Boxing Day

I've enjoyed this third day off. We went to our friend Arshad's at around 6 p.m. He was kind enough to invite us to get together with some of his friends and neighbours for drinks and eats. It was really enjoyable and we met a few new people too. I stuck with red wine but the "boys" insisted on tequila too. Lorne drove home. My morning tomorrow must be quiet...

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve. I have never not been "home" on Christmas Eve. It is kind of weird but at least not stressful. Normally we would be travelling right now, either sitting on a crowded plane waiting for it to take off after the umpteenth delay, or driving through remote Quebec seemingly never reaching the New Brunswick border.

We even went to the mall on Chrismtas Eve. People are crazy to not have finished their shopping by now. "S" is for Shopping and for Stress. We spent some time with Harley and had a relaxing evening at home with the dogs.

Today, Ben's grandfather was buried.

Christmas Day

I got up and opened the one remaining gift I had. It was clothing from Mom. We had a low-key holiday – our first Christmas together, as a married couple and our first in Ontario. I spent the last 36 Christmas Eves and Christmas Days at my parents place in Havelock, NB. This year was certainly different but enjoyable just the same. I am glad for this year being away because it seemed to force everybody to cut back on the commercial aspect of the holiday. I really don’t see a need to exchange gifts at all. However, I really missed all my family and Christmas isn't Christmas without family. I called Mom & Dad, Bonnie, Angie and Jackie. Lorne called Benji and Brittany and spoke with his parents as well.

Although we had plans (which made my family feel better about us being “by ourselves” on Christmas), I really didn’t feel like leaving the house but we had made plans to see friends for dinner. With the weather clear we picked up Harley and departed Durham Region at about 3:30 p.m. We would have made it to our destination by our 5 p.m. deadline but the red coolant light started flashing. We pulled into a lonely garage station on Highway 48 and Lorne added fluid. We made it to Howard’s place in Sutton shortly afterwards.

Louise had decorated and prepared a huge turkey and vegetable meal along with dozens of sweet goodies. Howard’s son Jeff and his wife Randie were there with their twin girls Meaghan and Madison (January 8th, 2002). Louise’s children Tamera (Dec. 1st, 1975) and Gavin (August 3rd, 1974) were there from Vancouver as well. Tammy has a boyfriend also named Gafin; he’s from Wales. They met in Cayman Islands, I believe, and then toured South America and Australia together for a total of 10 months. She just returned. Louise, Gavin and Tammy are from British Columbia where Tammy will return for 3 months before heading to Wales to be with her boyfriend. She showed us some photos of northwestern Australia.

We definitely had a WHITE CHRISTMAS! The snow fell in big, white flakes and was pack-y enough to make snowmen. After drinking some wine and eating a lot most of the clan went outside to make a snowman and have snowball fights. After coming inside and chatting some more, we were ready to leave by midnight. Drove 20 minutes before pulling over. The red coolant light was still flashing, the Check Engine light was on and the engine was smoking so much it filled the inside of the vehicle. After about 45 minutes of waiting, Howard arrived to drive us home (what a friend! At least another hour away) and we had reached the towing company by cell phone who agreed to make an exception such that we didn’t have to stay with the car until they picked it up. Instead we could leave the car with the key inside. Otherwise, we’d have had to wait another 1 to 3 hours and had frozen to death… or I’d have been awfully cold and cranky.

When Howard returned home and called to say he arrived back safely (at 4 a.m.), the Beetle had already been picked up.

Wednesday, December 27th we called the mechanic; by days’ end still no luck with finding the problem. It still hasn’t passed the emissions test. Better luck tomorrow.