It's finally arrived!

Conditions at 6:30 am - 0' and snowing lightly
Expected later - more snow, then warmer temperatures with the snow turning to rain

It's here but likely won't last long. This morning I've come downstairs to see a think blanket of snow covering the ground but it sure looks like it's not likely to stick around too long, as rain is forecast for later today.  But hopefully the kids will have a chance to go outside and enjoy it for a while this morning. It's not that cold and there's no wind right now so they will have a great time.
Again we have warnings for wind and storm surges later on so it's going to get very messy. But this morning it's quite lovely.

Well, another Christmas day has come and gone and we all survived. However, it didn't turn out quite the way I had planned it. I got up in the morning, or rather Papa and I were awakened by three angelic voices singing "We wish you a Merry Christmas" at approximately 6:00. We got up and went downstairs and spent the early part of the morning opening gifts. Fortunately Santa was able to find everyone here. After breakfast, we cleaned up and around lunch time I put the turkey in the oven. Within a little while it started to smell really good, but unfortunately the smell was turning my stomach. I went and had a bath and then headed upstairs to have a little nap. I didn't feel too bad until I tried to roll over and then it hit me like a ton of bricks - I was going to be sick. And indeed I was, and that was it for the rest of the day. I laid in bed and didn't move as each time I did I felt extremely nauseous. I hear that dinner was wonderful. Fortunately Patti and Lloyd were able to take over and prepared the proper feast for everyone to enjoy. Our neighour dropped by and that put a bit of a wrench in the timing of things, but it all got done and everyone enjoyed it. I finally was able to get up around 9:00 pm but I still felt quite dizzy and although my stomach had settled down a little, it got queasy again when I tried to drink some water, so I didn't attempt any more.
Sunday morning I still felt a little dizzy but my stomach was better. I took the dog out for a long walk and got some fresh air and that seemed to help quite a bit.

After breakfast we called Brenda to see if we could use their lane through the woods to go for a walk. She said that would be fine but to be careful as there was a bit of a stream across the road part way down as it appears the beavers have built a dam and it's backing up the water. So we took the dog out with us and Patti and I and the three kids started down the lane. Before we got to the water hazard, we encountered another obstacle - a large ever green tree had come down in the wind and was right across the road. It was a bit of a challenge to get over it but we managed. The next obstacle of course, was the water. We did not too badly going over that one only to get all our feet soaked once we got to the river. The tide was out so the edges were quite wet and we all got our boots full of water. But we did see mussels along the waters edge that had been exposed by the water going out so we picked up some to take home with us. We haven't cooked them yet - we'll do that this afternoon. While we were picking mussels, we heard a splash and looked over to see Cooper trying to get out of the water. It seems he was poking around too close to the edge and fell in. He did get out but we know he had to be very cold. It was time to head back anyway so we re-traced our steps and went back through the water and over the tree. It was a bit of a challenge getting the car back up the lane. We hadn't driven in very far but it was quite muddy and we thought we might have to call for help, but we did it (although the car got covered in mud) but we all enjoyed our morning out. At one point, when we were walking back Tristen said "I love your house Grandma, it's awesomer than ours", but I'm sure he was referring to the outside adventures that are possible here.

By the time we got home it was time to get ready to go into town to Red Shores Race Track. Our plan was to spend an afternoon at the races. Greg hadn't been to too many races before and wasn't sure how to bet but he caught on pretty quick and actually had a good day. He made enough to pay for beer and he came home with money so that's a successful day at the track. The second biggest winner was Tristen who consistently bet on horse #1 and most of the time he won. James did okay but Meghan and I didn't do so well. But I think everyone had a good time.

We got home and everyone was starving so we hastily put together a meal of hot turkey sandwiches with leftovers from Christmas day and dinner was on the table in no time.

After supper James gave me a guitar lesson and was impressed that I was able to cover in 15 minutes what he did in two weeks. It must be the caliber of instruction I guess.

Later in the evening Brenda and Bernie and Meghan(2) came over and we all sat around and had a few drinks and caught up with everybody, as we really haven't seen them in a while. It was a great ending to a great day.