Holiday Recap

Better late than never, right? I've just realized that I meant to get caught up on my posting from the Christmas season, but what with the engagement and all the hub-bub I almost forgot! But I'm here now and that's what counts right?

I worked the first week I was home visiting, but of course still managed to find fun stuff to do in the evenings. The weather really foiled a lot of plans, but I was still able to get almost all of my visiting in and still had a great time.

One evening three of my girlfriends (Kickboxing girls!!) had planned to go to Butchart Gardens for the Christmas display and a yummy dinner...but the snow was so bad that they actually closed the highway for a bit so we opted to stay in the city (Butchart is out in the boonies). We hit up one of our favorite Italian restaurants and had a great visit....even if our meals for some reason were only mediocre...weird. Our waiter got a good laugh at us all making sure we got our pictures with each other...and even offered to take one of all four of us.






This is pretty much how I had to dress every time I headed outside. Each day I did it to get my coffee fix though!

On the weekend my girlfriend threw her 4th Annual Gingerbread House party. Love it. I would have been sooo sad if I'd missed out but she made sure to plan it while I was home on vacay. What a girl. I stayed in Victoria a day longer than I might have had there been no house to build, but I wanted my house dammit. :)

Worked out perfectly since Saturday night there was a big blizzard and the weather on the Sunday was almost blizzard-like so I would have likely had some serious trouble getting up island anyway. Instead I was able to catch a ride with my hostess and her honey on the Monday, and the roads were lovely and clear for us (until we were about 20 minutes outside of our hometown and there was a crazy long detour due to a bad car accident). It was an adventure, and the view on top of the Malahat highway was incredible. It's not often at all that I've seen the Malahat covered in fresh, beautiful snow.

I took a few pictures of the snow at my Mom's just to show the insanity. This is Nanaimo people! Beautiful Vancouver Island where we rarely got much of a Winter, let alone ANY snow when I was growing up. And this year it just started dumped and is still really showing no signs of stopping. There was about four feet while I was there (and Mom told me that they just had another dump the other day that was so bad she couldn't get her car up her street for two days). I didn't realize that I was travelling all the way from Halifax in order to have to shovel my Mom's driveway. Nutters I tell you.

Oh, and this big bugger was built by our friend's adult son while he was visiting her....

Christmas this year was just the immediate family, and honestly at first I thought it would a bit weird and maybe boring. But it was fantastic! In fact, best Christmas we've had in years. None of my Mom's foster kids, no uncle's girlfriends, no extras...just us. Nice. Maybe we all felt a little closer because my Grandpa is showing signs of dementia recently and we were all glad to have him home, or maybe we're all just finally growing up! Even my younger cousins are both teenagers now and it's nice to have them be a part of the "adults" instead of the little kids just causing a ruckus. Any way you look at it, it was a really nice year.

It was a whirlwind of a trip and I'm glad for the downtime I got with my Mom over week I spent with her. There's something to be said for a couple of lazy, quiet days hanging out with my Mom. :)

I went back to Victoria for one night before my flight, and as much as I had grand intentions of trying to see everyone again before heading out I chose to enjoy a quiet night in just visiting with a bestest girlfriend again. It was what I needed after all of the activity. Next year I won't for as long, even if I have to suck it up and pay extra for my flights. 16 days was just too long to live out of a suitcase and rely on friends and family for rides. I guess these are the things you learn when you move away from home and have to start doing the visits...know your limitations!!

Having said that, I already miss everyone! Thanks to everyone that put up with me and helped me out. See you again next Christmas!!

Mother-Daughter Time

Sorry I've been MIA on the posting here....just didn't have a whole lotta time for sitting in front of the computer.

Mom and I had a fabulous couple of days. I helped keep her away from her snotty teenagers (Mom is a foster mother to two 14/15 year old girls...that think the world revolves around them and their bad attitudes) and we got some good shopping, eating, and visiting in.

Sunday was Mother's Day. We had originally booked a brunch at a hotel downtown, but as we sat comfy at home on Saturday night, we decided we didn't want to go. Instead we slept in a little, relaxed for a while, then went out in the afternoon. Every Mother's Day I buy Mom a new shrub or tree or planter for her yard. The last couple of years we have found fabulous hanging baskets, so we picked out another one this year. She loves them and it's a gift that lasts all Summer!

We shared a late lunch out at Ricki's. Had a good laugh because the only other people in there were the early bird blue hairs...but it tasty and we were hungry. Then we headed home to drop off the plant, only to turn around and head right back out again to see Iron Man. It was soooo good! Robert Downey Jr was perfect for the roll. We were skeptical, but who knew?! Then home afterwards for leftover Chinese and again I fell asleep 20 minutes further into the movie. (I think someone was trying to tell me not to watch The Golden Compass!)

Monday was shopping day. Mom has grown to hate clothing shopping, so she only does it when she really needs to stock up. So it's become a tradition in recent years for us to go do this around her birthday. We pick a store, then wander around and she picks out a few things, then I pick out a whole bunch of stuff that she would probably never try on her own. Then while she's trying stuff on and I'm critiquing everything, I end up picking out more stuff for her. In the end, she winds up with enough stuff to get her through the Summer and Fall, and usually at least one nice top for Christmas or whatever. It takes some time, but that's why I packed a snack in my purse!

We had planned for Thai food because it's been ages since we had done that, but for some reason I was craving Mexican, so we went to Nanaimo's cutest restaurant ever...Gina's. Yummy!! They have had the same menu for as long as I can remember, and I've always heard that their Halibut Tacos were good but never tried them. Well, holy shit, why did I wait so long? So freaking good!! After that we had another quiet night in.

