The Doings Report

MJ and I went up to Vancouver Island to visit Effie, Fergus, Craig, and Gillian for a couple of days. It was a lovely little retreat. We were in the midst of a cold (for us) snap, so our walks on the nature trail adjacent to their house were frosty and intriguing, with fabulous ice sculptures decorating the rocky areas and ice thick enough to stand on over some (but not all) of the ponds and puddles. But the best times were indoors, where we played games and talked and laughed and made concoctions and just generally bonded. Craig posted some photos here.

We got back to the mainland ferry dock to find the MR2 had a flat. MJ and I got the car jacked up and the lug nuts loosened (aka, the hard parts), and then a BC Ferries guy showed up to help. This was fine and nice of him except he was the type to lecture while he worked. "You know, you oughta..." I would have preferred to finish up myself and skip the lecture.

We had a pretty quiet week at home after that, doing a little Christmas shopping and I don't remember what else. Then we had baking day in anticipation of a cookie exchange at Randi and Kauleen's house. Frank and I continued north from there for Greybeards rehearsals at the Anguishes' house. It was really fun to see everybody, and I fell in love all over again with making music.

(In case you hadn't heard, a variant of the Greybeards are playing at Zenmomma's Non-Con and 50th Birthday Bash Extravaganza. Alex and Jeff and Marc can't make it up, so Scotty and future Greybeards Matteo and Chris are filling in. Should be a fun party!)

The border guards are beginning to take mild interest in the frequency with which we cross the border. "When was the last time you visited Canada?" they ask, I suppose to see if we evince any nervousness about replying. Should I have warned them we're probably going back up for more rehearsal in mid-January? :-)

While we were gone, MJ and Chloe had a party. Yes, we knew about it, and I made a point of letting our neighbors know we knew about it. Seems like it ended up more girls' sleepover than the dreaded wild teen party.

This week has been about finishing up the shopping. I'm really pleased with how much Christmas we've been able to squeeze out of our limited budget, but it means I have too much wrapping to do! At some point, I started a little tradition of providing my nieces and daughters with a couple of small gifts to help them survive the endless hours until the official gift-opening time Christmas Eve. We're up to eight girls now, so that tradition alone leads to a lot of wrapping. Oh, well, I love it anyway!