It's Christmas!!! Dec 22 - 30

I spent Thursday brining the turkey and getting the dressing made for the turkey etc. and anything else I could do in advance, including a last quick grocery shop. All in all, I think I spent 7 hours in the kitchen. lol Definitely tired.

Friday Christmas Eve. It's finally here! So excited.

The kids arrived at 10 am. They hit the road for Amelia's nap time. Jason's parents, Nadine and Dale arrived at 11 am. So the gang's all here before the major snow event began. I served French Onion Soup for lunch which I made a couple of days earlier. 

Presents blocking the tree from little hands. :)

We all spent a great afternoon of catching up. Amelia a little cranky as she would not go down for her second nap of the day. I noticed her little cheeks were red, so she is teething again. Three teeth so far and obviously working on some more.

For dinner I'd previously made French Canadian Tourtiere meat pies with mushroom gravy and Caesar Salad, Jason's favourite. Another fun evening. Of course it's all about the baby.

Amelia likes Grandpa's Village

Christmas morning, Amelia was up early at 6 am so we fed her breakfast by 6:45 so that by 7am Christmas morning started. 

Cheerios, the breakfast of champions. lol

We'd not planned to start that early, but with all the noise it wasn't long for Pop Pop and Granny to appear from upstairs. Poor Dale, he normally does not get up until 9:30 or 10 am on weekends. :) 

First up stockings.

Although Ray and I knew ahead of time as we stashed his outfit, Jason snuck downstairs and came back upstairs dressed as Santa Claus. 

Everyone was really surprised to see Santa and receive their gift from him. With Covid, Amelia never got a chance to get a picture on Santa's knee this year so this was it. 

Amelia did not make strange with Santa, I think she recognized his voice. lol

Kisses from Santa.

HO HO HO!!

Next it was time to give out the rest of the presents, which Santa did. We really had a full tree. No surprise a majority of the presents were new toys for Amelia and Kristi basically got her kitchen outfitted with new pots. frying and baking pans courtesy of Jason and us and a beautiful new carving knife from Jason's parents.

Kristi, Amelia, Nadine and Dale

Even Santa got spoiled.

Kisses from Granny

Jason managed to get some work done in his workshop in between Amelia naps, and made wooden picture frames for his parents and us with a cute picture of Amelia in it. Kristi also received a new wooden bookcase for Amelia's books in their living room. Beautiful work. One of his presents from us this year was his tripod for his GoPro so he could video Amelia so he got an empty box under the tree. lol He did score a few tools etc. including a planer, given early by Kristi as there's no sense packing it all the way down to the lake.

Ray received new electric downriggers for our boat. His manual ones were hurting his back, so was limiting his fishing time. We'd tried to get the electric ones for several months without luck. I happened to see an advert at our local fishing store and called them. They'd just received their order after waiting a year! So I put a hold on two of them and hurried to Duncan to pick them up mid-November.

I received a beautiful shawl with Haida designs on it from Ray and of course my big present is my new antique buffet we purchased in October as the place is going out of business and we have quite a few of their other pieces in our house already.

More room for other Christmas Village pieces. lol

I think the baby is somewhat overwhelmed with all the toys and people. Quite a few of her new things we didn't even open, as it would be easier to pack them home in their packaging. :) 

After tree opening I made a big breakfast of bacon and french toast, Ray's favourite. I think we didn't finish eating until 10 am. For lunch it's just meat and cheese and other snacks Kristi and Nadine took care of while I got the turkey going. We planned to use the barbecue rotisserie, but I couldn't get the rear burner going and it smelt like it was leaking propane so onto plan B, my oven.

Dale and Jason got out and used our snowblower and snow shovel and did the whole driveway, concrete sidewalk to the backyard, sundeck and stairs. Thank you so much guys, you are awesome.

Here are some picture of Christmas over in Squamish with our other granddaughter Stella. Apparently she had more fun with the wrapping than the actual presents. :)

We bought her a fishing game as well as some clothes.

Looks like "daddy is tired" don't know about Stella though. :)

With the baby, mealtimes are quite regulated so dinner is for 5pm. Nadine helped do the potatoes and the dressing, roasted cauliflower with cheese sauce, just needed to be reheated as I made them a couple days before. Gravy and Cranberry Sauce were also ready to go as I thawed them out in the fridge, as I  made them last week. Voila, dinner was served on time. Kristi delivered 2 plates of dinner to Pat and Darryl next door as they were on their own Christmas Day and their big meal was not until tomorrow. 

Amelia supervising the kitchen work. lol

Of course I am watching the baby instead of the camera. lol

Merry Christmas 2021

Many thanks to my "kitchen elves" who did all the dishes and put all of the food away so I could just relax and play with Amelia after dinner. It certainly paid off for me to have so much of the meals ready to go ahead of time. 

Chewing on Grandma's teething necklace.

Once Amelia went to bed at 7 pm, we ate dessert of sticky toffee pudding Nadine made. Yummm. We finished off the evening watching a Christmas Movie.

