Christmas

 With the house decorated, meals planned and a few gifts under the tree, we were ready for the big day.  The morning started quiet with just Ron and I and then by afternoon, our house was full of fur! 🐾🐾🐈‍⬛😺  Stephen and Kylie arrived with a truck load of stuff which included two dogs and two cats.  We settled in for a few days of eating, visiting and LOTS of games.

One of Stephen’s friends came for a couple of nights and it was like old times…sleepover birthday party for Stephen!  Maybe, not just like old times but it was nice to have another person at the games’ table.

The 29th was a mix of emotions for me.  It was Stephen’s 33rd birthday and I wanted to make things as nice as possible.  It was also one year from that day that we lost Tina.  Kylie was so sweet and checked in on me every now and then but we kept the games and meals going to keep me busy.  I made it through.

The next day, the truck was reloaded and they were on their way.  They stopped at Kylie’s parents for the night and then drove 15 hours to get home on New Year’s Eve.

Lilly hangs out with Beemer and Murphy.  She thinks she is a dog.
Apologies to Ace (the cat) for not getting a pic of her.

As soon as their truck was out of the driveway, Ron and I put it into overdrive.  We vacuumed, cleaned the floors, dusted and did a pile of laundry.  We moved all the deck furniture into a spare room in preparation for our move next month.  We don’t want anything to get froze into the ground.  Who moves in February?

Yesterday, we worked at taking down one of our exercise machines.  This move is starting to feel more and more real.

2024 holds lots of exciting things!

Christmas Catch Up

Normally, I would start decorating our house for Christmas the middle of November but this year things went a little crazy.  Getting an offer on our house right when I would normally be pulling out the many bins definitely threw my schedule off.  So, instead of decking the halls, we were throwing things in a suitcase and heading off to Ontario to buy our forever home.

Finally, after three weeks, many kilometres, three offers and perhaps a few tears along the way…we were able to check that huge purchase off of our list of things to do.

We arrived back in Pincher Creek on Tuesday afternoon and unpacked.  Wednesday morning the bins, boxes and trees came out of hiding.  By that evening, the house was looking very festive.

The next day, Ron and I both had massages.  I was told that my neck was extremely tight. Stress…perhaps!

Friday morning, we headed to the mountains.  A massage may remove some stress but there is nothing like the view of the mountains to help you relax.  

We took our skis and snowshoes to see what activity the snow would allow us to do.  In Pincher Creek, we have green grass but the mountains shared a little winter with us on that day.  We went further than I expected but it was just too nice to stop.  

Apparently, the warm weather has confused the bears because we did see some tracks of them roaming. And yes, we will miss our mountains when we move!

On Saturday, we had a relaxing day and then on Sunday, we went to church.  It was nice to see everyone.  I went to Tracey’s for an afternoon tea and we visited for a couple of hours.  I’m going to miss her.  I’m thankful for modern technology to help friends from far and wide to connect.  It’s not the same but it helps with the goodbyes.

Another week as gone by since then and it makes you wonder how time can fly by so fast.  Christmas will be here and gone before we know it.  January will bring lots of preparations and February will be our move month but stop, I need to enjoy the moment.  I’m sipping on my last bit of coffee with the Christmas lights adding some ambiance…time goes by too fast and so does the coffee.

Celebrations

Christmas day came and went with little fanfare at our house.  We did have a nice dinner but no gifts.  Then came the 26th and 27th and Ron and I played so many games of pool and darts that finally Donna got enough interest in it to try a shot in pool.

That night I went to bed thinking one more night and then our son would be here and Christmas would begin.  At shortly after 6:00 a.m. I was awaken by Bentley jumping up on our bed.  Christmas came a day earlier than we expected.  Our son had worked and then driven straight to our house.  We had a couple of hours visit and then he crawled into bed.  We decided to take "the boys" for a walk while we waited for him to get up.

And then we waited some more.  Everyone was getting a little anxious to open up their gifts.

And one decided to have a sneak preview.

Finally, everyone was up and the gifts were opened.  As usual, we all felt quite spoiled and paper and boxes were everywhere.  Since, "our Christmas" was a day early than expected we had pizza instead of turkey.  The next day, which happened to be our son's 28th birthday, was also the turkey day.

Dinner was followed by games of pool and darts.  The next morning, we woke up to snow.  We packed up the dogs and our skis and headed to Waterton for a cross country ski adventure.  There was definitely enough snow and off we went on the road towards Red Rock Canyon. 

Our son skis fast with his two dogs pulling him.  We saw him heading back towards us with a story and a picture. 

There was a bear up the road from us.  We kept going.  Since Ron had worked there through the summer he was pretty sure who/what the bear was.

The cut out bear did really look like the real thing from a distance and it is never good to take chances with a bear.  It was good for a laugh.
I talked to a friend today who said that her son and grandson had come to visit and how much she loved it when her grandson crawled into bed with her.  We didn't have any grandkids to join us but we did have grandfur babies.

The next morning, we drove into Crowsnest and went skiing again.  The conditions were perfect.

It's pretty incredible that these trails are only 40 minutes away from our house.  (Bruce and Lynne, if you are reading....this is a fantastic place to ski!...book a room at the Chateau Clark and let's go!)

The boys had another good workout.  This time, no bears were to be found.

It was so great to have our son and his little fur family with us for these adventures.

This Christmas has been extra special.  First, we had Donna (Ron's mom) come all the way from Ontario to spend a month with us and then Stephen here and for Bentley to be our Christmas miracle.  Bentley is still looking healthy and acting very strong.  It was a lot of fun having everyone here.

Ron went back to work last night and our boy and his entourage left this morning.  I got busy taking down the decorations, doing laundry and getting the house clean.  Christmas is over for another year but it was a good one.  Now 2019 has started....what adventures will it hold?

A Late Christmas

Christmas has come and gone but still we wait with wrapped presents under our tree.

We have been waiting for our son to finish his work schedule and come and join us but we have enjoyed seeing pictures of our grandchildren celebrate the day.

We did have a nice Christmas dinner but no turkey yet.

While we have been waiting we have gone for some nice drives to enjoy the scenery.

We found some turkeys that made it through another Christmas.

Today, we headed into the pass to go cross country skiing.  It was interesting that along the highway there was no snow and then just a few kilometers off the road and a little elevation the conditions were perfect.

We made our way to lake and it was easy going. 

We climbed up a little hill to enjoy the view before continuing on our ski.

We came to the first big hill.  Ron made it up with no problem.  I took my skis off and made the steep climb carrying skis and poles panting and puffing.  At the top, I enjoyed a gentle ski following my leader.

The views were pretty spectacular and the weather was perfect.  Two more times I had to take my skis off and walk down hills.  It is kind of strange trying to fit in when people ski past you as you carry your skis but at least I got my steps in.

Tomorrow we will try a new adventure and wait another day.  Our Christmas has to wait until Saturday when we will open gifts and have our turkey dinner.  Our Christmas month continues.