the deer come right into the yard and eat anything or everything they can.
• Perhaps the biggest change will come inside as we take down the ceiling and open up the cabin enough to put a loft in it.  It will be 14x7 sleeping area for Mark and Oliver.  It will be another 90 square feet and will open up the space right underneath it.  Mark’s bed will come out (and the mattress will go up) and a small desk will go in.
• The fire pit is just an old washer tub surrounded by some rocks (which do a good job of holding the heat).  It was never designed to be a permanent fixture but we have grown kind of attached to it.  This year Jordon put some smaller stones in the bottom of it which keeps the water drained away and also holds even more heat.  The plan is to put a 18 inch border of crushed stones around it.  It will keep the grass away and look pretty nice.  The washer drum will get a paint job using barbecue paint as well.

Oh well, that was 2011.  I can’t wait until 2012.

Murmuration

I love this video.

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