Christmas Eve Day

It's the day before Christmas and I thought it would be best wish everyone a Happy Holiday because I will probably be too busy tomorrow to make a entry.

Here are some pictures from Dease Lake:

For those of you who don't know, this is the family dog, Patches. We got her when we were living in Good Hope Lake, so she's about 11 years old (I think).

On December 18th, Dad, Darcy and I got a tree. I'm not in any of the pictures because I was the one taking the pictures. The first picture is Darcy going toward the tree she picked out. I took this to show how deep the snow was. The second of is of Dad and Darcy after they cut down the tree.

Darcy, Sonja and I went to Sueann's (our former guide leader) last night. Again, there were no pictures of me because I was taking pictures.

I took this one this morning and posted it at the day_on_earth community on livejournal.

Then I went to the front of the house and took pictures of the birds at my parents birdfeeder. There were also chickadees but they move so quickly that I couldn't get any good pictures.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Dease Lake

Here in Dease Lake. Nothing much going on. I spent yesterday afternoon scanning my parents old pictures onto the computer, so I could have copies. Then I spent this morning cleaning them up.

Robert and Dorette McLeod, Kristine and Wayne McLeod and Betty and Fred Greenaway (August 1972)

September 5: Toronto to Prince George

This was pretty much the most boring day of the trip. We left Toronto mid afternoon and arrived in PG sometime in the evening. We flew back on the first day of classes, so we pretty much had to jump back into school, without anytime to recuperate.

And that was my trip to Ontario. Sorry that I didn’t make it sound as interesting and exciting as it really was. It’s just been awhile and I want to move on to other times and start using what this blog is meant for, to keep everyone informed of what’s going on now. And the now is Christmas. Darcy and leave tomorrow, after her Japanese final, and hope to arrive in Dease Lake on the 17^th. I’ll post when I’m in Dease, to let y’all know how it’s going.

Talk to you soon,

Kim

September 4: London to Toronto

This is the day everyone pretty much left. We had lunch at a Greek restaurant (I had stuffed squid. I could only eat about two) with everyone who hadn’t left early and then we drove to Toronto and stayed in a hotel close to Pearson Airport.

This here is the last official picture of the trip*: a picture of the elevator key pad at the hotel we were staying at. As you can see, there is no 13^th floor. I heard places did this but I’ve never seen it before. So cool!

*Actually, the official last picture of my trip (my parents continued on to visit family for another two weeks) is a blurry one of my mom, lying on her hotel bed, in her night gown writing on a notepad but I don’t think she would have appreciated me posting that.

September 3: London

This was not only a family reunion but we were also celebrating my grandparents wedding anniversary. They’ve been married 65 years!

And here are a few pics from that day:

They rented a chocolate fountain, which was the coolest thing ever! It was liquid chocolate in a fountain! It made quite a mess though because it was outside and the wind blew the chocolate over the deck. And everyone was getting sticky with chocolate.

September 2: London

From here on out there aren’t going to many pictures. There are a couple of reasons for that. Part of it was because we didn’t take a whole lot of pictures, since the point of a reunion is to reunite with people. As well, I didn’t feel comfortable posting pictures of my family, especially the kids, on a blog that can be stumbled upon by anyone. But what pictures I felt comfortable putting up, I did.

On Saturday, we had a family picnic. Unfortunately it decided to rain that day. Fortunately, we had a pavilion to hide under. I spent much of the time playing with my little first cousins once removed (my cousins kids). At the last family reunion there were no great grand children. This year there were eight, all under the age of five. So much fun!

After the picnic we came back to the hotel and hung out in one of the rooms. This is basically what I did that weekend: played with kids and talked with my family. It was wonderful!

September 1: Stratford to London

This is the next day. You can tell because Darcy’s outfit has changed.

Today we had some actual food to feed the swans and they were much more receptive to the heavily processed cake we had to offer.

Doesn’t my French braid look awesome?!

This is my Mom and Dad with William Shakespeare.

After we saw Oliver!, it was onto London (Ontario) and the family reunion.

August 31: New Market to Stratford

We said good-bye to my aunt and uncle, left New Market and headed off to Stratford. Here is the theater where we saw Much Ado About Nothing.

Here are two pictures of Darcy. The first one was taken in 2001 and the second one was taken this summer. As you can see, teasing the swans is part of the fun of going to Stratford.

In the second picture, Darcy was trying to feed the swan grass. The swan didn’t like that much and decided to shun Darcy.

Fall From Grace

“I think we made a mistake.”

“You mean we only made one?”

“I just can’t figure out where we messed up.”

“This experiment was messed up from the beginning. We should have stopped at the monkeys. We never had a problem with the monkeys. I say we should just kill them all and try again.”

“If we do that, we’ll loss all the progress we’ve made.”

“Right, progress. We should never have let them breed, let alone build a society.”

“Maybe if they were herbivores they’d be less inclined to kill each other.”

“Never had this problem with the monkeys.”

Eastern Glow

The boxes, full of family photo albums that have been sitting in the back porch since spring, have been loaded into the back of the van along with quilts my grandmother made, to be given when me and my sister get married. The dog’s on his leash. The cats are in their carrier. The mouse in its cage.

Mom locks the door behind her. Dad loads up the last of our belongings. It is crowded. There is too much to take and too much to leave behind.

We drive southwest, away from the smoke and fire, away from our home.

Thanksgiving

Thank you, Lord, for this apple. This is the sweetest, juiciest apple I have ever tasted.

Thank you for the other eleven that are still sitting in my fridge. Thank you for blessing me with enough money so that I can buy a dozen apples. Thank you for letting there be apples for me to buy. Thank you for the safety I felt as I walked home with the apples. And thank you for the friends and family I can share these apples with.

Thank you, Lord, for this apple. This is the sweetest, juiciest apple I have ever tasted.