Kyle's Kottage

Monday, 15 December 2025

Happy Birthday Kristi! Christmas Train ride with Amelia. Dec 12-14

Happy Birthday Kristi. This is a picture from last June in Kamloops with her "mini me". On Kristi's BD weekend, Ray and I take Amelia. This will be the 3rd year in a row.

On Friday morning we met up with Kristi, Jason and Amelia at the Haida Way Restaurant in Chemainus for Kristi's birthday breakfast. Later we brought Amelia and Olaf to the lake, so that they can have their "adults only" weekend.

We had a busy few days. Everytime Amelia stays with us, I'm amazed at how much her vocabulary has grown and her understanding of things around her. We stopped at Country Grocer and bought her a tray of fruit, her favourite.

She is into puzzles, just like Grandpa. First though, she had to put away Grandpa's finished puzzle. She loves breaking them up.

I'd bought her several board puzzles over the past year or so.This one we bought last Christmas but she wasn't old enough to be able to do it. Not this year, she's able to find lots of pieces.

Ta Da!

Amelia and I put up her little Christmas Tree.

After a bunch of running around the house and walking Olaf, it's dinner time. Amelia made a face on her plate with her food. She chose sausages for dinner. She has her glow in the dark tatoos I gave her 2 weeks ago. lol

After ice cream for dessert, it's time to get ready for bed. Of course Olaf invited himself!

Although she's in bed for 7:30, it's 8:15 pm before she finally fell asleep. I've been fighting a cold that she gave Ray last weekend and I got from him a couple of days later. I went to bed at 8:45 pm once I was sure she was out. She woke me up at 1:30 am from a bad dream. I gave her some water and tucked her back in and she slept the rest of the night. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't go back to sleep right away, so had a very restless night, in part from Ray's snoring lol, I usually wear earplugs but couldn't with Amelia here.

She got up at 6:15 am which is pretty good. A quiet hour while she watches her tablet and eats her "first breakfast".

After breakfast, pancakes that she helps me with, it/s time for her bath. She loves playing in the upstairs bathroom clawfoot tub, where I have her bath toys. Those tatoos are really tough, still didn't wash off.

After walking Olaf, we decided to go into Duncan to the toy store to get a couple of Christmas puzzles for Amelia and Grandpa. She had this one done in 15 minutes! Fortunately the other one took a day with all of us working on it. Amelia is really excited about Christmas at our house this year.

More building projects.

Game time with Grandma.

Later in the afternoon we headed back to Duncan as we have tickets for the Christmas Train at 4 pm. Amelia enjoyed the Halloween one, so I purchased tickets for this one too. It wasn't quite dark yet when we left on the train, but Amelia doesn't really like the dark so it worked out well. When we finished our ride it was darker so she could see the lights better. We were so fortunate, the days of rain took a break for our train ride.

Getting there early for the first ride at 4 pm worked out. After we lined up 15 minutes before departure we were near the front of the line. By the time we left, there;s a huge lineup of people and no parking left in the lot.

The Christmas Express from the water. (google)

Here we go ... toot, toot!

After our ride we walked around to see the train getting ready for the next ride.

Next walking through the outdoor exhibits.

Now for the inside exhibits.

A big Christmas Village display.

A nutcracker display.

After an hour, it was time to go for dinner across the street for Chinese Food. One of Amelia's favourite foods.

Back home for 6:30 with just enough time for ice cream and sprinkles for dessert. Pj's, teeth, 3 stories and off to bed. Tonight she slept all the way through, so I did too.

Sunday, more puzzles and playtime. Jason and Kristi picked her up at 1:45 pm heading out to a Christmas concert. Busy weekend for Miss Amelia. We had a great time.

Thursday, 11 December 2025

Neighbour Appetizer Party and Elf at the Chemainus Theatre. Dec 1 - 11

Not much happening this week. A little shopping, a little baking and our strata appetizer party Saturday, Dec 6th. Kristi, Jason and Amelia are all sick with a bad cold and were supposed to attend. Unfortunately Amelia started coughing last weekend .... all over Ray and now he has a bad cold and won't be going to the appetizer party. So far, I'm ok.

