Bah Humbug!

Yup, me who loves all things Christmas, said it … I am done with the holidays 😦

I knew they would be different this year because of COVID and then in mid-November Dr. Henry, our Provincial Health Officer imposed restrictions preventing gatherings with anyone other than those in your immediate household.  That order was due to expire on January 8, 2021, so while our plans to fly to Calgary to spend Christmas with our son and family were no longer possible, we planned on delaying Christmas in Kelowna and sharing it with our daughter and family on January 16^th.

The only thing that remains of Christmas is my poinsettia which is still looking beautiful and it’s the only picture I have to share because, while it has been nice for walking, the weather hasn’t inspired me to take any other pictures.

I told hubby the Christmas tree and decorations, which went up early this year to bring a little festive spirit into our lives, were not coming down until all the presents under the tree had been opened and that wasn’t going to happen until we got together with our daughter and family.  So, image my disappointment when on January 7^th Dr. Henry extended the shutdown for another month.  Yes, I cried and then I said sc@%&w it, I’m done with the holidays.  I am particularly mad at all those inconsiderate people that felt the orders didn’t apply to them.  There were some exceptions which allowed some people to socialize outside their immediate household but those people aren’t the problem.  It’s the people that either fully ignored the order or used excuses to stretch the rules and it’s those people that I think are so very inconsiderate!  Now our cases are rising and, as Dr. Henry stated in her press conference, that is due to those people who ignored or bent the rules and surprise, they now have COVID … and of course are spreading it to others.  Which means the rest of us are once again isolated from our families and friends for another month 😦

On Friday we dropped off the last of the Christmas presents around town and today we took down all the decorations.  I can’t fault anyone other than myself for being so down in the dumps over Christmas, New Years and my birthday, because hubby and our family, along with many friends treated me royally even with the shutdown.  We had drive by goodies delivered and many many FaceTime and Zoom calls over the last month and I am so appreciative of that but as for the holidays, Bah Humbug 2020, I’m glad you’re done!

Until next time …

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

Oh wait, did Christmas already happen?  Well since it didn’t really feel like Christmas this year, I’m willing to let it last a few more days, and this morning’s walk really made it feel like a Christmas wonderland.

We have spent the last few days pretty much the same way we have spent the last six weeks, just the two of us and lots of FaceTime and Zoom visits with friends and family.  However we have been able to add hockey into the mix 🙂  Since we are home this year if has been easy to catch all of the World Junior hockey games and so far Canada hasn’t lost a game! 

The Kelowna Spirit Bear guarding the washrooms below.

I also noticed while looking at our expenditure spreadsheet that we haven’t spent a cent on fuel this month and hubby tells me the truck still has a full tank.  I was very surprised but in thinking about it, it does make sense, we haven’t gone anywhere other than two trips out for groceries and our blood donation this month.

Ogopogo looks chilly 🙂

It was nice fluffy dry snow which is impossible to make into a snowball, they just fall apart.

I woke up to a fresh snow fall this morning so it was a really pretty walk and has put me in my happy place 😀

And the snow kept falling!

Tomorrow night we will watch Canada play Finland and follow that with a Zoom chat with friends and that will pretty much wrap up 2020.

I can’t say 2020 has been a terrible year because honestly it hasn’t been that bad, hubby and I have made the best of it, but I can say I will be glad to see what 2021 has to hold … I think it has to be a more exciting year than 2020 … at least that is what I am praying for.

Hubby and I wish you all a very wonderful New Year and hope that 2021 keeps you healthy, safe, and happy.

Until next time …

Merry COVID Christmas

We wish you all a very Merry Christmas and hope that however you are spending it, you are safe, healthy, and happy.

This is only the second Christmas in 43 years that it has just been the two of us. The last time was eight years ago, our first snowbird Christmas, when we were in the Florida Keys and didn’t fly home … and we weren’t really alone since we spent the the day on the beach with lots of other snowbirds and the RV Park held a Christmas dinner.

While it is a very different Christmas this year we are blessed and thankful that our family and friends are healthy and safe.  We are fortunate that all those dear to us have been following the restrictions set out by the government to keep us all safe, and to me that is the best gift I could get this Christmas.

I can’t deny that I miss my family today and really wish we were with them, but I will give up this holiday to keep them all safe, knowing that in doing that I will be able to spend many more holidays with them in the future.

