Is it Christmas time already?

Yikes!  What happened to the fall??

It seems like just yesterday that we were coming home from the Okanagan, loaded down with fine wines.  Which, by the way, we are carefully saving for special occasions.  One such occasion was Thanksgiving when Melissa, Cathryn and Victoria came to visit.  We opened a bottle of Liquidity merlot and it was so good we finished off the second bottle as well.  I think the rest will wait until Christmas.

I took a quick trip out to Sechelt to see Mom and Dad for their 62nd Anniversary mid-November and it was a lovely time visiting with all the family.  The drive there and back was good too, in the old Highlander.

Len had a unfortunate meeting with a deer here in the 108 district and smucked the front of the Ioniq.  It was in the shop for 5 weeks (waiting for parts ?from Korea?)  So I hopped into the trusty Highlander for my trip.  No snow on the roads and no deer in sight either.  Just got the Ioniq back yesterday.  Don't get me started on the loaner car they gave us.  It was a Ford Fiesta.  A lemon of a lemon, especially in any amount of snow.  Had to tow it up the driveway with the Highlander.  Len considered it a death trap on the highway.  Glad it is gone and the Ioniq is back.

Poor car...but worse for the (dead) deer

The rest of November was full of hospice and choir.  A nice combination, caring and and listening and then singing to be filled with joy.  I helped out with a Butterfly Painting night, which is a fund-raiser for Hospice, led by a very talented artist.  She led 43 (!) people through a 3 hour painting session and at the end they all had a lovely painting to take home.  Not me, I just helped out.  Still chicken as I really believe that the art gene skipped this generation.  Mom has it in spades, but not I.

December has been busy as it always is.  I still do some work for my previous employer, when it suits me. Like when it is a lousy, cold day and I feel uninspired to do anything else.

We bought and installed some new flooring for the basement.  Poor Banjo was blind and deaf before his demise, and couldn't always make it outside to do his business.  No matter how often I cleaned it, the rug never was the same.  So now we have vinyl planks and it looks fabulous!  Took Len 2 days from rip out to replacing baseboards.  Man, that guy can work!  I was the clean up person, as usual.

New flooring in the basement

Now we are looking toward the Christmas season with anticipation.  Our daughter and son-in-law are coming for a few days and it is always great to have family around.  We have been traveling over Christmas for the past several years, so it will be nice to be home.  No Christmas tree yet - we have plans to go and cut one down, but things keep getting in the way.  Maybe when Kyla gets here.

As for Coddiwompling - we are looking forward to our trip in February.  I showed Len the historical weather reports for Feb 2019 and it was miserable and super cold for the whole month.  Thus the cruise for the coming year.  Len predicts the cold weather will come in January and that February will be spring-like.  We'll see!

Christmas may be a super-busy time, but I still love it.  Something about thinking about old and new friends, times past and times yet to come makes me all warm and fuzzy inside.  And the music of course!