My mother taught me that Christmas can be anytime - anything that you can be with the people you love. Our first Christmas was in Saskatoon on December 13th with our favorite son Rob, our favorite daughter-in-law Crystal and our favorite grandson Nathan.
Bob and Finn were there too.
And then on the 20th with Finn and his dog sitter left behind, Bob and I headed to British Columbia.
The Victoria Airport has beautifully done windows for the season.
Bob's cousin once-removed picked us up at the airport in her brand new car and we headed to her house. Here are the lights in a neighbour's yard.
Joan prefers understated elegance.
Joan's desk is beneath a window with a view of her garden. I want to have this too but Bob would have to build a platform for my desk to get it to window height!
Saskatchewan folks, this is called green grass. You may have hazy recollections of it. Never fear! In another four or five months, you may see some too!
And Joan has hummingbirds visit her feeder all year long. I see about one every three or four years in my yard.
We stopped at a market where Joan and Bob selected our Christmas brussel sprouts.
I didn't know that kiwi grow in British Columbia. They are delicious!
We went to a beach near Sidney. Those who know me well, know why I wanted to be there ... SEA GLASS!
I could have found buckets of it but these two grinches people I love dearly called me to the car after about ten minutes.
We walked around Sidney.
We stopped at the local museum which had its annual teddy bear exhibit.
Here are two of my favorites:
Wasn't the grape-stomping teddy naughty to get her dress so messy?
I love beautiful doors & always want to walk through them.
Imagine selling flowers outside in December!
Those may be a few spots of rain on my camera lens, but we didn't run into any significant rain today.
Back at Joan's Bob helped her put some items into her crawl space. This was how our favorite daughter Elizabeth found them when she came to pick us up after her Chemainus show.
I felt great nostalgia looking at Joan's tree as it has shell ornaments created by Great Aunt June who passed away this year at age 107. There are also tatted ornaments created by Bob's grandma (June's sister) who passed away at the young age of 103. They are two ladies I loved dearly and remember with fondness.
Elizabeth took us up to Ladysmith before we headed to Chemainus and this was the sight that greated us. The main street is awash with lights and the Santa Claus parade was happening with every firetruck around blaring horns and flashing lights.
We did a quick night tour of Chemainus and then checked into our hotel. Joan provided a lovely basket of goodies for our room and the hotel had this tree on the table. Elizabeth wondered if the tree was reasonable. Wasn't it mocking every non-Christian who rented the room? We decided that since it had no decorations on it, it was just symbolic of the forests on the island. Sorry, I couldn't help myself with those comments as I hate Christmas being removed from Christmas! Looking at Christmas cards this year, I realized that many which have Christian images such as the shepherds or the stable, no longer use the word "Christmas." Even those card stick to "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" which I find totally ridiculous.
Merry four-days-before-Christmas, everyone!
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