Once the “see nobody but your immediate household” restriction is lifted … hopefully on January 8^th but I’m not holding my breath …  we are going to have Christmas with our daughter and family, so Christmas will happen, it will just be a little delayed this year 🙂

Normally we would go to Mass on Christmas Eve with our daughter and her family but this year churches are closed down, so we watched Mass on Live Stream this morning and then walked over to the church where they were doing drive through communion.  I checked ahead of time to make sure it was okay to walk through the line up with the cars and was told it was.  Now that is a memory that will last a life time 🙂

So even though it was just hubby and I alone this year, we are with each other and we know there is an end to COVID in site.  And honestly with FaceTime and Zoom we aren’t really alone, we have spent fun, but very safe, time with our family today and tonight we will enjoy a turkey (breast) dinner with all the trimmings 🙂

So I will end how I started and again wish you all a very Merry Christmas.  Please take good care of your health, the health of others and stay safe.

Until next time …

We Were Elfed … Four Times!

I can honestly say we have never been Elfed before, until this year.  We have received gifts from family and friends in previous years but COVID brings its own challenges to exchanging gifts.  We are so fortunate to have people who care about us and went out of their way this year to deliver a little something special to put under our tree.  We have a few small gifts for each other and a few for Maxx but we took them all out to Calgary when we went at Thanksgiving, because that is where we were planning to spend Christmas.  In fact today was when we planned to fly out, but sadly we had to cancel those flights, but we will look forward to collecting our gifts, and more importantly hugs and time together, once the restrictions are lifted.

You can see the Christmas tree in our unit on the left hand side.

Our first elf’s came by on Monday and dropped off a bag of goodies which we went out to the street to pick up and the other three elf’s came today.  My 6:00 a.m. walk with a friend, yes we were masked, brought another present for under the tree.

Just before noon our third elf’s came by and we had a walk around the block, again masked, with friends who gave us some more goodies.  This afternoon there was a knock on the door, okay we had a heads up since they needed to ring the buzzer to get in, and another container of goodies appeared on our door stop.  These ones where from our daughter and grandchildren, it was really nice to see them and we stood at the door while they stood outside more than six feet away (and masked) and we had a short chat.  As nice as it was to see them it was heart wrenching not to be able to hug them and very sad to see them walk away. We will just keep thinking on the positive side knowing that things will get better and we will be able to get together soon … short term pain for long term gain 🙂

My 2020 Christmas ornament, I got one for each of our kids as well.

I’m sure this is a very tough time for a lot of people this year, it sure hasn’t been easy for me, but I hope that you can take strength from what you have close to you and have faith that things will be better in 2021.

A perfect sunset for a Elf Day 

Until next time …

Yahoo Snow!

We were promised a snow storm starting early Monday morning and continuing through Monday into Tuesday … yup I was excited!  I love snow, yes I do, hubby not so much 🙂  Now most people would think that is because he had to shovel the driveway, and we had a big driveway, but I often shovelled the driveway, and in the last two years of owning our house I shovelled it almost 99% of the time, because I enjoyed doing it and I was home before hubby or up earlier than hubby.  But to be fair he worked outside in rain, snow, or unbearable heat, so I get why he doesn’t like the snow.

I love my view from the couch with the reflection of our Christmas tree in the window, it looks like we have another tree on the deck.

But back to the snow storm … it happened, but it didn’t happen in downtown Kelowna, we got rain 😦 … until Monday evening and then the rain turned to snow … oh boy oh boy was I happy 😀

Normally we can see the hills on the other side of the lake but not on Monday.

And the picture above is as good as it got, I’m pretty sure it will all be gone by noon today 😦  There is a small chance that we may have a white Christmas, depending on which weather app I look at, so fingers crossed!

So was this event worthy of blog, nope, but humour me I’m going a little stir crazy with this lock down so even the smallest things amuse me 😀

Until next time …

Another Chance At Fame And Fortune!

Well we thought our brief appearance in our rental car on Highway Thru Hell a few weeks ago was the closest we were going to come to fame and fortune, but Friday night gave us another chance 😀  

We received a notice last week that a Christmas movie would be filmed in one of the condos on the first floor and Friday was the day. 

Set up is beginning

The movie is called A Christmas To Savour and they filmed a few blocks away from us during the day, even bringing in truckloads of snow, and then set up in front of our building around 3:00 in the afternoon. 

Trucks filled up the street for the entire block in front of our building.

I haven’t been able to find anything on the internet about the story line or whether or not it’s a Hallmark movie but I’m guessing it is. 

