The infamous christmas

Our trip to churchill was fantastic! I wasn't looking forward to the long drive, 16 hours to be exact, but it went by pretty fast and was broken by a stay at the super 8 in The Pas. This was our hotel buddy there....a very friendly kitty who we tried to take out of our room when we left and he just kept jumping onto the bed, so we figured when the cleaners came in they would save him and until then he could forage for left over soap.
Finally we got to Thompson and the train station. i was still excited about the train at this point and stayed excited until we had been on the train for about 10 minutes. Shelley you're right about keeping an eye on the bags. despite cramped seats and waking up to feet in my face i slept reasonably well and woke up in churchill!
This is our family in the train station, that pile of luggage in the middle...yup all ours.
Once in Churchill it became a frenzy of FOOD! Christmas dinner was fabulous and then out came the chocolate and candy...somehow it was all my favorite kinds too.hmmmm.

Good thing we had activites to keep the pounds from piling on! This was my first ever attempt at curling. Us canadians so inventful with our games, i got pretty into it and even managed to keep a rock in the house??
One of the main things i wanted to do while in churchill is build and igloo! This was so fun, we got saws and learnt how to cut the blocks and stack them winding around until you have space for three to touch on top and seal it off. I didn't sleep in it :( maybe next time.
One thing i can say about the martens family is we are competitive! It started with our gift exchange where there was lots of stealing from eachother. Then we got into two teams and played survivor...brutally voting eachother off. He he those are my feet in the picture, my cousin kyle was very brave...or maybe i was the brave one!

Another survivor challenge! this one got a bit painfull.

Another martens family tradition is games games games! Here are my wonderful cousins in the middle of a cutthroat game of cranium. I will remember Settlers, Rook, and the half day long Risk game for years to come.....

And who could forget Elvis....this cat got held and kissed and played with more in that week than he will in the next ten years i'm sure. he was so snuggly, especially when you sort of stuck him belly up in your arms and held him so he couldn't get away.

But wait...theres more, churchill installment 2 is coming up!