Christmas is done! Villages taken apart and our house looks hugely empty lol Jan 5-16

Nothing exciting happening here with us lol

We are putting our old dock gazebo up for grabs for free just to get it out of the way for Jason.  Just need someone to take it down. :) New one going up in April that is twice as big to provide more shade. This one is only 5 years old but not big enough. For Christmas for us, I bought a bigger one in the fall on a clearance sale with new chairs and fire pit. The new gazebo will have curtains to block the wind. The past couple of years it's been way too windy down there to sit in the afternoons, so the new one will make it much more pleasant. 

This is the gazebo waiting to be installed. :) All in boxes downstairs.

January 7th a picture I copied from our neighbour Debra, a little sun and a dusting of snow. One of the few days we saw some sun briefly.

With Amelia's Birthday Party over, and the help the crowd gave us taking down the beam decorations, it's time for us to tackle the villages. We have a deadline to get them out of the way by January 9th, when our new chandelier is to be installed. For the next 3 days we packed up everything we could to clear the way. The whole pack up took 6 days total to get everything packed up and put away on various shelves throughout the basement and garage. The house seems so empty now lol 

From this ...

To that ....

But before it looked like that, this was part of the packed up mess! 

It's done nothing but rain for days so a good time to pack up stuff anyways. We made enough room for the guys tomorrow to make it through to the living room with their ladder.

Thursday the guys came to install our new chandelier. They removed the ceiling fan and replaced it with the same light fixture over the dining room table. I've been finding being home in the winter, that it's really dark in the afternoon and at night, even with all the lamps on. We found we needed more light at Christmas, in the couch area, for opening presents. It was a bit challenging to read tags. :)

A very tall ladder is needed, for Nick and Ethan from Telegraph Electric. I'd mentioned to Andrew, the owner, to remember a tall ladder as he had originally put up the other chandelier over the dining room table 7 years ago. The boys arrived at 8:30 am.

Nope this ladder not tall enough! I'm not happy with this situation, neither is Nick at the top of the ladder.

We decided he needed a bigger ladder .... so the boys had to drive back to Duncan to Home Depot and rent a taller one. Geez.

This was a better choice. Even with the drive back to Duncan they were done by noon.

Ta Da! On a dimmer switch, so perfect.

By the weekend, Ray had everything stowed away, including all the lights from outside and blow ups etc. The tree didn't come down until Friday, as I'm waiting for a new ornament box to reduce the number of bins I previously used. Once here it only took 2 hours to put it all away. 

With a week of rain and warm temps the lake really rose quickly. This picture is from January 12. Look at the height of the ramp and the first piling ....

The next day, January 13 now look at the piling and the ramp! The lake rose another 18" overnight.

This is where the water is in the summer. See how much beach we have!

Next up is Ray installing my new pantry shelves that I purchased before Christmas. With a small pantry, I'm always trying to fit more in lol Thanks a bunch sweetie! Now I'm waiting for my storage containers to arrive so I can sort out the rest of the pantry.

Thursday, I spent 2 hours going through the rest of the pantry and consolidating stuff into my new pantry containers. Wow, I've quite a bit of extra room now and I can see exactly what I have on hand. Quite a few things were buried so I'd bought more lol.  Now all of the jam Jason made is visable on the hanging pantry shelves on the door, not tucked in behind.

I find winter time good months to do a cleanout of clothes, kitchen cupboards and fridges etc, as it's so ugly outside I might as well keep busy in the house.

With a week coming up of nice weather, the lake should recede a bunch. Thursday it started to slowly go down a few inches.

This week Ray ande I started going up to the Recreation Centre for exercise classes again on Wednesdays and Fridays. It forces us to get moving again. With the weather being so bad, we've not been out walking like we should.

I put the gazebo on Facebook Marketplace as none of my neighbours wanted it .... there were over 25 replies within half an hour. A guy and his wife are coming from Victoria this weekend to remove it from the dock. Another thing off my list. :) This way Jason has plenty of time to arrange with his buddy Matt to come down and install the other one.

With the weather warmer during the day, we have had quite a few foggy mornings. I guess "a lake effect". It is practically freezing in the morning at 0C (32F) and goes up to 10C (50F) in the afternoon. Nice to see the sunshine again.

Today, Jan 16th, I planted my counter Aerogarden with herbs so I can enjoy them in about a month. They are so expensive to buy and my outdoor ones don't go in until the very end of April.

