Christmas 2010

As per usual, I will now blog about events that happened weeks ago.

First, I saw some of the lunar eclipse, which was the first total lunar eclipse in 3 years and the first total lunar eclipse on the day of Winter Solstice since 1638! Unfortunately for most of the time, the moon was hidden behind clouds.

For Christmas, I was on Saltspring Island from Dec. 22nd - 28th. Christmas was much like Thanksgiving, my whole family + one (this time Eric) crammed into my parent's new place and we did a few things outside, but the weather was crappy and my dad managed to re-injure his leg. I think perhaps all of us visiting is bad luck. I think he will be fine, but the injury has meant he won't be skiing again soon.

Farley and I arrived on a ferry Wednesday night.

The house was all decorated with lights, a Christmas tree and this little village of houses.

My little sister played the piano at least once a day while we were there. She is the youngest but probably the most musical of our whole family, since she is also learning the flute.

My brother Ben showed up on Thursday. Ben, my two sisters and I played some games of Robo Rally. I won one of them and my sister won the second after a great come back.

On Friday, it was Christmas eve. Rebecca and Eric showed up and we iced lots of gingerbread cookies.

We had smarties, mints, chocolates and three colours of icing. Farley chipped at the mints with a knife in order to create a powder which he sprinkled on his gingerbread man. My man looked like some kind of bird.

We played a game of Rumikub, like Rummy except with tiles. I did pretty bad on the last round but won the game by a lot of points.

On Christmas morning there was much giving of presents. My little sister made me a board game by drawing a map on a piece of paper and making many cards as well as folding some paper frogs for the game pieces. We played it and I managed to win.

The cat terrorized the window sticker town.

My brother Ben got me the portable edition of Settlers of Catan which we played a few times. I won the first game but lost all the rest. It's very convenient for playing in a car or on the ferry and the only thing I don't like is how the desert always has to be the middle hex.

I also got my sisters Dominion, a card game that is very quick and fun to play. We played it more than anything that week and my sister and I won as a team the first time.

We also had a couple family games nights. For the first one we were in pairs and earned points in completing the lyrics to Christmas songs, talk about it (like taboo), outburst, charades, and probe. On the second night we played the dictionary game (like Balderdash) and minutes to limit a game where you try and come up with words that start with a certain letter and fit a certain category.

My little sister and I went on a walk at dusk and she showed me around the bushes down the far side of their property. Then we cut down the neighbors drive way (which is partly on their property) and walked to one of the nearby lakes.

At dusk the lake looked very spooky. I also went on a walk with my mom and Ben to another lake during the trip and another walk with Natalie at 10pm where we saw a star made out of lights that appeared to hang in mid air. Walks at night are pitch black because there are no street lights. There is also not much of a shoulder so we took a flashlight to let cars know we were there.

Triscuit like to lie by the fire.

I played disc golf three times on the trip with scores around par 4. At the start of the second game Farley lost his disc way off to the side in the bushes. The wet weather made the ground a swamp and so we were all clambering over logs looking for it when my dad slipped and hurt his leg. He also fell onto the lost disc. Farley also lost his disc on the first throw of the third game but I found it without anyone getting hurt.

On boxing day my grandpa and his wife visited and I learned a little more of my family history. Two of my great grandparents were born in Scottland and that side of the family is from Glasgow. This is where the Dunsmuir name comes from. Farley left us on this day to meet his girlfriend in Surrey.

On Monday, the last full day on the island we went on a tour of the island, visiting some of the beach access.

It is too bad the weather was ugly while I was there. Of course, I didn't expect to be able to go swimming so I hadn't brought my swim trunks. In the summer, it will be awesome to visit their place though, because they are surrounded by 3 lakes, all within walking distance and you can swim in any of them. Christmas was very fun with lots of family time and board games...soo many board games!

Up next...a camping trip in the Grand Canyon followed immediately by a conference in Vegas.