It's been a very wet week, with only a glimpse of sunshine. Hunkering down inside most of the time.

My kitchen got a good work over the past few days. lol Good thing I have such a big island!

Is it ready yet???

Sugar cookies, Cheesecake for Appie Party and little Pound cakes for future desserts.

A filling one pot dinner after baking all morning.

Saturday Appetizer Party

Ray and Darryl from next door, did not attend. They have colds. Donna also did not come as she was babysitting her granddaughter in Nanaimo, so the parents could go out. lol

My contribution, cheesecake and sausage rolls.

Lucy Ann, Debra's longtime friend, Debra, Brian (Lucy Ann's husband), and Pat.

Ron, Roy, Mike, Debra's mom Lolli and June

Pat's plus one, her grandson Sevie.

Brad doing a great job handing out my cheesecake.

The party started at 5 and the last of us left at 9 pm. A great time, great food and lots of wine. :)

Sunday, another wet miserable day. Ray, myself, Pat and Sevie are going to the Chemainus Theatre for brunch and the 2 o'clock matinee of ELF. Fortunately Ray is feeling much better and not coughing, but will wear a mask in the theatre. The show is totally sold out for all performances. We all headed out at 11:15 am.

They had a great brunch buffet, with many choices.

One of the famous Chemainus Murals in the top left window.

After lunch we had about an hour to spare, so Ray and Sevie went for a bit of a walk. Pat and I caught up with all our adventures over the past month. They just got back from staying in Puerto Vallarta for a month.

The show started at 2 pm.

Picture from Google. No photos allowed in theatre.

This is the first "brunch" event we've attended. It's strange coming out of the theatre and it's still light outside. Home by 4:30 ish. Another great day.

By Monday, I've caught Ray's cold, that he received from Amelia. Not too bad though, so far. I warned Dianne about me getting a cold, but she came anyways and stayed Wednesday night for a visit without Steve. He was still recuperating at home in Courtenay with his bronchial infection. Dianne has an appointment at the Cowichan Hospital for a test Thursday morning which is why she was staying overnight here.

We had a great visit and drank some wine. lol Dinner was turkey pot pie. I had brined a turkey for our planned dinner Monday when they were originally coming. But with Steve being so sick, he wanted to go straight home after they got back from Edmonton and see a doctor. The Turkey needed to be cooked, so Ray and I had it Monday night for dinner. Fortunately it's a very small turkey.

Dianne relaxing after dinner.

Getting more comfortable as we watched the Christmas Kronicles movie. The empty wine glass a clue. lol

Thursday morning we were all up early. I woke up at 4, Ray at 4:45 and Dianne by 5 am. It's still raining out! Apparently all roads to the interior are closed due to flooding and rock slides. This "Atmospheric River" is terrible in the Abbotsford area going north. 350 properties evacuated in the Sumass Prairie area again, 4 years later.

Of course this is happening mid-December as people are getting ready for Christmas. The last big one was November 2021 when it destroyed a bunch of bridges on our highways, flooded huge properties in Abbotsford that some are still recovering from.

Major highway problems

Drive B.C. is reporting that all major highways to the Lower Mainland are now closed.

Highway 1 eastbound is closed between Bridal Falls and Hope. This means there is no eastbound access from the Lower Mainland to Hope as Highway 7 remains closed between the two locations.

Highway 1 from Yale to Lytton now closed in both directions due to adverse weather conditions.

Highway 3 from Hope to Princeton is closed in both directions.

Highway 7 is closed due to a rock slide between Highway 9 and Ross Road.

Highway 8 is closed to all but local traffic.

Highway 99 is closed from Mount Currie to Lillooet due to rain and increased risk of debris flows.

