What a week! I love Christmas, but it gets very tiring when you travel a whole bunch. I left Victoria on the 24 and jumped onto the 2pm ferry. The sailing was uneventful until we got to the open water in the straight. It was windy, and the waves were rocking the boat. I was down on the car deck the whole time and more than a few times there were some large bangs followed by the ship shuddering a little.

Once off the ferry I drove to Sue’s mom’s house. I was white knuckling for a large part of the time due to the wind, the rain, and the crazy as drivers. Who in their right mind does 60 KM/H in a 100 zone when everyone else is doing 110? Then there were a few people doing more than 130. The side wind was horrible, and the rain pounding, with a few flakes of snow mixed in to make it real fun. I was happy to arrive in Langley safely.

Christmas morning was a big change for me. This was the very first Christmas that I haven’t woken at my mom’s house. In some ways it didn’t feel like Christmas, but it most definitely was. The plan was to wait until Geoff, Cary, and Alexander to arrive, and then we would open presents. Sue and I decided to take Yoshi for a spin to the dog park, and on the way back pop in at a couple of her friends’ places. While at the park we came across another beautiful GSP. His name was Barley.

As soon as Sue and I got back to Pat’s house, we learned that Pat couldn’t wait any longer, so we opened the presents then. There were some great gifts. Sue got a picture of me at Whistler enlarged and framed. Our gifts were well liked, including Jan and Graeme’s mirror. The interesting part is that they gave us a mirror that Graeme had made! Graeme’s mirror is a beautiful walnut with a wonderful inlay.

Later that afternoon the rest of the gang arrived and more presents were opened. Sue’s nephew Alexander got a huge Star Wars Lego set. We set about putting it together, and almost finished it before dinner. Christmas dinner was very yummy.

A while later while Pat and I were working on her computer, Alexander had an accident with his Lego set, and it came apart into several large pieces. After finishing the computer stuff, I set about fixing the Lego creation. My cape was flapping big time that night and soon Alexander was happy again! I had forgotten just how much fun Lego was, perhaps I should think about getting some more for me 🙂

Boxing Day was an early morning. It was cold, icy and dark as we left Langley. We were heading to Nanaimo to spend some time with my mom and sister. The ferries weren’t too busy, and we enjoyed our fine ferry made breakfast. In Nanaimo we had another wonderful Christmas and another excellent Christmas meal.

The 27th was a relaxation day, and we went to the hospital to visit my aunt. We took Yoshi with us, and he was very good there. He made lots of people smile as he wore his antlers.

Sue left for Powell River the next day to visit with her Dad, and Jan and Graeme who had traveled up there. My mom and I went out and did a little shopping. I didn’t get very much, mainly just a new computer game.

Sue came back the next day, picked up Yoshi and me, and we headed home. Jan, Graeme, and Pat all came to stay with us.

Tuesday night we went and saw Cold Mountain at the Vic. Excellent movie. I can see why it has so many Golden Globe nominations. It was a little on the long side (2.5 hours), but I didn’t notice the length while watching it. It was thoroughly captivating.

That night I woke up around 3 am, and heard Yoshi outside our bedroom making noise. I got up, went to the bathroom, and as I was returning to bed I heard Pat calling me from downstairs. Turns out, our Christmas tree fell over! Ack. I was confused and half asleep still, so cleaning up the mess was a pain. Thankfully nothing was broken, but lots of ornaments were scattered across the floor, the lights were dangling off the tree, pine needles were everywhere, and the water had spilled out wetting a few gifts that we had yet to give. Not a nice way to wake up! 🙁

They left New Years day, we prepared for our party, and had a grand time ringing in the New Year in the company of friends.

Phew! What a vacation huh? Today is a recovery day, a light ride with some friends I haven’t been mountain biking with in a long time, perhaps going to see Return of the King (a second time for me), and then early to bed since I have to work tomorrow.