Once germination occurs, in about 7-14 days, they grow really fast. I soaked seeds overnight to speed up the process, hopefully.

This morning is absolutely beautiful once the fog burned off. It stayed like this all day with no wind.

Hard to believe another couple of weeks have gone by! We are taking a mini-trip next week, stay tuned.

Happy New Year! Amelia's 5th Birthday Celebration - Dec 28 - Jan 4th

Since the beautiful day December 27th, the rain stopped but it's been very foggy here at the lake, even in Duncan with the odd peep of sun. 

Quiet after the Christmas rush. Ray managed to get all the outside lights on the dock, ramp and front gardens in. The house is still decorated until after Amelia's birthday party here on January 4th. Although her actual birthday is on January 2nd, Kristi and Jason are having her "kids party" on Saturday the 3rd and then all the grandparents and friends are coming here to the lake on the 4th for lunch. Lucky girl 2 parties. :)

Ray's "Red Truck" puzzle he finished earlier in the month.

We ended up with unexpected company on the 28th. Steve and Dianne were coming back to the island from their week of Christmas at their son's in Coquitlam. They decided to stop in Duncan when they got off the ferry to look at a pickup truck ..... 3.5 hours later they were in our driveway for the night with the new truck. :) It was way too long of a drive to go home to Courtenay in the dark and negative temps driving a vehicle he's not used to, with Dianne driving their car. I had pizza ready to eat when they arrived. Notice the little red ribbon on the windshield.... on the back it says to Ray and Deb Love Steve and Dianne. lol

A lovely unexpected visit. We were all in bed by 9 pm and they were out the door at 9am heading home.

Tuesday, we headed into Duncan for some errands and purchased some fresh crab for our NYE Dinner at home. Unfortunately all the lobster is spoken for, so I'll have to be more prepared next year.

New Year's Eve afternoon, it's bright and finally sunny. Other than running a few errands in town and checking out our dock, we enjoyed the sunshine through the windows. lol Flat calm on the lake today. My last parcels arrived at the post office ..... for Christmas. Fortunately nothing that I had to have earlier.

Wednesday, New Year's Eve. We ate a fresh crab feast. Delicious!

After watching the ball drop at 9 pm for New Year's Eve in New York, we were off to bed.

New Year's day, we woke up to foggy skies again and very cold at -.5C. (31F)

Friday, back to clouds and raining by late afternoon. We are in for another stormy few days, I think. Video called Amelia as it's her birthday today. We are having her "adult party" here at our house on Sunday. Too many kids and parents for her kid birthday Saturday. :)

On Friday, Jason's friend Dani, gifted Amelia with her own PS5 controller for amputees. It works great for her "small" fingers. He also got her ear protection for the shop.

She also got bug collectors for Mommy's garden.

Mom and Dad got her a game to start programming (coding).

Ray's been busy finishing up the Disney Puzzle Amelia got him for Christmas, so she can see it and tear it up back in the box on Sunday. Definitely not a puzzle he would have picked lol It apparently was quite a challenge.

Sunday, Amelia's "Adult" birthday party at the lake. This one is for both sets of grandparents, Aunt Theo and her boys, and Theo's parents. There were too many kids and parents at her birthday party in Nanaimo to fit us all in at the same time. :) What a lucky girl. She had a unicorn birthday party yesterday. They try to make her birthday special so it's different than Christmas.

It won't be as fancy at our house lol

Sunday, Jan 4th. Everyone arrived by 11 am. We had a full house! This included 3 dogs. Olaf, Gizmo and Lily.

Everyone kept busy eating first. I bought way too much food lol

Deb, Nadine and Ivo

Nickolas and Alexandros, Theo's boys.

Granny and Papa Dale got Amelia a new babydoll with bunkbeds.

Ivo, Nickolas and Sara with Lily.

Theo, Kristi and Amelia with Olaf making sure he's ready to get any food that drops. lol

Amelia likes the new dinosaur shirt we got her.

Aunty Theo made her a special princess hat to go with her new princess costume.

We got Amelia a little "Wally" the robot. The controls are super easy for small hands.

Let's see how much cake I can stick in my mouth!

Once we finished the food, presents, and cake, everyone helped with taking down our large decorations and lights on the beams so Ray wouldn't have to.

Within 30 minutes everything is down to be packed. Thanks a bunch guys! By 3 pm everyone hit the road to Victoria and Nanaimo Whew! Tomorrow the work will start for us to put everything taken down away so we can start on the villages and tree.