As much as I love to travel, and love to spend time with my kids, I do like coming home. It was a wonderful away-from-home Christmas, but I’m happy to be back in my own bed once more.
Before we left, we had our extended family Christmas gathering:
where this wee great-niece was the center of everybody’s attention:
and then a pre-Christmas dinner with DS2 and DDIL1:
We left home on Wed, Dec. 18, stopping in Kelowna for a night with my parents. A quilting friend joined us for dinner, so I got a chance to talk quilting for a bit, and figured out a quick bookmark pattern with her. There’ll be pictures and a tutorial when I get some made.
Next day, on to Calgary. We spent 3 nights at our DD’s and DSIL’s house and talked babies (they’re expecting their first probably in May). 
While there, we did some last-minute gift shopping that could only be done in Calgary, went out to visit one of my aunts, worked on a jig-saw puzzle that their cat decided was a great toy in the middle of the night so we had to redo almost everything we’d done the previous day, and just relaxed. Their closest friends’ baby boy was born on the 20th, but we weren’t allowed to visit at the hospital, and they didn’t go home until after we were away. Oh, well, we’ll see the baby when we go back in the spring. We did send along their baby quilt:
Dec. 22 on to High River to our DS1’s and DDIL2’s home. There we talked renos and repairs and had work to do! After the June flood, they had their basement to repair, as well as their vet clinic needed to be completely restored. The clinic had been completed (almost) by a contractor, and they were able to move back in at the end of November, but the house they’re doing themselves. We arrived to walls and floors completed, and a fireplace awaiting a new face, which Grizz and DS1 finished in short order:
Now that we’re done that, there’s a little more electrical work (that our DSIL will do) and then the ceilings and finish work. They took the opportunity to improve the insulation in the basement, and will have a lovely cozy area that they’ll use much more than they did before.
Christmas Eve DD and DSIL joined us there for the night, and Grizz and I got our first gift from them:
Yes, a little girl joining us in a few months, and now the talk turned to names – oh, so many to choose from!
Christmas Eve dinner was DDIL2’s traditional seafood chowder, and homemade rolls,
and DS1 cooked up some partridge that he’d bagged. After that a game of Things – discovered that the Thing that Grizz would wish for if he found a genie in a bottle is an island! Lots of laughs, and some very bad guessing!
Christmas morning was the usual excitement, but before we got to that, the bird had to be put on the smoker! And everybody but me did the cooking – now how fabulous was that!!!
So you see the duck tucked in there as well? More of DS1’s hunting fare!
There was a little bit of electrical work for DSIL to do in between times, needed to be done because they were headed home after dinner so they could leave the next morning to spend a couple of days with his brother and sis-in-law. 
That only took a few minutes, and we got back to the gaming table – Mexican train this time! We tried to Skype with our kids in BC, but for some reason it didn’t work, so we talked on speaker-phone.
Dinner was everything a Christmas dinner should be, and everybody was looking for their turkey-pants afterward.
Boxing Day, a day to rest and relax, a quick visit to an uncle who lives nearby, a short trip to Michael’s to pick up cross-stitch supplies for my next project, and time to enjoy the sun and warmth of a Chinook coming through.
Then we headed homeward – happy to learn later we chose the right timing as the next day snow and blizzard conditions set in. Stopped again overnight with my parents, who treated us to breakfast at the local Jammery restaurant.
So all is unpacked, we’ve picked up our cat from DS2 and DDIL1, sorted through the deliveries we brought back with us, and are almost in routine again.
It really is a wonderful life! Now to get ready to celebrate New Years!
Happy celebrations! Blessings, Peg
