With the arrival of an ice storm right before Christmas this year, we counted ourselves amoung the lucky ones that were blessed with the beauty of the ice storm and not the inconvenience of losing our hydro over Christmas. In fact we were fortunate that Peter's Mom and Dad were able to drive the five hours to our place on clear roads and arrive safely to spend a few days with us before they headed south for Florida.
This year we were joined by Peter's sister, Linda, who decided only a few weeks earlier to fly from Belize and spend the holidays with us. And, for fun, Peter and Linda decided not to tell their parents she was coming. Such a great a surprise! When she walked through the door, their looks of shock, disbelief, and then happiness was such a gift to witness. We could have called Christmas off in that moment and we all would have been okay with it.
But we couldn't call it off with Santa waiting. After all, he had some last minute tips for Peter.
We missed Sheldon this year at our Christmas Eve skate (he had to work) but the rest of us had a blast!
It was a pretty low key year for gifts but the big surprises were for Juliana and Peter.
Juliana had been asking for her own cell phone for months. She even wrote us a two page letter on why she needed it and how she would raise money to help pay for a plan. Apparently it was quite compelling because she actually made me re-think the idea and, in the end, that's what we got for her. I love this photo of the moment she took it out of the box partly because her under-stated smile is Juliana trying really hard to contain her excitement, and partly because her under-stated smile is identical to my Dad's smile when he felt the same way.
This year I've been watching Peter embrace his music and I decided to surprise, nay, shock him with his own iPad to load up on song tabs for his gigs, and to take on the road to amuse him. I dare say that shocked thing worked!
And for the dogs who never get any attention from anyone, Linda gave them so much love that they mourned for days after she left.
Our Christmas this year: beautiful snow, family, skating, constant noshing, and endless laughter. So many memories made.
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