It's December!?

Daniel and I originate from opposite ends of the country.  Me from the East, he from the West.  The holidays over the past few years have been interesting.  There is the push and pull of old traditions and new plans. Which family do we visit? Do we venture out on our own? BC? Alberta? NS? What about New Year's Eve?


I treasure the familiarity of Christmas at home with comforting tastes and smells and visits with old friends.  I treasure it so much that last year I travelled from Ontario to Nova Scotia.  A simple and short flight turned into a 36 hours of wide-awake travel involving Porter Airlines, GO Transit and 3 Greyhound Buses. A 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles' experience.  I channelled the good humour and offbeat attitude of John Candy during the entire trip.

Somewhere in Northern New Brunswick, 3 AM on Christmas Eve 2013

I also love the thrill of trying something new and joining in other people's traditions.  It's neat to throw your expectations out the window and get on a plane to snow-less New Zealand.  Then you can have fish and chips on the beach with your new extended family on Christmas Eve before spending 3 weeks caravan-ing all over the island. 

New Zealand, Christmas Eve 2012

 

Another notable Christmas was 2010, the last winter holiday we spent unmarried.   Dan's present to me that year was a couple days away on Storm Mountain (no better name for a mountain in my opinion) where we had a cozy cabin, delicious food, and so much snow to tromp around in. He asked me to marry him. I said yes.  I liked this Christmas a lot.

This year will be different yet again.  This year we head to Vancouver to spend it with another branch of our family. There will be quite a crew of us, and there are all sorts of fun festivities planned, but as long as there is good food (there will be), excellent company (no question!) and lots of time for knitting (I'm gifting a certain someone a sweater, and I'd like to finish it), it will still feel like Christmas to me.