They were filming in the first floor condo on the right.

Lots of Christmas knick knacks to choose from.

We had watched The Christmas Yule Log a few weeks ago and that was filmed in Summerland and Kelowna this summer so it is exciting to have one filmed in our building … I can’t wait to watch it next year. 

We sat on the balcony and watched all the trucks and trailers set up.

Of course do we want a reminder of our COVID Christmas?  No not really, but I am thinking positive and believe that life will be back to normal and we will all be in a happier place next year, so watching the movie and reliving these memories should be okay.  Since mid-November residents of British Columbia have been told to isolate and see nobody other than those in our immediate household, and those orders have been extended until January 8^th.  Other than daily walks and a few trips out to do grocery shopping we have been holed up inside the condo going stir crazy, so it was really nice to have something exciting to focus on 🙂

Filming ended around midnight and while we didn’t ’t find fame and fortune we did enjoy watching everything … with masks on and social distancing of course!

Until next time …

Another Week With Not Much To Say

Our week was spent at home watching Christmas movies, reading, hubby working on whatever he does on his computer and me working on my Diamond Puzzles. If you haven’t heard about Diamond Puzzles you should check them out, they are so much fun and very relaxing, similar to a paint by number but not as messy 🙂

Instead of using paint you use tiny diamond shaped beads that are stuck onto a wax covered canvas. I am now on my third one and find them so relaxing and entertaining.

We have also had many FaceTime/Zoom coffee’s and happy hours with friends and family and it has been a great way to stay at home but still visit with people.  Our daughter has been off for the last two weeks and last Monday we were able to get out for an extra long walk with some good mother daughter conversation.

It was a beautiful day!

The city has most of their Christmas decorations up.

Other than that, not much is going on but I did remember that I wanted to tell you about an episode of Highway Thru Hell that we watch two weeks ago.  Highway Thru Hell is a TV Show about towing companies working on the Coquihalla Highway in British Columbia and we are faithful watchers.  Last year I posted a a picture on my blog of a Jamie Davis towing truck on the Coquihalla.

The episode two weeks ago talked about how horrendous the highway was the night before I wrote that blog and I mentioned in that blog that we had been trying for a few days to get down to the coast but were unable to because of the roads … and flying wasn’t an option either since it was Christmas time and all the flights were booked.  Normally we would not have made the trip but at the time it was necessary to get down there as soon as possible and when the roads cleared up the next morning, December 22^nd, we took it as a sign and headed out.  Along the Coquihalla we came across a semi-truck plowed into the snow and a Jamie Davis tow truck pulling him out, and we finally saw the footage on the show and we even saw our rental car go by!

The picture I took.

A screen shot from the show

So that’s about it but I will leave you with a few pictures of some friend’s hubby and I made during our afternoon walk on Thursday.

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Until next time …

We Haven’t Seen You Guys For Eight Years!

First off I want to thank everyone for their positive words of encouragement on my last blog, they were really appreciated and I will do my best to keep on blogging 🙂

My hard fast rule is to never decorate before Remembrance Day as I feel that is a holiday that should be observed and not overpowered by upcoming Christmas celebrations.

When I was growing up we would decorate on December 10th, my sister’s birthday, and take down the decorations on January 6th, the twelfth day of Christmas and my birthday.

When our kids got older and I had a little more time on my hands I would start decorating earlier, I love the Christmas season so I was always happy to get it started 😀  Now I decorate on the 25 of November because hubby doesn’t want them up sooner … except for this year … I was anxious to pull out our tree and decorations that we haven’t seen for eight years, and I think hubby was as well, so our decorations went up last weekend.

Over the years I have thrown away, or found other uses for, the off the shelf glass balls, and now all that goes up on our tree are the decorations that tell a story for us, bring back memories, and of course the ones the kids made.  I still have the glass bells that I received from Santa when we went to see him every year at The Bay … does anyone remember these?

I also have many angels that my mom crocheted for us probably thirty years ago, I still think they are so cute!

So the tree and all our other decorations are up and while we would like to start the fun entertaining aspect of Christmas, that doesn’t seem to be in the cards this year 😦

Even the dining area has decorations, the big Snowman used to sit out on our deck but there was an empty space here that was perfect for him and since I didn’t want him to be lonely I hung our other Snowman to keep him company 

Even the guest washroom got some decorations … not that anybody will be over to see it 

Other than our usual routine, which included three happy hour FaceTime visits with relatives and our Fed-Ex Wednesday coffee group Zoom meeting, we haven’t been up to much.  Oh that’s not true!  Our granddaughter brought our great granddaughter over to meet us … our granddaughter said we don’t go anywhere so she thought it would be safe … and we were so happy to have some snuggle time with our newest little princess.

