Wednesday, December 30th - Colonial Williamsburg on Christmas Day

Once the presents were opened and breakfast was over, it was time to venture back in time.
The weather was perfect - lovely and warm and no rain in the forecast so we were off to explore Colonial Williamsburg. My favorite part was the Christmas wreaths but you'll figure that out soon enough!

and finally, back to reality - snow on the trees in northern Maine, 

but fortunately the roads were clear.

Check back tomorrow for some random photos around the resort property...

Tuesday, December 29th - Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!

It's been a whirlwind few days but we are now all home, safe and sound and back to reality. The real world was evident the second we crossed the Confederation Bridge. There had been snow in Maine and New Brunswick, but the roads where clear and driving was great. However, once across the bridge, we were reminded that this is indeed December and winter was officially here. The roads home were pretty crumbly, but we were grateful to only have that tiny bit of the trip that was nasty.

By all accounts, I think everyone had a great time. Even Tristen, who really didn't want to go, and wanted only to stay home, when asked if the trip was okay afterall, he replied, no it wasn't okay, it was perfect!  Can't get much better than that.

Here are some photos we took at Busch Gardens on Christmas Eve. We were surprised to see so many people there on the night before Christmas. Some of the rides were in service but most were closed. The biggest attractions were the Christmas displays and the millions of lights!

 The Scottish connection (now that you're 15,  it's not cool to smile in photos!)

 

Getting into the Christmas Spririt

 Tristen took exception to the Canadian display of all old time mining and pioneer times. He went up to one of the booths and asked if they thought this was what Canada was all about?   Not sure how the attendant reacted...

 Beautifully decorated trees were everywhere!

 Only the brave of the group went on the roller coaster - but not grandma! - 

But I did go on the bumper cars with Tristen.

 An extremely well lit tree - literally thousands of lights on one real tree

 Close up of the same tree

Check back tomorrow for more photos of our visit to Colonial Williamsburg on Christmas day

Thursday, December 24th - Happy Christmas Eve!

It's been a bit damp but the temperatures are amazing. As I'm writing this at 1:39 in the afternoon the temperature outside is 26' but the humidity makes it feel more like 36'. It's not sunny but overcast with the occasional brief sprinkle of rain to cool you off. This afternoon we're heading for Busch Gardens for the evening light show once it gets dark.

Tuesday was a touring around kind of day. Our morning was spent touring the Virginia Living Museum, where we saw all kinds of water and land species native to the area. A great time was had by all.

The afternoon was spent by a few of us (Patti, Greg, James and I) touring historic Jamestown, Va., site  of the first British settlement in the area. Needless to say, not everyone was as enthusiastic as those whom the town was named for. 

Once back at the resort, we made supper and then headed off to the recreation centre for swimming, sauna, hot tub and bingo, just not necessarily in that order.

Wednesday was promising to be a damp day so it was an indoor day. Some time spent at the activity centre doing etched glass projects, occupied the morning then it was off the the new Star Wars Movie for the boys and shopping for the girls.

Tuesday, December 22nd - Happy 15th BIrthday James!

 We're thrilled to be able to share James birthday with him this year. Besides being a year older, for some strange reason, he has suddenly shot up and is now almost as tall as I am. 

Well, it's been a pretty busy few days. After making it through a couple of days of snow last week, that turned to rain, we were hopeful we would have good roads for traveling and mother nature didn't disappoint.

After some rain, the roads were clear enough that a few local girls came round for some nibbles and festive punch on Wednesday.. I think a fairly good time was had by all. Friday evening we attended Lloyd's Christmas party at Red Shores, before we headed home to get some sleep before leaving. 

We were up pretty early and had everything packed up and ready to go when it was time to drop the dog off  at the kennel, then we were off.  It had started lightly snowing as we left town and were sincerely hoping this wasn't to be an omen. But after getting across the bridge, and into New Brunswick, the weather had turned out not too bad. Our border crossing was easy and we continued on into Maine on bare, dry, sunny roads. I had no sooner commented to Lloyd that it was a beautiful drive, when we found ourselves in some fairly serious flurries, with significant slush on the roads.  But fortunately it was short lived and the  rest of our drive was easy.

We stopped in New Haven, Connecticut, and found a hotel for the night.  We both slept really well and were up and ready to go by 7:00. We'd showered, dressed, packed and loaded the car and all that was left to do was grab a quick breakfast and we were off.

This was our first time using the GPS and it worked well, but I wasn't totally comfortable driving on the interstates through traffic and once we were a couple of hours away from the resort, I asked Lloyd if we could change our route for the rest of the trip.  We had lots of time, so we stopped and had a bite to eat and then changed course. It took much longer to travel that last leg but the scenery was much nicer and the ride a lot less stressful for the passenger!

