christmas in pictures

I have a head full of cotton wool courtesy of my first official cold/flu of the new year so this post is mostly pictures. (And apparently I've also reverted to British-isms. Cotton wool? Surely I haven't called it that since I was six.)

This Christmas was awesome! For the first time in several years I got to go home to Ontario to spend the holidays with Mom & Dad and even better, I got to bring a few friends along. Kendra came, along with her sister Shannon, her husband Gord and their two girls Amanda and Nicole whom I have the great privilege of calling my extra nieces.
While in Ontario, we headed out to historic Petrolia to tour the Victorian houses. It had been just the right mix of cold and wet and the whole town was edged with the most amazing hoar frost.

It was great to get outside after a couple of days indoors, eating, talking and celebrating.

While at the farm, I even got to visit with my favorite fur-person.

It's amazing how much you can miss someone so small. I can't wait until I can have her back with me out west. It made my heart happy to spend some time with her and to see with my eyes what I've known in my heart -- that she is well loved and taken care of in the interim.

No trip to Ontario would be complete without a visit to the world famous Niagara Falls so well all piled into the van and off we went. I've seen Niagara many times before, but it is always spectacular and somehow, always a bit of a surprise.

After a morning at the Falls we took the wine route over to Niagara-on-the-Lake. The teddy bear store I remembered from my last trip there is gone, but Maple Leaf Fudge is still going strong. Thank goodness for that. We had a superb lunch in an Irish tea house and then Dad went on walkabout while Mom and I browsed the shops. Is there anything more wonderful than walking around an interesting place with your Mom on a Thursday afternoon when everyone else is at work?
After Niagara we headed to Toronto to catch a flight to Winnipeg. Kendra and the Wall family went to visit Gord's parents and I stayed in the city for a few days with Janie, Dave and Corrina.

I swear that kid gets cuter every time I see her. Corrina's second implant is all healed-up and working well and I am continually in awe of her progress. I cannot imagine how much work Dave & Jane have put into getting her this far. We spent a lively few days playing games -- I won Pass the Brain but lost Carcassone. (I did tell Dave that I knew enough to play, just not enough to win. Somehow my farmland always ends up being useless. Or Dave muscles me off it and I don't notice til we go to add it all up.) Janie showed me how to make pendant necklaces from Shrinky-Dink of all things. I'll post picks once I've got them completed.

While in Winnipeg I learned, once again, that prarie cold is a whole new universe of cold. When Dave and I walked down to Don's Photo to go camera shopping (more on that in another post) I told him I didn't want to wear the hat with earflaps because "I don't really do hats". It was less than 24 hours later that I was pleading for the hat and Dave, being a merciful brother, handed it over without saying a word.

New Year's eve I donned three pairs of pants, the hat, a scarf & mitts to go and watch the fireworks over the Forks. And it was worth it. The next day we headed over to friends of D&J's for brunch and sledding. Great waffles, good times.

I know I put way too much highlight on this one, but I loved the blue snow.

I love that not only is she not holding on, she's got her hands in the air. Cause, you know, everything's more fun with your hands in the air. She's Dave & Janie's kid for sure.

I tried to get a 2008 in the snow picture but it turns out that snow is way harder to photograph than sand (see last year's shot). The only way to get it to show at all was to throw the shadows and highlights way out of balance. Too bad, cause the house in this shot is amazing and you can barely see it.All in all it was a pretty close to perfect Christmas and we all came home tired and happy. Sleep well sleepy girl. I'll see you soon.