I guess life isn’t that bad 😀

Until next time …

Another Milestone

I have been struggling with my blog lately, like a lot of other bloggers … it is so hard to come up with something to write about, especially at this time of year when we are normally off on new adventures south. I have thought about giving it up and honestly I think that would be the easy route, but then I think once we start travelling again or even when the winter weather is done I will have stories and pictures I will want to share … so for now I will do my best and if I miss a week please stick with me, I will be back 🙂

Yesterday Dr. Henry, our Provincial Health Officer, announced some new restrictions for all of British Columbia and while they put a damper on plans for having my sister and cousin over for dinner on Sunday, I think they are a good idea. What I saw on the news and read in our local on-line news was that we could not have people into our homes, which I though was a little strange since it said nothing about meeting with people in a restaurant. However when I went to CBC and read the full story it states that we should not be meeting for social reasons with anyone outside of our immediate household. Dr. Henry has also made it mandatory for everyone to wear masks in all indoor public and retail spaces, and high-risk indoor group fitness activities and church services have been suspended as well. These rules are for the next two weeks and I really hope people follow them so that we can slow the spread of the virus down!

We have a FaceTime happy hour every two weeks with hubby’s cousins in Moreno Valley, California and our Wednesday coffee group has gone to a Zoom meeting weekly, so it really is possible to still socialize but to do it safely.

I still see the morning sunrises but I think I like them better without snow on the hills!

Dr. Henry did say that we could go out for a walk with a friend as long as we social distance, so at least my friend and I can still have our Friday morning walk.

So as you can see from above, between the restrictions now in place and the weather limiting what we can do outside, there really won’t be much to blog about.

I braved walking through the tunnel under the bridge to get what I though was going to be an awesome sunrise picture.

Hmm I think I could have skipped the tunnel, but you do have to push your comfort zone sometimes 🙂

But we did hit a new milestone in our lives this past Thursday … we are Great Grandparents 😀 and we couldn’t be happier about it! I know some people look at events like this as aging them but we don’t, we are just excited to be young and healthy enough to enjoy them 🙂 When I told a friend about our new great grandbaby she responded with “you two look and act way to young to even be grandparents – let alone great ones” which made us both feel wonderful. Really life is not about what age you are at, it’s about how you live your life.

An interesting cloud formation during one sunset.

So my plea to everyone is to follow the new COVID guidelines and help slow the virus down because I want to go and snuggle with my new great granddaughter in two weeks!

Until next time …

What A Difference A Day Makes!

We didn’t get up to much this past week. We did enjoy a few FaceTime happy hours with relatives in Palm Springs, well Morena Valley which is near Palm Springs, and friends from Kelowna who are still in Costa Rica, where they have been since the pandemic started.

So this week I am going to once again bore you with morning walk pictures … except this first series was taken last Sunday when hubby and I went out for an afternoon walk. We walked along a path I don’t take in the morning when I’m on my own.

And these are from my walk Monday morning, it was another beautiful fall morning 🙂

Sunrise over Okanagan Lake at Kelowna City Park.

Downtown Kelowna

Sun still rising a half hour later at Waterfront Park.

Later that afternoon it started to snow and the snow continued through the night. It was a totally different walk Tuesday morning but just as pretty 😀 I was surprised that the city had already plowed the walkway through the parks when I went out at 6:30 in the morning.

I had to stop and take a footprints in the snow picture since I often take a footprints in the sand picture. Hmm I think I have to say I prefer the footprints in the sand pictures!

Hubby’s footprints in the sand with the Atlantic Ocean washing in:-)

But lets carry on …

That is the skating rink on the left. They have just put up the fence around it so I think they are getting ready to lay the ice.

The boat locks from the lake into the canals in front of some condos.

This photo reminds me of a Christmas card.

I think this photo will probably become my winter blog header.

By Wednesday most of the snow was gone …

I went out at 6:00 on Wednesday because a friend and her big dog walk with me so we both feel very safe even though we start our walk in the dark 🙂

And by Friday we had another dusting in the morning …

By noon the snow had stopped and the rain had started but that didn’t put a damper on our sleepover fun with our eleven year old grandson 🙂

Until next time …