Christmas visitors and the "Big Guy in the Red Suit" comes for a short visit - Dec 18 - 27 2023

Tuesday we entertained some old friends from our Port Alberni days, who stopped by for lunch. We've not seen Deb and Brian for 20 years and it felt like just yesterday. They've hardly changed a bit. They took a picture of us and I took a picture of them.

Brian, Deb and Lexy the lab and Sassy.

Wednesday, Dianne and Steve arrived for a couple of days. So nice to see them again, as they are not going south this year where we usually meet up.

I cooked a turkey on our Traeger. Delicious.

As I'm still feeling under the weather, Dianne helped me with the sides.

On Thursday we took them to Chemainus for a walk around the street looking at the murals and small shops.

After an hour and a half of wandering around it's time for lunch at the Sawmill Taphouse. I really loved their "greeter". It actually worked on a motion detector and spoke to you. Thanks for lunch Steve and Dianne.

Back home for the afternoon. Leftover turkey dinner for tonight.

Friday morning we took them out for breakfast at the Riverside Cafe and then they were on their way to Victoria to spend Christmas with their family.

Kristi took Amelia over to Squamish to visit Garrett, Kat and Stella. A quick overnight visit and back home at 8 pm on the 22nd. A long day for Amelia and she started to get sick with a cough.

Stella and Amelia playing with the fishing game we got Stella a couple of years ago.

Stella, Garrett and Kat

Stella in her Christmas present we got her. She is getting so big.

Saturday, after a bit of shopping here in town, I spent several hours making the filling for our Tourtierre Pies for Christmas Eve dinner and chopping up the veggies for Christmas dinner. Nice to get that out of the way so I can just cook them. Now we're ready for the kids to come tomorrow for Christmas.

The weather the past few days has been really foggy in the morning but the sun manages to come out a bit in the afternoons. The rains come again tomorrow afternoon through Christmas.

Jason, Kristi and Amelia arrived at about 11 am. Amelia is not feeling well and is coughing a lot. Another sick kid Christmas. I'm still not over the last cold she gave me. :) Amelia was able to open one gift from her cousin Stella. Her new "Yoto" story radio. We'd bought her a bunch of story cards to go with it.

As the afternoon wore on, Amelia got worse and coughed so hard she threw up all over herself and Kristi. Out came the carpet shampooer. Poor kid. Fortunately our house is kid and dog proof. :)

Dinner with my tourtierre pie turned out great. I made two and will have one for tomorrow's lunch, when Jason's parents and grandmother arrive for Christmas Day.

Christmas morning came and with it a very tired Jason, who was up most of the night with a sick Amelia. Christmas presents were opened in "spurts" when her meds kicked in and she was willing to participate. First up, stockings.

Waiting for her Tylenol to kick in.

Next, time for Santa to visit. It's Ray's turn this year. Amelia's having none of it. lol

Next back to the presents.

New way of opening presents ... laying down.

Jason made Ray a clock for his workshop.

Breakfast with Mimosa's for Kristi and I.

At 11:30 Jason's parents arrived with his grandmother for the day. I fed them my Tourtierre for lunch.

Ray, Nadine, Joyce and Dale

More presents.

Fortunately Amelia's feeling a little better after having a nap and ready to interact with other people a bit.

After gift opening, I spent my afternoon getting the prime rib on the barbecue and the sides ready, including yorkshire puddings. Jason's awesome helping me doing multiple sink fulls of dishes to keep ahead of the dinner mess to come. I don't know what I would have done without him helping me all day. Kristi of course would have helped, but with a sick kid stuck like glue, she's out of commission. Ray of course is in there emptying dishwasher loads as well as entertaining the company.

Our next door neighbours, Pat and Darryl, came over for dinner as their family will not be here until tomorrow.

Pat, Darryl, Kristi, Jason, Amelia, Deb, Nadine, Dale and Joyce.

Amelia was supposed to wear her Christmas dress that I bought her but being sick we didn't bother.

A great dinner, great company and delicious sticky toffee pudding from Nadine for dessert. Thanks to Dale and my kitchen crew for doing the dishes and tidying up, greatly appreciated. Pat and Darryl left at 8 pm which started the exodus. Dale, Nadine and Joyce also headed out to go back home to Victoria. A great Christmas Day.

Boxing Day, Amelia was still sick and both her and Jason had no sleep all night as she was up coughing so bad. He actually put a 2x4 under the head of her bed in hopes that it would help. They decided that they would go back to Nanaimo after lunch instead of staying until after dinner. Just as well, as poor Amelia even got worse as the morning progressed. 

(She's feeling better today Dec 27th)

We enjoyed a quiet rest of the day just relaxing. I took a picture of the lake level after all the rain. The lake is still quite a bit lower than usual at this time of year.

That's it for another year .... Christmas is a wrap. Now in the next couple of days Christmas will be back in the box until next year.

Christmas is a commin, Christmas decorating and Amelia has a sleepover - Dec 7th - 17th

Thursday, with Sean, our gardener, helping us, we managed to get 85% of Christmas put up. We took him out for lunch at Jakes and then finished up by 3 pm. Worth paying him some money for all the ladder work that kills Ray's back and knees. 

Needless to say we were tired by the end of the day.

Friday, we headed out early to get our Covid boosters, then I went for my hair appointment. Ray finished up his Christmas Villages and garden lights. Now we are ready for company on Saturday for our neighbour appetizer party. 

Saturday morning, unfortunately, I came down with Amelia's cold :( (I stayed far away from everyone and wore a mask while prepping the food.) Everyone arrived around 6 pm and stayed until 9:30 pm. A lot of wine was drank, food eaten and we all had a lot of laughs. I stuck to tea with honey. Unfortunately the pictures I took with my phone have disappeared?? Don't know what happened.

The rest of the week and I'm not feeling well, including four days of no voice. Fortunately Ray only has a little cough instead of feeling terrible like me. 

Friday morning, Jason came and dropped Amelia off for 2 nights as Kristi and him are going to a Christmas Party. We sure had fun spending time one on one with Amelia.

Papa pushing Amelia in Big Blue

Bubble time in the loft.

We had a busy afternoon with Papa taking Amelia to the park next door and then Amelia and I went for a walk around our yard to look at the lake. The best part for me was her taking my hand and saying "I love you Grandma", talk about melting my heart.

Ice Cream with Papa

Saturday Kristi came by herself to spend the night and have her belated birthday dinner I made her. 

After lunch Kristi, Ray and Amelia went the "Duck Pond" park while I got the chicken on the barbeque rotisserie. 

Dinner turned out delicious, especially since I brined the chicken for 24 hours. Sure makes for a juicy bird.

Sunday morning after pancakes that Amelia helped me make, Kristi and Amelia headed back to Nanaimo to see Daddy. A great 2 day visit with our granddaughter. They will be back next weekend for Christmas.

With the help of Amelia and Kristi all the toys were put away in 15 minutes. Nice that she is bigger now to help.