Boxing Day, is also an early birthday celebration for Amelia. Her actual birthday is January 2nd but Kristi would be just coming off 24 hour call and with both sets of grandparents here it was a better choice. Kristi's choice for her birthday was waffles for brunch after Amelia's first nap. Our guests all enjoyed a better sleep the second night here, even the baby thankfully. 

Presents were opened, waffles eaten and then a boston crème cake decorated by Granny for her birthday. One happy baby.

Oh look! More toys!

Daddy filming Amelia's first birthday.

The non battery operated toy we got Amelia. lol

Amelia with her cake. First time having something with sugar in it. :)

Jason, Dale and Kristi cleared off the new snow again from the driveway, sidewalk and sundeck.

Dale and Nadine headed out at 2 pm back to Victoria. There was still snowy sections, but mostly bare pavement. The rest of the afternoon we all just chilled out. Kristi managed a nap while Amelia slept. Dinner was leftovers and everyone did up their own plate. Once Amelia was in bed, we had our dessert and watched another movie. 

Kristi headed to bed earlier than the rest of us as she was exhausted. Last night she slept upstairs instead of downstairs as she is finding it too hot to sleep as the heater is on to keep Amelia warm and went upstairs again to sleep. She has a baby monitor though so she can hear if Amelia wakes up which apparently she did several times with her teething.

Monday morning Kristi woke me up at 5:50 saying "baby alert" she will be up here in 10 minutes after I feed her :) Apparently she was up quite a bit last night too. Once  she handed me the baby, Kristi attempted another hour of sleep. Once she was up, Jason was on the run. He stripped all three beds, collected all the towels everyone had been using, and some more baby items and washed them all. I told him I would do it, but he refused. What a guy. Then he proceeded to pack up their truck. The pickup box is full with Kristi's new bookcase and all of Amelia's new toys etc. Of course they have one big black dog to stuff in the truck too with Amelia in the backseat. lol If that was not enough he shoveled the driveway and deck etc. before leaving. 

By 8am they were on their way back to Nanaimo. Boy does the house seem empty and quiet. :) Jason now has a foot of snow to deal with at his house.

We enjoyed a quiet day and other than finishing off the laundry Jason started, we pretty much sat on our butts. I did make turkey stock though, with the carcass of the turkey. Dinner is more leftovers.

Monday morning we awoke to another 4 inches of snow. It will be my turn to get out the snowblower this morning. It is a balmy -6.5C or 20F. Very cold for southern Vancouver Island. I went out the door at 8am clearing the driveway and sidewalk. Ray dealt with the snow on the sundeck and stairs. Nice to get it done before it snows some more tomorrow night. Definitely a snowy wonderland out there.

Amelia has been practicing sitting on her own now that her cast is off. Here is a video.

Kristi's new bookcase filled with Amelia's books. She loves her books.

Tuesday, another quiet day. A few errands at the store here at the lake and that is pretty much it. Same deal for Wednesday. 

Thursday we received another 10 cm of snow overnight so out I went to snow blow again at 8 am and Ray did the sundeck for me. The snow is so light and fluffy. Easy to clear at the moment. I've been trying to get someone to plow our road and finally was successful this morning. A guy with a side by side with a blade agreed to do it and within 45 minutes it was done. :) The town has finally started plowing the roads from the last 2 snowfalls over Christmas. 

That's it for our Christmas week. 

Happy Birthday Kristi and Amelia gets her cast off. Dec 12 - 22

Kristi and Jason's Christmas Picture 2021. Amelia's first Christmas.

Sunday, we woke up to a skiff of snow. We're back to Kristi's today for her birthday. Jason is taking her out for dinner with some friends, so baby duty again. Depending on the weather, we probably will stay overnight again.

It really started snowing at 8am and continued with heavy flakes until 10 am. Looking at the DriveBC webcams the snow is isolated to Lake Cowichan and Highway 18. There is no snow on the way to Nanaimo at first but then it really started coming down. We decided to get moving and left at 9 am. We experienced a slow drive out of the valley as even though the plow went by in the other direction, the highway instantly covered again. I took it slow and once we got down off the hill the roads were clear and wet but easy drive to Nanaimo.

Jason made Kristi Eggs Benedict for her birthday brunch as it's what she asked for. Delicious. Amelia loves hollandaise sauce. For Kristi's birthday we got her another lantern for her collection. Amelia is fascinated by the movement and light.

After breakfast Kristi opened her present from Jason with help from Amelia.

Jason got Kristi a really good gardening shovel to help her cut through tree roots that get into her garden. Amelia thought the handle was tasty. lol

Next up surprise birthday cake. Yum. Way to go Jason, you certainly made it a special day for Kristi.

Afternoon cookie snack with Grandpa.

The kids headed out at 5 pm for their dinner date with a few friends to celebrate Kristi's birthday. Amelia got fed and then it was our turn to sit and eat. She is really good sitting there watching us. Her new thing today is she has learned to wave Hi! She even said the word 3 times and waved earlier in the afternoon. Changing every day.

