Here comes Santa Claus, or is it Eli?

This week brought our coldest temperatures (yet), so my opinion of winter hasn't changed much from last week. I am grateful to be in a (generally) warm and comfortable home, and that I had the presence of mind to get my Christmas shopping (mostly) done early. 

Just to give you an idea of what we were dealing with, Tuesday - the coldest day, we woke to windchills near -50C (-58F). While the outside temps were in the -30's, the wind that blew made it seem much colder. My son has a flexible schedule so I suggested he take the day off work. When my children were in high school, they both took the city bus about a 45 - 60 minute ride. I had a rule - if the windchill was -40 or lower they could stay home. It has always seemed foolish to me that we venture out when we don't have to, and though school was important, there was always the chance the bus would be late, or break down and my child(ren) would be standing at a bus stop for a period long enough to cause frost bite.

However, having said that, I did have some last minute grocery shopping to do, so I headed out on Wednesday - it was slightly warmer - I think the windchill was in the mid -30's. I drove first to the drop off centre with my bag of scarves, mitts, and toques, about a 20 minute drive,  only to find they aren't taking donations at this time (this wasn't V.V. or Salvation Army). I should have tried to find the warming center that recently opened up but I wasn't entirely sure where it was located. I'll try to do that between Christmas and New Years. 

From there I headed off to Value Village, where I found a few craft items for D and I, and a new-to-me set of pillowcases. Then it was off to the Co-op and Superstore for the groceries. I found a chicken we'll have for Christmas dinner. Sheesh, I should have bought a turkey instead - a small chicken cost as much as the larger birds. Oh well, it's Christmas. My daughter and I had talked about Christmas Eve dinner, and decided to keep it simple, just meat and cheese,  crackers, sausage rolls, veggies and dip, and French fries for Eli. I was half expecting to see my brother and his family, but our schedules didn't mesh. He did drop by on Friday to exchange gifts.

I packaged up a container of my baking to send home with my brother and his family as well. Brother, SIL, and niece are heading to Phoenix on Boxing Day (maybe) for a basketball tournament. But they have her sister and nephew for Christmas and R said he expects it will all disappear by the time they leave town on the 26th. I'm not entirely sure they'll actually be able to fly out.

Travel is, as it seems to be across North America, quite dicey at the moment. Due to a snow storm in Vancouver and Victoria, and then Toronto got hit as well, many flights have been delayed or cancelled. As the director of our local airport said on the news, when flights don't arrive here, none can go out either. My travel agent sent me a quick e-mail to confirm that I have interruption and delay benefits in my insurance policy (I do), and she mentioned she'd managed to get a family to their final destination, when they'd thought they'd be spending the night sleeping in the airport after their connecting flight was cancelled. She truly is a wonderful person and does everything she can for her clients.

I had forgot to run an errand for D, so had to go out again on Thursday. Again, it had warmed up slightly but that wind chill was still ridiculous, -38C! I was out of the car briefly, but it was a quick trip. I had noticed a woman and small child in a bus shelter on the opposite side of the street when I pulled into the mall parking lot. I made my stop at the bank, and then drove back so that I would be on their side of the street intending to offer her a ride - I was happy to see the bus had arrived or someone else had picked them up.

To add insult to injury, this cold weather has also been accompanied by more snow.  I haven't cleared the driveway or the sidewalk since Monday. I'm risking a $300 fine from the city, but I don't think any of my neighbours will complain - I've seen no one out walking. The cold snap is supposed to ease sometime this weekend. I've convinced D that she is NOT to leave her town until daylight. I expect they'll be here before lunch, and then the noise level will rise significantly.

Eli had his very first Christmas concert this week. We weren't certain he would be able to go on stage, but he did it. He even sang along on the second song, Jingle Bells! This photo was taken before the event started and he's wearing his noise cancelling headphones and carrying his "stuffy". He'd been coughing quite a bit during the day so D put a mask on his as well.

She was able to sit next to him, just off to side, and encouraged him throughout the program. The principal was kind enough to use D's phone to capture it on video so I was able to see it, and his sweet bow to the audience at the end of the performance.

Once their part was done, so was he, so they didn't stay for the rest of the program. He is very sensitive to noise, though he doesn't seem to notice his own noisiness. :) Wednesday was his last day of kindergarten to the near year, and he was able to wear pj's for the day and they watched a movie in class, ate popcorn and then went to play in the gym. He thought that was pretty great.

I got caught up on housework on Friday, and got the bedding washed, and remade the bed for D and Eli. Other than feeding the birds, and taking the garbage out, I stayed indoors and stayed warm. I'm as ready as I'm going to be for the big day. Most of all I'm looking forward to spending time with my favorite little guy. For the moment, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of the morning.

However you choose to spend the day, I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.