We had gotten messages from the kids and they were stopping at the Luray Caverns on the way so we would get there before they did,  We rolled in around 5:30 and got all checked in and unpacked before the others arrived  around 7:00. We didn't have any food so we all headed out to a local eatery for some supper, before crashing for the night.

We were extremely pleased with our accommodations, and there is lots of room for everyone.  There's an indoor pool, 2 whirlpools, and sauna. Outdoors there are tennis courts and mini golf. Fortunately on Monday, the weather was lovely. It was around 17 or 18' and sunny for most of the day.  The kids really enjoyed  playing tennis and exploring the property. Lloyd and I had a presentation we had to attend in the morning and then we all met around lunch time. Because we'd all had a pretty busy and tiring couple of days, we pretty much took it easy on Monday.

In the afternoon the girls went grocery shopping and picked up pretty much everything we would be needing for the week. We'll need to restock the basics but we made a menu and shopped accordingly..  We also made a list of what we wanted to do while in the area and made a tentative schedule for that as well. Besides local attractions, the resort has all kinds of activities scheduled as well.  In fact, when they first arrived, James got all settled in and then looked the schedule over, and declared "This place is awesome, why haven't we done this before?"  Pretty high praise from an almost 15 year old.

After making supper, we all (well, not Papa) headed over to the activity centre to play bingo and then go for a swim. It was pretty entertaining and we all came home with a prize. 

Over the next few days we plan to visit:

Busch Gardens
Colonial Williamsburg Village
Jamestown historic site
Virginia Natural Museum
Prime Outlets Mall
The new star wars movie (just the boys)

as well as numerous activities planed by the resort. Lots to pack in over a few days, and oh yeah, we also have to throw Christmas in there as well!!

Check back in a couple of days for a further update and hopefully, some pictures...

Tuesday, December 15th - a little delayed this morning - as is much of the island

We're bracing ourselves for what may be a significant snow fall, depending on what part of the island you call home. It wasn't snowing when I got up this morning but started by the time I was on my way into town. Schools buses are cancelled this morning so no school for the kids. We'll see what the rest of the day brings. It could get interesting.

Only four more sleeps till we are on our way to Williamsburg, Virginia to spend Christmas with Patti and Greg and the kids. The weather there is a little milder than here and I don't expect there to be snow but the beautiful Christmas decorations will more than make up for it.

Lloyd is away this week, farm sitting for our friends Charles and Laura.They plan to be back by lunch time on Friday, before we head out to Lloyd's work Christmas dinner.  Then it's home to finish up the last bit of packing up before leaving on Saturday morning.

It's been a busy last few days. We had a lovely evening at our friends home in Mermaid on Friday and then dinner with the Van Gaals on Saturday evening. Sunday was spent doing a bit of last minute baking and then the weekend was over.  I have some neighbour ladies coming over for a drink and some snacks on Wednesday, weather permitting, of course. So last night was spent tidying and cleaning and tonight will be food prep. Because everyone is very close by, it shouldn't be too affected by the weather.

Patti has been busy with costumes for this years play. Dress rehearsal is today and the show is tomorrow night. Good luck to everybody, I know she and her friend Katie have been very busy, even recruiting the assistance of some Montessori Alumni to help out.

She did have a flight to London last  week and she sent me some pictures. I've not been there at Christmas but I'd love to go some year. She sent a photo outside a large building and I immediately recognized it as Selfridge's department store. I had just finished watching the new season of Mr. Selfridge on Netflix.

On that note, I will leave you and touch base next Tuesday morning, from beautiful downtown Colonial Williamsburg!

Tuesday, December 8th - "Let there me light"

Yes indeed, "Let there be light" was the common phrase out our way for a number of days.

It started around 5:00 am on Thursday morning when the power suddenly went off. Fortunately  I had just stepped out of the shower so I was okay to get dressed by candlelight.  I hear the lights didn't come back on until around lunch time. No problem. Apparently someone had driven off the road and hit a pole knocking out power to the entire eastern end of the island.

We were expecting our first snow storm that evening. It came as promised bringing with it copious amounts of heavy, wet snow, that unfortunately took down power lines across the island.  Our power was off at 4:00 in the morning when I woke up. Great - second day in a row.  Unfortunately this one lasted much longer. It was still off when I got home on Friday evening. Good thing we have a wood stove and lots of wood combined with a gas stove for cooking so we were actually in pretty good shape.  I was greeted to a candle lit supper of salad, and pasta with shrimp in  a cream sauce.  I wasn't able to do any dishes at that point so I took a drive over to Brenda's. They had a means of generating electricity so they had light, TV and water!   I visited with her for a while then headed home.

