Saturday, February 10, 2018

Christmas and NY 2017

I realize that we are almost done with January, and I am only now just getting to writing about Christmas. Oh-freaking-well!! Ha!

Well, it is now almost the middle of February, and I STILL haven't got to Christmas, yet! I had better blog about it now, or it will be too late. I never did blog about our trip to Victoria 2 or 3 years ago. I started to, but I never did. So, though it wasn't super exciting, I want to document it (yes, I keep a journal, but going to the blog is easier when I am trying to look stuff up). I won't put a ton of pics up, b/c I put most them of on IG and FB, and I want this to go fast.

Since school went right until the 22nd, I wasn't really into Christmas this year until about the last week. We were all too tired, and too busy to care. I didn't even know if I was going to put up a tree this year, and though I am glad that we did, I don't know if we will put on up next year. Anyway...on the last day of school before Christmas Break, our class had a Christmas party. It was a total blast. I got totally spoiled again this year, both from students' parents and co-workers. Friday, I am pretty sure that I got things ready to go; I think I got the last our gifts, and then got packed up. Saturday, we ran some errands, and then got on the road around noon.

At the start of the trip, the roads were great....

...however, as we got towards home, the roads got a bit worse...

We got to my parents in the early evening (or late afternoon), and we were going to sleep at the house, as it was really cold (-20C), and my parents warned us that it might be too cold to stay at the B&B...well, Anker, decided that we would try it for one night at least, and though it was cold, it got warmer, and it was actually quite nice. There is a wood stove that provides most of the heat, while there is a small electric heater. Saturday night, we ate supper (I can't remember what it was...I think nachos, or something...or maybe pasta and sauce), while we watched THE CROWN. Anker and I went back to the cabin, and played on our phone and computer, and went to sleep.

                                                                 My parents' tree!

Sunday was church. I had no idea that my childhood friend and her family were going to be there. It was a fun surprise! After service, we all had soup and sandwiches, and then it was back to the ranch. We had a nice relaxing afternoon....and that evening, we watched a movie called What Happened to Sunday. It was a not a Christmas movie..Ha! It wasn't my type of movie, but it was a fun memory. I am not sure what we had for supper then, either. That evening, Mom and V ended up baking up tarts and pies. On my way back to the cabin, I stopped off at my aunt and uncle's for my annual Christmas Eve visit.

Christmas morning, I think it snowed (or maybe it snowed on Christmas Eve..or maybe both), and i was such a beautiful morning! We were waiting for one of my brother's and his wife to arrive, so we had a relaxing morning at the house. We dd our Bible reading and our communion together, and we also did some cleaning (my mom is weird). We also started getting supper ready. My brother and Co arrived around 2 or so. We opened up our bags (instead of stockings), and then gifts. I got lots of little do-dads; calendar, hair stuff, food items, earrings...etc. Anker gave me foot soak set. after the gifts, we had our immediate family dinner. We had lamb, ham, and two salads. Yum! We ended off with mincemeat pies and tarts. We had a nice evening together. We all visited around the fireplace, which is always a good time.
 My mom decided to do away with the stockings, and came up with reusable bag idea. Genius.

Boxing Day, we had my mom's cousin and her husband over for the big meal. Our aunts and uncles were also there. We had a wonderful dinner, and we had Christmas pudding for dessert. We had a nice afternoon and evening of visiting, relaxing and more eating. I think Anker and I went back to the cabin fairly early; he went to bed, and I read :) I had brought my laptop, so we listened to music, and watched FRIENDS or Big Bang, or whatever I brought with us to watch.

We left on the 27th, as we heard  that the roads were going to be bad. We were also ready to come home. The roads going back where HORRIBLE, but we made it home safe! The next day, it snowed. Hard. We were SO glad that we had come home when we did.

The rest of the holidays were spent watching movies, tv, reading magazines, going to Starbucks, and generally wasting time. I DID manage to clean the fridge out one day, and the next day, I cleaned our entire bedding.

New Year's Eve, Anker and I watched a couple of movies together, and had fun foods! We watched Beauty and The Beast, and a Hallmark New Year's Eve movie. Anker went to bed around 11 or so, and I stayed up and watched The Christmas Candle, stared at the tree, had wine, and played on the computer. New Year's Day, Anker and I had a nice brunch together, and then I went to visit my friend Jill, then went over to Adam and Krystle's for supper and a visit. Anker was already at home, and he didn't want me to come back and pick him up, so I just stayed on that side of town. I had a nice supper and visit with A and K, and stayed until 8 or so.

 I loved our Christmas tree this year, even though I didn't want to put it up (it may still be up, with lights on it!).

I went through my posts from around Christmastime, and I realized that I didn't put any pics of our tree on here...though they are all over IG and FB...but here are a few:


                                           I love taking pics of the tree in the dark..can't you tell?

 One of my students gave me this beautiful Christmas ornament...it is blown glass!!





The next day, I spent 5 or so hours at the library. It was HEAVEN!


All in all, it was a great 2 weeks off! Christmas went well. Everyone got along (mostly!), and it was restful (mostly) for me. Anker and I got some time together, which was nice. I also spent some time in front of the tree, and watched TV, and drank wine. I was almost ready to get back to work. Almost.

Well, that was our Christmas and NY. Reading on all my blogging friends' posts, it looks like most of you all had a great one, too!

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