Polar vortex

 Before moving here, if you had said “Polar vortex“ I would have thought you were talking about some strange sci-fi movie. But a polar vortex is a real weather phenomenon and we are caught under one right now. It has been cold, cold enough that Maren was not allowed to have outdoor recess for more than a week. Around here that means it has been consistently below -20°C at the warmest part of the day, and for the past week or so (longer?) with the windchills it has been around -40°C at the warmest time of day. So yeah, cold.

But life goes on, and during the past week we celebrated my birthday as well as Valentine’s Day. Today was lots of fun, starting with waffles topped  with vegan whipped cream and maple syrup. Then we set up the tent inside for some playtime, ate some chocolates, braved the outdoors because it was “warmer“ today and went for a walk/trike ride, and ended the day with a kid-pleasing lasagna.

My birthday was even better. I woke up to surprise decorations. We had chocolate cake topped with vegan whipped cream and caramel sauce. Maren bought me a present with her own money that she picked out all by herself - an ABBA greatest hits CD. In case you were wondering, I have never owned an ABBA song in my life, let alone a whole CD, and Maren has definitely never even heard of them. But somehow she thought it would be the perfect present and somehow it really is.

And Jeff got me a gift that was a complete surprise, and equal parts hilarious and so so strange: