Wednesday, December 31st - Happy New Year's Eve!

Conditions at 4:50 am: clear and COLD - it's currently -16' but feels more like -24' with the wind.
Expected later: more of the same  moving only a couple of degrees to -12' later

The family got away just in time  to miss the sudden plunge in temperatures. Yesterday was the same, very

First test drive

cold that we are just not used to yet.   After spending the early part of the afternoon at the pool on Monday, everyone converged at the airport to try for a direct flight at 5:45 p.m.. No such luck. There was a flight leaving for Montreal at 6:30 and Greg, Meg and James were able to get on that one. The next option was one to Halifax around 8:00.  Patti and Tristen made that one and had planned to stay  over till the wee hours of the morning to get back to Toronto. Fortunately for them, they got to Halifax just in time to sprint through the terminal and catch a flight to Montreal. They didn't get home that night but the other three did. Fortunately for Patti and Tristen there's a crew centre in Montreal where they could get comfy on some nice couches in a locked, private room, with a TV to entertain them until time to go to sleep.  It was definitely worth getting that far and saved a hotel room. They were catching a flight at 5:30 the next morning so a hotel room would have surely been a bit of a waste of money for such a short time.  Finally later in the morning I got a text message advising that all people, dogs and suitcases were where they are supposed to be.

Just a little twisted at the airport!

It seemed like they had just gotten here and it was time to  leave again. Realistically there wasn't a lot for the kids to do. There's no snow, and it was muddy part of the time they were here so playing outside wasn't really very much fun. But then they were all pretty much plugged into electronic devices for a large part of the time, so they didn't mind. At least it gave them something to do. Next year, we'll all be in Williamsburg where there will be lots to do, no matter what your interests are.

No big plans for New Years Eve tonight. Very low key - snacks and a couple of drinks with great friends - does it really get any better than that anyway? I think not.




Happy New Year everyone, see you in 2015 (aka Friday!)