Christmas 2019 was spent in Kamloops at Glen’s parent’s place. The girls’ last day of school was Friday, December 20, and we drove up to Kamloops the afternoon of Sunday the 22nd. Saturday the 21st had a few events that kept us in town. Melissa’s accordion concert was the Saturday afternoon, and our annual Toastmaster Christmas carolling get together was on the Saturday evening. Melissa brought her accordion, Kayla her baritone, and we not only sang carols to piano but also enjoyed performances by the girls and some of the other kids.
The drive to Kamloops was fine, admittedly some slick non cleared sections on the Coquihalla, but in time to partake in some liver and onions when we arrived.
We went hiking with Rebecca on Christmas Even day in Kenna Cartwright Park. We first took the Prickly Pear, Ponderosa, and Sunset trails and went out wast, above the jail, to overlook Kamloops lake. Admittedly in this first stage Melissa’s legs were getting tired and she stopped and built a snowman while the rest of us took turns getting up the last hill to see the lake. We then did some more serious exertion on the Ridge Trail heading east and got to the Tower, overlooking Kamloops proper.
Christmas morning proper had Kayla and Melissa opening some gifts first thing, Rebecca showing up a bit before lunch, and then Jim, Ellen, Zachary, and Jessica showing up a bit after lunch. We opened more presents late afternoon as for the first time this year we were doing a secret Santa gift exchange (target names drawn at Thanksgiving) which seemed to work well. We went and visited Auntie Jen and Dale, along with Tammy and Judy’s family down at Jeanette and Dale’s.
Boxing Day saw a few of us get down to the mall for a bit of shopping, and then on the 27th we went hiking again (this time in a bigger crowd) out at Tranquille. After the hike, we stopped in for a visit at Reg and Mary’s, and then had an annual tradition of having dinner out at the Moon Wok restaurant.
We drove back to Burnaby on Sunday the 29th and for New Years Eve we had Grace and Richard and Josh, and Anna over to celebrate ringing in New Years. A few of us tried the Twelve Grapes tradition as the New Year came in, but Josh was the only one who managed to stuff them all in (although we were wondering whether the bell we were listening to was maybe a bit quick).
January 6 (Monday) saw us back at work, with Susan going for 4 full days of work per week, having Thursday off. Glen works from home generally on Tuesday and Friday’s, so the girls go to Susan’s parents right now generally only on Wednesday. The weekends saw the girls returning to curling and piano and accordion and sewing lessons.
The second week of January the lower mainland was really whalloped with a heavy hit of winter, with a LOT of snow arriving in a couple of days. Glen and the girls took advantage of their season pass at Mount Seymour, and were up skiing, some hiking snowshoeing, and tubing.
In addition to the cold that seemed to get passed around over the holidays, Melissa and Susan were again hit by a cold mid January, so just Kayla and Glen were up skiing.