December is here! Going from rain events to snow events! Dec 1 - 11

Dec 1st we headed out the door at 9:45 heading for Nanaimo. We're going to babysit Amelia so the kids could go to their Fly Fishing Club's Christmas Party. This will be the first time they've been out to an adult function since Amelia's birth and she's now 11 months old. :) 

I took a picture of the lake to see how high it is this morning before leaving. Hopefully it starts to go down again soon. Certainly not has high as on November 15th, 2 weeks ago.

Firstly though, as soon as we got there, Ray and Jason headed out to the fishing club's pub lunch so it's just Amelia and me. 

We played for an hour until lunch time. I think she figured out if you point a phone at her she automatically smiles. :)

More play, bottle and then nap time. Kristi is working. Ray and Jason both did some errands after lunch, then Jason went to set up for the Christmas Party. Finally everyone came home just long enough to get ready for their party. Don't they look great?

Grandpa started to feed Amelia dinner while I prepared the rest.

Next up is her bath. With her Spika Cast, it is easier to just bath her while she is being supported in her high chair. She is really good about the whole thing. 

Now it was time for Ray and I to eat dinner. :) 

Bottle, stories and then bed by 7 pm. She shed a couple of tears, but then out like a light within 2 minutes. The kids really work hard on sleep training and it's really paid off. 

The next morning Kristi is on call at the hospital, so out the door by 8am. Jason's pretty tired as he stayed at the party to the end as he is President. Kristi came home about 9 pm as she needed to sleep for her 24 hour shift the next day. Once Amelia went back down for her first nap at 8:30 am we left for home.

The lake level started to recede so Ray's able to push out a few large logs that floated up our stairs.

While I did a bunch of laundry, Ray is putting up the outside Christmas lights. The boom box is booming with Christmas music to set the mood. :)  It's actually a somewhat sunny day, but cold out.

Baby it's cold outside!

Friday morning, a little foggy outside and cold at -2C. We went from 15C on Wednesday to this 2 days later. Apparently their is also a dump of snow in our future! I went with Ray for a walk in the park next door. Lovely afternoon.

Saturday morning we woke to light snow coming down. It only ended up being 1/2 inch before it started to melt. I spent some time making soup and then started my Christmas baking with shortbread while Ray worked in his shop. 

Sunday still cold outside. They are predicting about 10 - 15 cm of snow starting tonight for the next 24 hours. Ray has my snowblower all fueled up ready to go. :)  Ray took this picture of our dock boxes with the frost patterns.

Monday we woke to only a skiff of snow and by afternoon it mostly melted. Nothing planned, so we stayed off the roads. According to the news there is varying amounts of snow up and down the island. Some places are dumped on. The Campbell River area reported multiple power outages due to the heavy snow on wires and trees coming down on wires as well as the northern islands. Friends staying at the Thunderbird RV Park were without power for about 12 hours.

Tuesday a warmer start at 1C lol and foggy on the lake. We headed out the door at 9:30am for Nanaimo. Before heading to Kristi and Jason's we did a Costco shop and then lunch at Nori Sushi. The rest of the afternoon is baby time. Kristi came home as she's post call so we had a nice visit and even a short walk.

Amelia loves her books.

Wednesday, Jason is out the door at 6am and Kristi at 8:30am. I'm on duty. :) Amelia is a busy baby and lucky for me, she's very happy today. Ray spent his morning on errands.

Mid morning snack.

"Up High" Grandma

Jason arrived back at about 1:30 pm, just before Amelia went down for her nap. I must've tired her out with all of our singing and playing. lol She slept for 2 hours apparently. :) We headed back home to the lake. It's nice and sunny out for a change.

Definitely looking like Christmas in our house. Ray's Christmas Village this year.

Dasher pulling Santa

New Antique Buffet, our Christmas Present to ourselves.

Santa is watching you.

Meet Bernard.

Looking forward to having the kids and Amelia here for Christmas. Amelia won't be too impressed this year, but will enjoy looking at all the lights.

Thursday, Ray's back is pretty sore so it was a quiet day here at the lake for him. I decided to see how many appliances I could use to make dinner. lol Fresh pasta with InstantPot Beef Ragu and side salad. A great way to spend the day in my happy place cooking and drinking my beer. :)

And Ta da! As intended, this made Ray forget about his sore back for a bit. :)

Friday a chilly start again at -2C. We are supposed to get another "Pacific Storm" over the next couple of days with a lot of wind and moisture. It should start out as flurries changing to rain. As it turned out the rain really started in the late afternoon and boy did it rain. Pretty windy here too. I baked all morning getting ready for Christmas so Ray took me out for lunch at Jake's at the Lake.  

Saturday morning, still raining but not as heavy. Still a little windy though as the flapper for our hood fan is making noise. :) The lake came up a little, but nothing like a couple of weeks ago. Could be some snow overnight. Did a run to Country Grocer for some supplies and on the way back, this guy ran across the road in front of me, bucking and kicking into the field. He then turned around and came back to the opening as if to say "now take my picture". lol I carefully opened the passenger side window to snap a picture. Did not want to startle him as elk have been known to trash cars if they feel threatened.

You can see how close I was as you can see the windshield wiper in the picture. lol

Our happy granddaughter.

She is crawling like crazy dragging that 3 pound cast around.