I woke up to still no power on Saturday morning. Fortunately Lloyd was at work so I stopped in there and had a shower before work. After I showered we headed over to Maid Marion's for some breakfast before I headed off to work. We were optimistic when the power came back on sometime in the afternoon on Saturday. Unfortunately it went off again in the evening. It did come back on sometime overnight but then went off again around 11:00 on Sunday morning. We went into town after lunch and were ever so pleased to see that it had come back on by the time we got home. All in all, a bit of a frustrating weekend. I had lots of things I wanted to accomplish but such was not the case.

On Saturday after work, I met up with my friend Christine for a bite to eat then we met up with Brenda and Meghan at the Victorian Christmas Market on Victoria Row. 

Meg had moved into her new apartment on Saturday morning. After touring the market in very cold, damp conditions we said good bye to Christine and the three of us headed out to find a warm spot with some cold wine and maybe a bite to eat. Luck wasn't with us as everywhere we tried was either closed for a private function or had no space.  With Christmas parties and lots of folks without power, there was no space at any of the inns! We ended up ordering Chinese food and taking it  back to Meghan's.

Her new apartment is in a heritage home and it's very spacious and really lovely. I can't wait to see what she does with it over time. When we were finished eating, we headed over to Stratford. Brenda needed a ride home and there were two old guys sitting in a bar across the bridge, who also needed rides home. So we came to their rescue and made sure they got home safe and sound.

With the power off on Sunday, there wasn't much we could do so we headed into town. We stopped into Meghan's as her mom and dad were there. Lloyd set up a couple of things on her computer and I helped a tiny bit with drying the dishes as Brenda washed them.  The Victorian Market was on for the last day and Lloyd wanted to stop by and see what was going on. Our friend Charles was there with a booth so we had a chat with him and Laura  before heading home.

A quick stop at the grocery store and then we were on our way. Fortunately the power was back on so we were able to end our weekend on a positive note.

Tuesday, December 1st - Now I can put my new mat out!

When Patti was growing up, we always put up  our Christmas decorations around her birthday on the 16th of November as that was also usually the same time as the Toronto Santa Claus Parade. That was our official kick off to the season. Unfortunately Lloyd never shared that enthusiasm for all things HO HO HO, so we've always compromised and he's tolerated the festivities starting on the 1st of December.

But this year is a little more unique.  We won't be here and it will be over when we get back so there really won't be much done in terms of decorating. Plus he'll be away the week before we leave for Williamsburg so there's little point. I see that the kids have put up their tree so they'll really be in the festive spirit by now.

 We were watching on the news last night about the Christmas light displays up in North Rustico. We've never gone up to see them but apparently they are quite spectacular. Lloyd even suggested we might take a drive up one evening on the weekend and have a look.  Okay who are you and what have you done with Mr. Ba Humbug!

Yesterday's weather helped put everyone into more of a winter spirit - we had a little bit of snow. Some areas on the island got a fair bit but we just got enough to lightly cover the ground. There was more in town than we got here. The different weather patterns on the island were clearly illustrated one morning last week. The temperature in Charlottetown was 16' while an hour away, in Summerside, the temperature at the same time was only 6'. Quite remarkable really.

First real snow of the season

It was a moderately busy week. Tuesday evening was our pot luck at Community School. As always a good time was had by all.  Brenda didn't attend this year as she was busy helping Will get his new-to-him home ready to move into.  Will and his friends have been busy painting, replacing floors, etc so Brenda has been helping in what ever way she could. I went over on Thursday night after supper and helped out a little bit. She was cleaning cupboards and I cleaned the fridge.  They had a space between the fridge and stove that was just the right size for a kitchen cart that I have that I really don't need so it now has a new home as well.

Sunday was my day to work on my sheep skins. I have no idea what it's supposed to look like at this point but I'm following the instructions to try to figure it all out. I removed the layer of salt and put them outside for a couple of days to dry in the sun. Everything tells me they should be stiff as a board at this point, but they are not. The next step was applying the tanning solutuion. I'm to paint that onto the skin twice a day for about a week. That's the step I'm at now so we'll see how it goes. I trimmed them to make them a bit smaller and more rug shaped. It also makes them slightly lighter and therefore, a little more easy to manage.

It's along road from this....

...to this!

Lloyd was busy on Saturday and Sunday with our neighbour. A fellow down the road has three pigs that he also raised over the summer.  One was killed on Saturday and butchered on Sunday. Lloyd helped Frank with that job. The other two are apparently being done this weekend so Lloyd will also be helping Frank with them as well. He's quite keen to learn how to do the butchering and this is a great opportunity to learn from someone who really does know what he's doing. Rumour has it that the first one next year will be done by Lloyd under Frank's supervision.

Meghan (1) is moving into her new apartment in town this weekend.  She's really looking forward to that and the guys are all lined up for Saturday morning. It's going to be a busy one this weekend.

PS: only 24 days till Christmas!