Tuesday was Mom's birthday. Happy Birthday Mom! I actually got up a bit early and went for a walk around the neighborhood. I decided to head towards my old elementary school to see if things had changed. Not really...so much the same it's weird actually. I did however take the long way back and passed our sketchy old mall...and low and behold they are building a freaking Starbucks. In the 'hood! haha!

We spent most of the afternoon at the hairdresser. I have found a decent hairdresser here in Halifax, but she's not stellar and I was due for a cut and color anyway so figured I might as well get it done at home since I was there...and Mom needed a touch up too, so we made a little afternoon of it. Complete with Starbucks and all!

Afterwards, we went home to get cleaned up for our Keg dinner. Usually we go to a local steak place for steak and lobster...but we did the appy thing at Christmas time this past year and we enjoyed it so decided to do it again. It's fun to share stuff anyway, because then you get to try more without having to order it all yourself. :) And of course, after dinner, we had our annual birthday Blizzards. Who needs birthday cake?! And again, I think I fell asleep watching the tube. LOL.

Wednesday we went out for lunch with my Grandpa. He's getting up there in years, and although he's still pretty healthy and reasonably together he is starting to forget things and has his off days. This was a good day, and he was in a great mood. Pretty funny actually. He mentioned wanting Chinese, but we had just had that, so told him we'd take him to Swiss Chalet...to which he replied "is that the place that only serves chicken?"...so we asked him where he wanted to go because it was obvious chicken wasn't on his menu...and he says "well that seafood place down by the water is good". (Um, Nanaimo is pretty much all on the water and there's several seafood places all over town...haha) Anyway, we offered to drive towards the ferries and he was able to point the place out.

Service was terrible. Food was OK. But the visit was good and that's what counts. Grandpa occasionally will chat about the Navy and such now, because DBF is in the Navy and that is why we moved. I don't think Grandpa had ever told me anything about his Navy time before DBF came along. All in all, it was a nice afternoon and a good visit. Grandpa is doing well, but Mom is right that we need to get him to start considering a retirement village or something. Getting old is no fun!

Wednesday evening I made some time for coffee with my friend and old roommate, Christy. So hard to fit everyone in, but she and I have always kept in touch...and she is getting married this Summer so I wanted to give her a card in person. I move away and someone finally gets married! I haven't been to a wedding in a few years and would have loved to go to hers. Boooo for bad timing.

After that, Mom and I just chatted and such for a while, then off to sleep again. On Thursday, I took the train to Victoria....but I think that should be the beginning of another post so I will sign off now, and come back to write about that soon....

Hello from Nanaimo!

Finally, a few minutes to update!

Friday was a LONG day. DBF took me to the airport at about 2:00 for my 3:30 flight...I had already checked in online, so this gave us time for a romantic Burger King lunch before I had to go. I almost waited too long to go through security...it was backed up more than we thought...my plane was already pre-boarding when I finally got to my gate. All good though, it just meant I didn't have to wait around...just had time to get my bottled water and the new People magazine.
I ended up having a touchdown stop in Toronto, where I wasn't supposed to deplane...but there was a sick lady that the paramedics had to come take off so they told us all to deplane for the 20 minutes. Of course, this led me to spend $25 buying Starbucks and a new book (The Other Bolyne girl).

I only ended up reading barely two chapters once back on the plane though because I was watching a marathon of What Not to Wear. Thankfully the middle seat in my row was empty so my seatmate and I used the seat for our jackets and books and crap. I love it when that happens. I was in the very back row, which turned out to be nice and fairly quiet...and there was a preggo chick in front of me that was pretty hilarious with her peeing every 15 minutes and the big bag of snacks she and her hubby were sharing.

I had to change planes in Calgary and by then I was getting pretty friggin tired....it was like 11pm my time and my ears were plugged from two ascents and descents. But, almost there....
Calgary to Victoria is only 1 hour 12 minutes, plus a bit extra for parking the plane and stuff. My girls, Tiffaney and Nicole (aka Robi), picked me up and took care of me back in town with a slice of pizza, homemade nachos and a can of much needed Strongbow. We stayed up until midnight chatting and catching up, but that was 4am for me so we called it a night.

8am the next morning, my body started thinking it was noon, and the jetlag kept me awake. No biggie as we had to be up by 9am anyway, so at 8:30 I snagged the first shower. We had a slow morning getting ready, ate some fresh pineapple, then set out for our 10:30 brunch plans.
Brunch was fun, but of course I barely got to chat with everyone. Hard to converse with 7 other people in a crowded diner is a bit tough...but it went OK. I'll see everyone at least one more time when I go back to Victoria this weekend. About half of us then went to check out Tiffaney's new condo (which is freaking FABULOUS), then to my favorite Starbucks for lattes and more girl talk. Afterwards, Robi and I took Tiffaney shopping for furniture for her new pad. I found about a zillion things I wanted to buy, but alas it's hard to carry a sofa table home on the plane! After that, my Mom got to town to pick me up...finally got to meet Tiff and Robi...then we headed for Nanaimo around 8pm.

Mom and I finished up our evening with late night Chinese take-out (which was OK but disappointing since I've been waiting for this ever since the Halifax Chinese take-out disaster). Of course, after that I lost all of my steam and fell asleep about 15 minutes into the movie we were watching. Sorry Mom!

Lots more Mother-Daughter fun to report on, but you'll have to tune in next time..... :)