Time with the family

With the current economic climate, the focus this year for Akis and I was less commercial and was more about spending time with people. Time is the one thing you can't put a price on ~ you can't buy it, you can't get it back, and I am glad we decided to take the time we had been given to go and be with people who love us.

Krista graciously agreed to come and pick us up at the airport ~ and after a 2hr delay in taking off, we were on our way. (Yes we flew with Air Canada...) Fortunately there was a great tailwind and despite leaving 2hrs late, the time in the air was only 3hr 38 minutes. In all the times I have flown to Toronto, this has to be one of the fastest.

Akis and I weren't sure what our plans would be and wanted just to enjoy company. We managed to see a number of people during this trip which was great.

The first portion of the trip was at Krista's house. We spent time with the Lavery/Loveys clan and caught caught up with all of Chloe's advancements. She was just about to walk and yes, of course after we left she managed to take 2 steps. Doah. The latest fun was playing with the window decorations...

Dad and Jane came a couple days after we arrived when we then had the turkey. It was a group effort to get everything together, and was Akis' first holiday turkey feast. While he has had turkey before on the ship, he has not had a full on Turkey dinner to celebrate the holidays. The stuffing was not a hit ~ I have no idea why ~ but the turkey and the gravy was a success.

While the bird basked in the warmth of the of the oven, the outdoors also thawed. The weather this year was certainly unpredictable. The amount of water was quite remarkable as the creek overflowed to create what one might be tempted to call small rapids. The water here has extended beyond the creek by a number of feet ~ what was even more remarkable was how all of this water ran off and was not there the following day!

Other activities at Krista's included watching Rudy make her way out of the Christmas bag, some overly competitive Wii playing, Boxing day shopping, and hanging out.

Akis and I then headed over to Dad's house ~ we managed to get in a fair bit of family visiting. We caught up with a lot of the family at Aunt Flo and Uncle John's house on our way back. Kelly, Donnie and their son Zahvier were visiting along with Donnie's mom. Aunt Cath and Uncle George also popped in as they were over for dinner ~ so we managed to visit for a few hours before heading off to Toronto to pick up my highly coveted kitchen appliances. (Yes it was a bit of a pain getting them here, but now that they are here, it was well worth the effort!!)

Other visitors included Uncle Don, Aunt Sharon and Chris who was home from England. We had another turkey in the spirit of the season, and it was great to catch up. The weather was a bit of the pits and Akis was surprised that they would drive through the blowing snow.

I managed to catch up with some friends (the Noes and the McMeekins) who live in Port Elgin, gathering for muchies at Sue's house New Years Even. The other bonus was Akis meeting more friends from home.

The final 'task' was to finally remove the last of my stuff from 'Jim's Storage', and as it turns out I also had started collecting things chez Lavery/Loveys. So one day dad and I headed over to Owen Sound to put the last of 8 boxes onto the bus and ship it out to Vancouver. It took about 4 days to arrive here and the only casualties were 2 beer glasses ~ not bad for over 100kg of stuff.

All in all, it was a good trip.