We had a full house this Christmas! Everyone arrived home except for Josh – who stayed out in Jasper to work at the Fairmont Jasper Lodge.
Rob and I first went out to the “Winter Village” (aka The Toronto Christmas Market – they changed the name for some reason this year?!?!)
Gabe and Shannon arrive in early December. It was so nice to have them around for decorating and just doing everyday things.
Zandra and her fiancee Ilyah arrived next from Hawaii. We then had a nice Chritsmasy dinner and headed out to deliver Christmas cookies to friends:
Zach and Rachael has some drama getting home. They day after they got engaged – they got Covid. Although it felt more like a flu, it caused complications for getting home to Canada. There were time restrictions related to how long had to pass since they were diagnosed before they came through the border. We were able to get creative and re-route them to Buffalo where at least we could spend some time together while waiting for the tie to pass- or until they got a negative test. Miraculously, the day after they landed in Buffalo, their test came back negative! We were so happy to head home! But first, we spent some time in Niagara – on the US side. (I also had to do some work there and had to get creative for my zoom call!)
Meanwhile, back home, Rob and some of the kids went to the movies:
Everyone came home to get ready for Christmas:
We went out for Pho one the 24th and went to the Distillery to walk around a bit:
Christmas Eve we did our traditional program and nativity – a lot more participants. We missed Josh and my mom and sister:(
Gifts came next:
Missing this guy:
In the morning:
We had a chill couple of days and then did a “Family Fun Day” where we went for a nice walk in the ravine, played some games, ate some schwarma poutine and then followed the night up with some karaoke.
The fun starts when your brother in law helps you tuck your pants into you mother in law’s too big boots, lol:
Rob and I went out for dinner at Ki (squeezed it in before restaurants went in lockdown again!)
We had dinner with everyone on NYE – Danforth Dragon – everyone’s favourite Hakka Chinese food:
Everyone went their separate ways (except Gabe and Shannon stayed with us) and then Zach and Rachael came home just bore midnight to ring in the new year with us:
We went to church:
And then we got to go pick up Rachael’s wedding dress with her! She had shopped with her mom and sister and then decided on one so Shannon and I went to get it with her!
The kids engaged in some silliness:
And then we all headed to the airport to pick up Josh:
I snuck in to get him
He had lots of stories
We watched him open his Christmas gifts:
And then got the call two days later that all the staff from his department had Covid – so we tested him and guess what – he was either pregnant or positive:
So room service it was:
Then I took a test and it was pretty doubtful it meant I was pregnant…
So Covid started our Christmas holidays and ended it…
Overall though, we had a great Christmas:)