The provincial government is calling for only essential travel in the Fraser Valley until the rain subsides.

The Sumas border is closed to commercial traffic and Border Services is requesting people avoid Highway 11 to Sumas due to flooding in Washington state.

These reports are as of 5:30 a.m. Thursday

Hopefully this does not cause the kind of damage like in 2021.

Dianne headed out for her appointment at 9am. Ray and I had a quiet day to be well-rested. Tomorrow we get Amelia for the weekend.

Monday, 1 December 2025

Busy times, 2 concerts and Christmas decorating. Nov 24 - 30

Christmas decorating is done. Good thing we started early, as it took 2 weeks. lol Here are a few pictures. lol

A long range view from the loft. Yes,we have a lot of villages. lol

Here is a short video of the train villages.

Village #1

Village #2 and #3

We have had a busy week and weekend.

Thursday we picked up Warren and Deb from across the lake, for our lunch at the Cook and Butcher in Cowichan Bay. At least it wasn't raining. A great visit and we stayed for a beverage at their house on the return. Neat to have a view of our house from a different perspective, as they live directly across from us.

Friday, for Kristi's BD present, we took her to dinner and then to the Paul Brandt and Terri Clark concert at the Cowichan Performing Arts. Terri is the only Canadian Female to be inducted in the Grand Ole Opry. Paul is the most downloaded Canadian Male artist. It was fabulous.

Kristi drove herself home and we went back to the lake. Tomorrow is another big day.

Saturday we had an unexpected message to meetup with our long-time friends, Janice and Gary, for lunch in Nanaimo before Christmas. We were going up there anyways today, but managed to get out of the house early for a lunch at the Driftwood Chinese Buffet. It's great seeing them and catching up. It's been a couple of years.

Next up, a quick run up to Parksville to the Railyard Game Stop. Just in case they have the new track Ray wants. Nope, oh well. Back to Jason and Kristi's for 3:30 pm. They wwere busy all day getting a tree for Kristi's office from Gogo's tree farm. Amelia is a big help apparently!

Here is a picture of the "finished" product that she helped mommy with on Sunday.

Amelia also has been busy helping Daddy in his shop.

Tonight, we all went out for dinner at the MGM Diner before Kristi, Jason and I attend the Celtic Tenors with the Vancouver Island Symphony. Wow what a great performance. Ray stayed home to put Amelia to bed. If he had realized the symphony was also playing he would have attended too.

Kristi and Jason go to the MGM fairly frequently. The owner Helen, loves when the kids come in. Here she is, getting Amelia to help make her strawberry milkshake. They are awesome there, and great food, her daughter Trisha is the chef.

Of course she has to sit next to her Papa so she can get "tickled" lol.

Ray took Amelia home and the three of us carried onto the concert.

Jason booked the tickets and we ended 3 rows up from the stage. With his bright blazer he got picked out by one of the tenors lol. They had him stand up and face the crowd with his "Christmas Spirit". The funny thing is Jason only does this for Kristi, as he is more "bah humbug!" When that came out, everyone laughed. Later on near the end of the performance, Jason was caught actually singing a carol lol, also pointed out to the audience.

Sunday morning we were all up early, but first morning cuddles. Olaf trying for the "Papa Cookies".

We were out the door by 9:15. Both families having a busy day. We headed towards Duncan and went to Walmart first for baking supplies before turning around and heading back to the Cowichan Exhibition grounds to see their craft fair. Came home empty handed again. :) Quite a few things I already purchased over the past 7 years. I did however pick up a couple things at the concert last night as there was a pop up Celtic ceramics studio display.

Back on Highway 18 to the VI Motorsport Circuit. They are having an open house today and we were curious as we have driven by the place for 8 years lol. Liam, our salesman who sold us our current car, got his dream job there so we wanted to support him. They were driving people around the track, but very slowly in one of the 34 cars they run. We didn't bother. They are more of an event place now. They cater functions by the Villa Eyrie Resort, owned by the same people.