Christmas 'Present'

Merry Christmas everyone! This is Christmas Present as opposed to 'Past'. I like the past and reminisce about it a lot - the long gone past and the recently past! Both are great. This year though we made a new 'past' with a different Christmas. We were not with our daughter and family but instead we were with John's niece and husband where they live in Osoyoos on the mountaintop! What a beautiful view!

John's sister from the Island and her husband joined us and there was just the six of us - adults!

We did a creative thing for gift-giving. On Christmas Eve day, we went to the Home Hardware store in Osoyoos. It is huge and has everything!! We only gave ourselves 1.5 hours to pick out gifts for the other 5 of us to a maximum of $20 each! It could be one - $20 gift or 10 - $2 gifts! Our discretion. We then wrapped the gift and put them in the individual's stocking and it was 'from Santa'! Of course the fun of it all was also guessing who gave it to us! Most of the time, we got it right! What a hoot! No, pre-planning on what to get - just the pressure of the moment trying to find something - the 'right' something for that individual person! Maybe it was no pressure for the guys - but it sure was for me! In the end, it was all good fun and we all liked our gifts - both given and received!!

The weather was great. About -5 C and sunny as it had snowed the day before we got there. Lots of it! It was wonderful to go out for a hike with the group and Emmit - their 80 lbs bull dog! It took awhile for him to 'warm up to us' but in the end, we were ALL family!!

Our traditional Christmas dinner was on Christmas Eve and we did a number of courses over a long period of time: borscht soup; herrings with rye bread (I skipped that one); pyrogies with sour cream & onion buns; nalysnky (or wrapped crepes with cottage cheese), then our wonderful turkey with dressing and cabbage rolls. Or something in that order. It was nice to sit and have a break inbetween the different servings. Made for a longer relaxed evening.

Christmas morning was fun as I said with the gift giving. We all got such unique things! Really different than how we have done things in the past.

Emmit even got a few gifts and enjoyed the special day as well.

 On Christmas Day we went into town to a restaurant which had Turkey Dinner with all the trimmings. It was nice to just sit and talk and not worry about all the prep being done! 

With no young kids around, the boys did their best to entertain the girls with their crazy antics! They succeeded. It was a fun time. They also have a hot tub, so with the beautiful warm weather (only -5 or so), some people just had to get into the outside tub!!

It was a long drive there and we had some challenging road conditions and then, as I said, it snowed the night we arrived. On our way home, it was just 'lots of snow' on the road as we went back through Kelowna and then onto Revelstoke / Golden / Banff. We made it home in one day on our return. Some views of the mountains are gorgeous.

Blessings to all of you this Christmas and hope it was as wonderful for you as it was for us. Looking forward to a great 2017.

December is upon us. All my Christmas shopping is done and the Christmas lights have now been up for a month. Christmas in November took place here for my ladies group as one of the women now lives out of town and came in for a few days to spend an early Christmas with her family. What better time to have our ladies event than when she was here. So, up went the lights and the tree and the decorations. We have been 'living' Christmas since Nov 11! What a fine group of ladies too!

Early Christmas in November with the Girls!

 It's different this year though as we are not going to be with our daughter and family. It is the 'in-law's" year to visit. Our son-in-law was here Nov 30th for his father's 80th birthday so I took the opportunity to get all their gifts purchased and we were able to get them packed into a suitcase so that he could take them back to the coast with him for Christmas. Also in that suitcase were packed the birthday gifts for two of the grandkids as well! Talk about the Christmas rush!! Thankfully, there were still some Thanksgiving sales happening so I lucked out in a few purchases. But I did not have a lot of feedback from everyone as to what their Christmas desires would be this year. Guess they will have to just like what Gramma bought for them!

We were at our daughter's place for Thanksgiving and to celebrate John's birthday but who had time to buy Christmas gifts then? I had to wait till I got back home before I event started thinking about Christmas!

Birthday celebration!

We've decided to go to our niece's place for Christmas this year as something totally different since we are free this time to do whatever we wish. John's sister and husband will also be there so it will still be a family deal! Looking forward to a little 'different' style of Christmas as no kids there - just adults! Hope we can still have fun!! Just kidding. They just moved to the Interior from the Island so it is a different view..but just as beautiful!

Beautiful front driveway but the backyard is the best!

Backyard view and fire pit!

And the sunsets are beautiful there as well!!

Beautiful Sunsets!

My younger, older brother was housesitting in Calgary for 6 weeks so we had opportunity for an 'early Christmas' with them as well since they head back to the USA on Dec 18. We had a bit of a gift exchange and had a great time together. My oldest brother is already in the USA enjoying warm weather in Texas for a few months. I guess it is just me that hangs out in snow during winter!!

Well, a quick update as this year draws to a close. I may just do one more post for a 'year at a glance' kind of thing but will have to figure out just what 12 pictures best represent each month.