Christmas Continued...Abbotsford Chapter

On the morning of December 23rd, Duane and I packed up our little Mazda and hit the highway for our stay in Abbotsford. I have decided that I love highway 3. Love it. It is nothing more than brilliant. It does, however, take far longer to drive than I'd like it to. I'm not used to more than 9 hours in a car to Abbotsford. Maybe we'll be able to hit that in the summer, but for now the roads are so packed with snow and ice that it would be unsafe and slightly insane to attempt said 9 hours.

Anyhow, we made it safely and slowly-ish to Abbotsford (Duane is most definitely NOT the slowest driver on winter roads...but probably one of the safest and most confident!), and had a wonderful time with my family. I absolutely LOVED that there was so much snow there, as any time in recent years there has not been while we've been home...and we were able to go for a few wonderful night-time snow walks with the dog. Very pleasant!

While we were home we were able to visit with friends which was wonderful...but I didn't take one single picture! Ridiculous. We got to spend an afternoon with Karen and Graham and met their new little guy, Levi, and enjoyed watching Ava open her gifts from us. What personality she has...I really love getting to see her grow up each time I go home; what a big girl she's become, and a great big sister.

After deciding to add another day to our time at my parent's, we got to hang out with Stacey on the afternoon of the 27th...so we went out for lunch at a relatively new pub in town that was SO good! There used to be a really rough nightclub in Abby that, thankfully, has been shut down and levelled. The Duke of Dublin Pub replaced it, and that place has great food and a really nice atmosphere. If you enjoy pub food, it's a yummy choice! Surprisingly, while we were there, Leah's brother Benjamin was also there and ended up joining us for lunch. Good times! After filling up on yummy food, we all ended up sitting around at mom & dad's for awhile just chatting and catching up. We also traipsed out to Andrew and Michelle's place to feed their pets...since we had winter tires and Stacey did not.

On the morning of the 28th we headed for the highway again...and after it had rained all day the day before it was quite interesting driving for awhile, and as soon as we hit the junction to highway 3, it started snowing. Go figure. Again, the drive was beautiful and we were glad to have chosen that route over highway 1. Conditions were probably similar and would have taken us the same amount of time, if not longer. We arrived home safely exactly 12 hours later, after stopping to rescue a couple who had ditched their van around a corner in front of us. We were only about 20 minutes outside of Castlegar, so we were glad to be able to help.

As soon as we returned, organization began for our New Year's party. More on that later!

Here are the Christmas pictures!


We just HAD to stop for shots of this tree along the way

This shed was across the streetAt the highway pull-out in Osoyoos..beautiful!

Christmas Eve day in Abbotsford...and so it beginsChristmas Day


Buddy's portrait :)

The light was beautiful on the trees across the street
Duane carefully following the Lucas "no ripping" rule...good boy!


Christmas Day evening...Nigel NOT carefully following the "no ripping" rule!! And quite enjoying it, I think!Sister shot...missing a sister :(

Duane carving the most delicious turkey ever! Good job mom!The family setting up to play LIFE

Tradition...making cinnamon rolls! Yum!Our gift from mom and dad...made it home to Fernie safely, and is now displayed in our upstairs entryway!
~K~