Christmas Tree Hunting… in PJs
As I sat down to prepare to recap our latest holiday season, I started thinking about how long we’ve been here in Bermuda and how many Christmases we have spent here. I was inspired to wander back through old pictures and figured out that this was Jenn and I’s 10th Christmas spent here in Bermuda! It’s hard to believe that 15 Christmases have passed since moving here in September 2001. I think our last Christmas spent in Canada was in 2008; that would have made Josh just over one year old, and Ryley has yet to experience a Canadian Christmas! It’s a little sad in a way, as I have so many great memories of the holidays back home… but of course we have a lot of good memories that we have made here as well, and we’ll take solace in the fact that the kids will get their Canadian Christmases, there is no doubt!
We had a late start to the holiday season this year. Unfortunately, Jenn’s Grandma had just passed away, so we flew back to Alberta at the end of November for the funeral and then returned back to the island the first weekend in December. When we got back on the 6th, we decided that we should go straight from the airport and get a Christmas tree – it was a Sunday, we were tired from travelling, but figured that if we didn’t go right then, we would end up waiting another week to get the tree! So off to Sousa’s landscaping we went. One more thing to unpack when we got home!
The Gift of Music
To our surprise, our Elf on the Shelf had managed to beat us back to Bermuda (he found us in Alberta, too) and was waiting in the house for us! Oh, that clever elf…
We were back in the usual Christmas groove after our return; Ryley and Josh both had their annual Ceilidh and Christmas concerts at Warwick Academy the following week, and we had a few office parties to attend as well. Jenn unfortunately missed her party while in Canada but we went to the Lancashire annual kids’ party, my office party (at Marcus’ restaurant), and saw the bi-annual boat parade all in one night a few weeks before Christmas (busy night)! We also went to see this year’s Pantomime (the kids and Jenn usually attend, but I went this year, too).
Christmas eve found us once again at dinner with our friends Will & Fran and their boys (with a few others), of course it was superb (we love our turkey dinners)! We didn’t stay too late so we could get home and get to bed before Santa’s arrival… plus we had some present wrapping to do!
What a Fine Looking Snow… Sandman
As you may have seen from the photos, there were a few HUGE presents under the tree this year. Both the kids had expressed some interest in taking music lessons (Ryley was enamoured with Nana’s piano!) so we figured now is as good a time as any to get them started… they just needed some instruments! Ryley was over the moon with the piano and Josh’s guitar and electronic drums were a ‘hit’ as well. Of course there were other gifts too – Skylanders (video game) for Josh, Ryley got some doll clothes, plus they each received some Lego. Very spoiled but very happy kids, that’s for sure. Per usual, Jenn and I just gave each other a few small, practical gifts as we tend to make other purchases throughout the year.
After gifts we went to Horseshoe Bay beach as per usual, made our sand-snowman for the obligatory photo, then home to enjoy the gifts for a bit before heading for dinner at our friends Cora and Jon’s house (turkey two nights in a row – sweet!).
Rerry Ristmas!
The weekend was generally pretty chilled out; we saw some more of our friends at an open house (we didn’t hold ours this year…), plus Josh and I took a few hours and did 9 holes at Tucker’s Point while the girls hung out. Josh and I hung out a bunch this holiday, between golfing and watching the new Star Wars movie in the theatre – twice!
The following week was pretty quiet, I had the week off of work so was home looking after the kids (‘Camp Dad’). We kept busy with a little golfing, swimming, and playdates with friends among other things.
Finally, New Years Eve was spent with Cora and Jon’s family with a few other couples – lots of good food and drink were consumed, and the kids had fun swimming, watching movies, and doing a little karaoke until just after 12:30am! (Yes, we all made it past midnight – hooray!)
So, Happy New Year everyone – check out the gallery below from this year’s Christmas season!
