The day the kids went home

It's always sad saying goodbye to our little friends. But first there was a happy reunion.

We brought Rubey some cars to play with on the ferry.

 Ada got some treats too.

 Suddenly, out of nowhere, while we were playing, who should appear?!

It was quite the celebration!

Dave went back to work, and we talked to our reflections.

Home!

Solly was excited to have his wing man back.

Liz and I slept overnight, and the next morning we went to Davis Bay. Always beautiful.

 And then Liz and I went for a walk before heading out.

Time for us to head home!

After Christmas, I kidnapped some kids

Dave had tried to extend his vacation, but it's tough over Christmas. I've been there too. This is the first year I've been allowed to have both weeks of Christmas off. It was glorious!

Anyway, I asked Dave if he and Alexis would consider leaving their kids behind when they returned home. To my surprise, they agreed. We had a lovely blue day so we all went to the events centre for their playground.

This one is kind of great because there's something for a large variety of ages, and it's gated so low risk of losing kids ha ha.

The kids were a bit timid about playing at first. I guess even a few weeks of bad weather can make you forget how to be brave in a big playground!

Their little smiles are the best. I don't know what to talk about. I had big plans for this Christmas vacation. Don't I always?! But we had a lot of rain over Christmas. And as usual, I had a bad cold. We enjoyed a lot of time inside, playing and colouring. We watched a little Paw Patrol. We went to the playground and we tried to see Christmas lights.

 Today, at this playground, Ada made a friend.

His name was Josh and they played for over an hour.

Ruben was a bit scared about the big slide. Its very tall (though everything you climb is inside and safe) but he did it once with Elisabeth and then he was addicted.

So this is Christmas

 We decided to have dinner at my house this year. My furniture is easy to push out of the way and we put up tables the whole length of the room. There were 17 of us this year and we were missing Rob's family!

After dinner, Elisabeth and Jade decided they needed to exercise!

Anyway. Dinner was delicious. Dave roasted the turkey and did a damn fine job. He stuffed the cavity with onions, garlic, sage, and carrots. Then, when the turkey was done, he make the gravy with the vegetables and pureed them. It was so good.

Katherine made gluten free gravy and stuffing which I didn't try, but looked amazing. I prepared the rest of dinner.

After dinner unfortunately, Solomon was sick so we had to pause for a bit. THEN we had a secret Santa exchange. It was a lot of fun and I think we were all really happy with our presents. I know I was!

Happy Christmas!

Today was an unexpected beautiful day. My family is in the habit of sleeping until 11 or later, so I was planning on baking and doing some prep for tomorrow. But when I saw the sun I knew we needed to get outside. We decided to go east and see the lights at Cultus and Harrison.

Cultus was gorgeous, as always. Elisabeth has decided she wants to live here.

 Me too.

I love the light here in winter.

 We were actually here for the Christmas lights, but the views far eclipsed anything they'd set up in
the trees.

I kept telling Andrew to do his Jack Daniels pose here. Luckily, he knew what I was talking about.

David took one look at him and went, "are you okay? Are you stuck?" Snort!

 I would have liked to do a photoshoot here. But they were so not into nice posed photos. So here's what I got.

 Sorry, that was a lot of pictures. Believe it or not, I did delete over half.

I'm sure the lights are beautiful at night time.

 We just didn't have the patience to wait that long.

We eventually abandoned the lake and headed for our other favourite lake.

Harrison is supposedly in the middle of a multi year project to become a Christmas destination. It was pretty. I wouldn't drive all the way out there just for the lights. But the restaurants were all open, so if you have other things to do...