It has been a while since my last blog entry. I’ve been busy with the festive season. So let me go back a week or two…

First off the house was decorated both inside and out full of Christmas spirit. Bdot made incredible urns and decorated two unique trees. We hosted my immediate family (Mom, Sister, Brother in law and Bdot’s brother) for Christmas dinner. My mom came early (as did Steveo) and we enjoyed a longer visit with them. It was a busy day preparing dinner and for the visit. Bdot made her phenomenal stuffing and the turkey was equally delicious. I think everyone had seconds and was so stuffed we didn’t have dessert. After dinner, we opened presents, I got a bunch of Steam credit (most of it spent on the Steam Sale!) and various candy. It was a nice night.

Bdot and I exchanged gifts the previous morning. I was very happy to get a new brain for my drum kit, the DTX 502. I also got new slippers, the exact ones I wear all the time, that are now falling apart. The sound quality of the samples is much richer, it has midi AND can import .wav samples… I expect it will bring tons of enjoyment. Bdot recently told me of her most memorable Christmas that was Wonder Women themed… so I tried, best I could, to replicate that for her. I got her the complete Wonder Women, original series on DVD, a WW plaque and a WW Pop! vinyl figure.

The next day we spent a quiet afternoon at Bdot’s sister’s. I did go out with Bdot’s Brother in Law to the Upper Canada Mall. The parking was at capacity. It was nuts. We ended up parking just down the road and walking to the Mall. It was a disappointing trip. We were hoping for some deals at Toyz ‘R Us and EB Games, but there wasn’t much, or it was picked over. Ho-Hum. Did get to see the nephew drive. Heh, the van stalled after we stopped close to home. Bdot came and gave us a boost. I wondered how awful it would have been had we parked at the Mall and has stalled there…

We spent a few day around New Year’s Day at Bdot’s sister’s cottage. It was bitterly cold there…-29 felt like -38. Brrr. The lake their cottage on was frozen, so we walked around on it, Bdot snowshoed one day. It was a busy stay as most of Bill’s immediate family was there. We ate and drank well. (Well not the gross Jellybeans from the game we played… Dead fish anyone? Grass? Smelly socks? Spoiled Milk? Barf? No? Didn’t think so. For fun, the group played with Bill’s retro gaming system and the new Nintendo Switch, mostly Mario Kart. I played a game of RISK with Liam, Taylor and his GF… after 4+hrs of warfare we scraped the game and called a truce.

The Boyz (okay mostly Pete) tried to get a bonfire going one afternoon, but mother nature was too fierce and in spite of our stubbornness, we couldn’t keep it going. We stayed in the basement, which was quite cold. We slept with 3 blankets and a space heater – so our room was warm at night. We spent some time enjoying Bills CD/record collection. He has a sweet system in the basement. I hope it is a happy new year, because 2017 was unquestionably the most frustrating and bleak I’ve endured.

Somewhere in there, I helped my sister with her home reno for a day. JP and I tore down walls and carted buckets of drywall to the bin. During the work, I stepped on a nail, right in the middle of the big toe. Hurt quite a bit at the time. It is okay now. The reno is pretty significant, they are merging three rooms and redoing their kitchen (they already did their basement). Big changes.

Since we’ve been home, we’ve dealt with our water heater failing (big mess) and some kind of rodent in our great room ceiling. We did get out for a wonderful ski in Mono too. HUH! My Chromebook *just* crashed, for the first time ever… WTF… We just got back from Bolton’s new and improved theatre to see The Last Jedi. The theatre has installed wide, reclinable chairs in a few of the theatres. They are incredible. Easily the most comfortable chair I’ve ever watched a movie in! I don’t understand why some of the Star Wars nerds are ragging on the new movie. I thought it was really enjoyable and tied of some plotlines in a respectable way… I guess with such a franchise, you’ll never please everyone.

And World Junior GOLD FOR CANADA! Great game. Sweds were awesome.