Entertaining and getting ready for our Christmas - December 14 - 21

Wednesday morning we're off to Nanaimo to hit Costco for our last shop before Christmas. Good day to go, midweek and early enough there's still parking available. The big reason we went is, Jason forgot Amelia's Advent Calendar ... Oh Dear. 

After shopping at Costco, we toured the mall to pick up a few presents for the tree for us... we went separately and met up at Purdy's Chocolates an hour later. Our hoofers were sore and it's off to the Driftwood Chinese Buffet. Jason and Kristi raved about it, so we definitely want to give it a try. It's a hit. They even use one of those delivery robots. Amelia will love this as we are going there again with Jason on Saturday.

Thursday we shopped in Duncan preparing for our neighbourhood Appetizer Party Friday night. There are 8 of us and it's great to catch up with everyone's Fall after we left for the USA. Everyone came at 6 and by 9:30  headed home with full tummies. Must've been a good get together judging by all the empty wine bottles. lol

Saturday morning we're off to Nanaimo early and arrived at 9am. There is a little girl very happy to see her Nana and Papa. Lovely to get the hugs and kisses. Kristi's on call at the hospital, so it's just Jason and us heading to the mall to see Santa. Unfortunately his scheduled indicates a 2 PM start. Amelia loved playing on the toddler climbing frame with some other "littles". Mommy managed to take an hour off to come and see us.

Next up, the lunch at the Driftwood. They ran the robot past her as promised. She thought that's pretty good. :) Amelia likes Chinese Food.

Back home in time for her nap. Jason, Ray and I spent the afternoon watching a movie. Once Amelia woke up it's play time again. We stayed overnight so we could see Kristi in the morning when she's off shift. A great visit. 

Dancing

Jason has us all set up in the suite downstairs with our own coffee until he gets up lol.

We waited for Kristi to come home off shift and she made scones for breakfast. Yumm. Once back home\ we spent the day relaxing since we've been so busy since arriving home on the 5th. 

Waking up Monday morning to snow flurries again. Definitely a wintery scene out the windows. We shall see how much snow we actually get over the next few days before it turns to rain. I woke up last night to "beeping" again. This time the alarm system is warning me that the battery in the "Smartlock" is going dead! Of course this made the alarm on my phone go off too. I fixed it all this morning and it's not difficult :) Hard to think how to fix it though in the middle of the night. 

The snow flurries continued all day until dinner and then became much heavier. By bedtime we had about 8 inches. We changed the battery in the door lock.

Tuesday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland. On the news "stay home", ferries cancelled, flights cancelled. Glad we are all snug in the house. Of course I'm out with our little snowblower and Ray shoveling this morning once it's light enough to see. (Again woke up to "beeping". Now low battery in our door sensors to the sundeck!) Amazing how they all die at the same time. All five doors batteries replaced later today!

Took me about 1.5 hours to do the driveway. I did about 3/4 of it then Ray did the last bit. I also did a path in front of our driveways in the cul de sac with the help of June next door so the plow guy would not run into the gardens this time. lol Good thing the snow was so light or my little machine would have issues. After I finished and Ray made a path out the sundeck doors, I made a big breakfast and June came over as well. Great morning exercise. (Of course this killed Ray's back and he's very sore for the next couple of days but he refused to have me do it all.)

Darryl used my snowblower after I finished and did his area and also Mike and Deb's driveway as they were coming up later in the afternoon. They first dug themselves out of Langford where they got 1/2 again more snow than us.

Once finished with breakfast it's time to do a little Christmas baking. Butter tarts with pecans for Ray and raisins for Jason.

Here is a picture someone took and posted on Facebook which shows our house.

In the middle

Wednesday morning woke up to a chilly -6C which is 21F. Burrr. More Christmas prep today as our company all arrives tomorrow for our "early Christmas".  More snow is expected tomorrow night into Friday .... Arizona is looking better and better. :)