The holidays are drawing to a close and tomorrow we head south for a couple of months. We’ve had a lovely Christmas season.
We received lots of good wishes from friends and relatives.
We had several nice family get togethers and celebrations. This is the calendar my sister-in-law makes each year to give to family members at Christmas with lots of photos of everyone on my side of the family and all the birthdays and anniversaries noted. 
We usually have a jig saw puzzle out for Christmas but with an eight month old around this year who loves to put everything in his mouth we thought that might be too dangerous. We opted for some game playing instead. Our younger son and his wife taught us Ticket to Ride and Qwirkle.
We had lots of great food. A family favorite is waffles with home-made white sauce, fruit and bacon. I made it for our immediate family brunch. Other meals we shared included a turkey dinner with all the trimmings at my sisters, a lavish buffet at my aunt’s home, a half-dozen Christmas party spreads at the homes of friends, a pork tenderloin dinner with our children and a great lunch at Deer and Almond a Winnipeg restaurant that has been getting rave reviews. Before our older son and his family board the plane home we plan to take in a brunch at Stellas at the airport.
We went for some walks in the beautiful area surrounding our Winnipeg Exchange District home.
Lots of gifts were given and received. The second and third generation each had a filled stocking with plenty of treats. Dave gave me tickets to four plays at Winnipeg theatres and the promise of a new bicycle when we get to Arizona. I can hardly wait. Dave did most of the Christmas shopping for family this year and opted for experiential gifts- golf games, restaurant certificates and theatre tickets.
We heard plenty of great Christmas music. Our daughter-in-law sings in the Winnipeg Singers and we went to their A Canadian Christmas concert which featured a reading of Margaret Laurence’s The Christmas Birthday Story. We also saw our daughter-in-law direct her high school choirs at their Winter Concert and saw our son’s band perform. On Christmas Eve both our son and daughter-in-law had solos during the church service.
We did lots of singing at my sister and brother-in-law ‘s house the night of our extended family gathering and when our immediate family did our gift opening we sang three carols- The Friendly Beasts, The Huron Carol and Lo How A Rose.
We celebrated my Aunt Vi’s 90th birthday during the Christmas season. She is the oldest member of my maternal extended family and here she is holding the youngest member of her family.
It has been a busy, happy Christmas. I’m ready for 2013!
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