After bath, teeth brushed, and bottle Amelia went to bed with a few tears, but soon fell asleep. We had a good night. Kristi and Jason came home by 8:30. After a short visit everyone was in bed by 9:30.

Monday morning after checking the drive cams and temperatures, we headed back home at 8:15 am. There's more snow possibly coming in the afternoon so we wanted to get moving before it possibly happened. Otherwise a quiet day at the lake.

Tuesday it's cold at -1C. Glad we are not driving anywhere today as the wet roads will be slippery. A very pretty morning though.

Ray took me out for the fish and chip special at Jake's at the Lake for lunch. We went just after opening so very few people there, just the way we like it. :)

Wednesday, I roasted turkey legs with veggies this morning for 90 minutes and then boiled it all to make turkey stock from it and finally the Turkey Gravy for Christmas that I will froze until next week. Being that it takes me a total of 5 hours to make I like to get it out of the way as I plan to cook the Christmas turkey on the rotisserie on the barbecue, so won't have the drippings for gravy. Other than some chores, that was our day.

Thursday, Amelia went to Victoria to get her cast cut off. Apparently she was a trooper and only had a mini meltdown. Tired and napping on the way home.

First time seeing her legs for 3 months.

Daddy watching carefully, see the hand on the left bottom corner. lol

 I spent the morning making cookies, cranberry sauce etc. to get ahead for next week. We took a walk over to the park for a walk. The sun os actually out so we decided to have a campfire in the back yard before the rain begins again tomorrow.

We never get tired of this view.

Ray decided to play with his camera, taking pictures of the lights in the house. His pictures sure look better than mine with my phone. lol Of course he also has a wide angle lens.

Friday off to Duncan at 8:30 am to do a final grocery shop for any staples before Christmas and my pedicure. :) Back home before noon.

We invited Pat and Darryl, our neighbours, over for drinks and a quick dinner. Pat brought over some lovely smoked salmon spread for an appetizer while Darryl brought champagne he says goes best with smoked salmon. Lovely to catch up with them since their 5 weeks in Mexico. Of course Ray served them margarita's after the champagne was gone. lol

Cheers!

With unexpected company I took out some frozen chili I made for just such an occasion and through together a salad.

While they were here, we received an email from the neighbour Mike, whose house is between Pat and ours. There was a large cougar just on the road on the other side of Pat's house. Mike chased it with the truck and it took off up to the next neighbours yard. Wow ... glad we were not walking at dusk. I have noticed a lot more deer and rabbit droppings in our back yard this year, maybe it is chasing the game. This was just 15 minutes before Pat and Darryl walked over to our house. Yikes!

Last year, the second week of November, I saw a big cougar in the neighbours yard on the other side of us. I wonder if it is the same cat? He stayed sunning himself for about 30 minutes.

Saturday morning we woke to rain but it snowed about an inch overnight. More snow in the forecast this week so we might have a white Christmas. It was so miserable outside, We opted for a pajama day. lol  After watching a Christmas movie I baked a batch of shortbread to deliver to our neighbours with their Christmas cards, which we changed out of our PJ's for. Fortunately by early afternoon it cleared and we even got a few glimpses of sunshine.

Received another email from another neighbour. That damn cougar is under her front porch purring if you can believe it. Hopefully she called conservation to deal with it. It's obviously not afraid of humans to stay so close. Three years ago, just down the road a young boy was grabbed by a cougar but the mother fought it off.

Sunday, spent the day on some chores I put off, like cleaning the fridge etc. Otherwise a quiet day.

Monday got an "emergency phone call" from Kristi. Jason had his Moderna booster yesterday and was ill all night with fever, chills and body aches. His left arm was really sore so he had a hard time holding Amelia . As Kristi was on call this morning for 24 hours starting at 8 am, she asked us to come up and look after Amelia so Jason could rest. Parents to the rescue! :) 45 minutes later we were on the road. 

I spent the morning entertaining Amelia until her nap for an hour, made Jason breakfast etc. and generally helped out with dishes etc. Ray headed into town for a little shopping. When Amelia went down for her afternoon nap at 2 pm Jason was feeling a little better so we came back home. It is so nice that Amelia is comfortable with us and does not cry when mommy leaves and then daddy leaves for a nap and it's just us. 

The upcoming forecast is for some snow, how much yet to be determined. Hopefully this does not impact Christmas driving too much for the kids and Jason's parents.

Tuesday I spent morning firming up my Christmas menu and doing a quick shop at Country Grocer. I also made a big batch of French Onion Soup in the Instant Pot. A great quick meal over the holidays. Everyone that knows me, expects great food and I do a lot of stuff in advance so I can enjoy my family instead of busy in the kitchen for 3 days. :) and of course Amelia will be here so Grandma needs to be organized.

We are to get a big freezing rain storm tonight so hopefully we don't lose power. A great start on the first day of winter. :)

Wednesday, it poured and I mean poured all day. It did manage to melt all the remaining snow so all of the icy patches are gone in time for the next snowfall tomorrow night. :) Not much happened today.