christmas journal

Well, we’re back from our lovely Christmas trip – away since the 22nd.

First stop was Kelowna, where we took Auntie Sally out for lunch, visited E’s Dad, then crashed the annual turning-on-of-the-lights ceremony and wiener roast at Ernie’s brother’s house. It’s a rite-of-passage thing in their family with each year a different grandchild doing the honors of connecting the various strings of Christmas lights that grandpa has spent hours setting, followed by a wiener roast.

This year there was a cold wind. I personally did manage to char a smokie to eating temperature in the excellent roasting fire, but confess I retired to the kitchen to eat in warmth and comfort. (As not-yet-grandparents ourselves but always on the lookout for possible grandparent traditions, I must admit I’m not sure this one is exactly ‘us.’)

On Saturday, after a morning Merry Christmas drop-in to my brother and his family, we drove on to Kamloops. We had no problem finding the townhouse Sonia and Matt have newly purchased (November) and the bottom of their tree was soon jammed with gifts.


And so we spent Christmas with the Spooners!

Saturday evening we helped S. finish the shopping while M. did a four-hour shift of work. Sunday morning I made an apple pie for next day’s festive meal and then, after lunch, we joined the kids at church (where S. was helping lead worship and M. was in charge of the kids’ craft - “Do you know the real meaning of the candy cane?” he asked me earlier. Of course I'd forgotten which gave him the perfect chance to review his lesson beforehand.)

In the evening we drove out to Sorrento for a dinner with family and friends – but it began most inauspiciously by us getting stuck in our host’s driveway. All ended well, though, with the car shoveled and straightened out, and a very delicious turkey dinner.

Finally Christmas day. Gift time is always exciting for no matter how old your kids get.

She liked her sweater. He loved his drum kit from her.

Doesn’t this hat (from Benjie and Georgi - who we missed very much!) make him look distinguished? Hubby, out of an abundance of caution, bought me the same jacket in two sizes.

One fits S. and one fits me and so now daughter and mom have twin jackets.

And you can never get too much Body Shop!

After a late brunch, we went out to find the dike. The dike walk along the North Thompson is about 5 minutes from the kids’ house. Now that I could handle!

Then it was home to finish assembling our own turkey dinner. (Unfortunately somehow the screen door had got locked or jammed so we couldn't get in when we got back - yikes! But the kids had broken into their own house days earlier and left the kitchen window unlocked. Bad move – but good for us on Monday.)

The turkey dinner turned out scrumptious. We ended the evening by watching "Hotel Rwanda" (not exactly Christmas fare, but what a riveting film!).

Yesterday we lolled around the house, took a walk, ate more treats, watched more TV and then half of "The Pianist" (what a choice for Christmas - two genocidal war movies - but I would recommend this one too) after M. left for another shift of work. We ended the day with a visit to Wildlights – the Christmas light display at the Kamloops Wildlife Center and the remainder of "The Pianist."

Today E. and I drove home. The roads were clear though very icy in spots. In the mountains between Kamloops and Hope we passed about four accident scenes – sobering. As we neared home, we saw a huge billow of smoke on the horizon from an apartment building near us which was in flames (as we’d heard on the news), making us more thankful than ever to get back in one piece and find our cozy little home intact.