Winter in Victoria

It's official. We brought winter with us. The snowman above was built last Sunday. He has now keeled over. There is still lots of snow and slush, but the temperature seems to be climbing back up to Victoria norms, and I think our proper winter will not last much longer. We certainly have made the most of it though. Monday the kids and I trekked through Beacon Hill Park. It was all drooping with snow and quite magical. We passed a lady with a bundle buggy full of bird seed that she had been distributing in clumps along the path, so we kept interrupting large crowds of feasting ducks. When we finally made it up the hill the view was spectacular.

Sledding with an ocean backdrop:





I am presently waiting for two girls to fall asleep so that Saint Nick can make an appearance.
I hope you all have a wonderful day, and a peaceful holiday. We'll be thinking of you! I'll be back in the New Year (I will probably make a resolution about becoming a more consistent blogger). Thanks for reading.

Merry Christmas!

And more parades!

That's Santa climbing to the top of a mast on a sailboat in the Lighted Ships Parade.




And here comes a Lighted Truck! Yes - we made it to both events. After some careful analysis of the truck parade route, I established that the trucks would be rolling through downtown around 7 p.m. - the same time as the boats would be making their way around the Inner Harbour. So around 6.45 pm we headed out in the drizzle and made our way to the harbour, stopping to admire the lights on the Legislature.



There was no sign of the trucks, though the streets were lined with people waiting, so we strolled through the harbour, oohing and aahing at all the boats with Santas and candy canes glowing up their sails. We walked out along Ship's Point, where there was an evening market and carolers singing under a marquee. It was all quite magical - the only thing missing was snow (the white spots on my photos are only raindrops reflecting the flash). A few of us have been experiencing some mild snow withdrawal, but nothing too serious. We soon heard a truck honking a monochromatic Jingle Bells, so we raced back up to street level and made it to the corner of Government and Wharf in time to catch the first truck in the parade. What a parade! My picture doesn't do it justice at all. There must have been a hundred trucks, and they were going along at quite a clip - it is a much speedier parade than the regular one with floats. All sorts of trucks, from Canada Post and Thrifty to antique fire trucks and concrete mixers with strands of lights spinning around their barrels, all honking away merrily. Needless to say, Sam was in heaven - I heard him say something like "I always wanted a truck parade". Dylan exclaimed "Best Parade Ever", and as most of you know, he is not prone to hyperbole. We were standing just opposite Roger's Ice Cream Parlour, so when it ended the children campaigned for hot cocoas/ice cream. These are times when the small city living really pleases me - even though we were on a busy corner following a double header of Christmas merriment, the crowds thinned quickly. There was no bustling or waiting or traffic jams to deal with. You have to love a place where getting your driver's license or passport form processed only takes five minutes. Even the Christmas shopping is less of a mob-scene (but maybe that is more a sign of the times?)

So there you have it. Next up on our social calendar is skating with the Brownie troupe tomorrow night. I'll leave you with one more brief episode in the life of a four-year old (this one goes out to my nephews in Ottawa, who love Sam stories). Last Friday at preschool, Sam and his classmates created little reindeer out of toilet paper rolls, with glued-on paper antlers and googly eyes and a little red pompom for the nose and a little black pompom for the tail. Sam and his buddy charged out of preschool with their reindeer flying through the air, but soon the little red pompom fell off Sam's reindeer. (That non-toxic glue they use is almost useless). I tried to convince him that the nose would be safest put away in my pocket, and we could glue it back on at home, but as you can imagine this logic escaped him, and for a couple of blocks we would walk a few paces, notice that the nose was missing, and then retrace our steps in search of the missing pompom. Finally Sam decide to hold the reindeer sideways, on his back so to speak, letting the nose balance on top. In this manner we made it all the way to the video store, where we had a late DVD to return. We had just made it into the store when Sam held his reindeer up, and in the very instant that the nose began to roll to the floor, a large black dog approached. The next part sort of played out in slow motion as we watched the dog immediately scarf down the red pompom. I was terrified that this would trigger another melt-down, but Sam was just stunned. "WHY that dog want to eat my reindeer's nose?" was the loud and persistent refrain. I had the job of simultaneously trying to answer this question while locating the dog's owner to let them know what had just been ingested (it was the shop owner's dog, and he/she was not present at that moment). We quickly exited the store, and all the way home the refrain continued, regardless of what answer I gave ("the glue must have smelled good", "maybe he thought it was a candy", "maybe he thought you were offering it to him", "dogs just aren't that smart", "it was bad timing on the part of the loose nose" etc, etc.). All of a sudden he stopped walking, and looked at me accusingly and said "WHY you not get my reindeer's nose back for me?" To which I could only respond "WHAT? You wanted me to put my hand inside that big dog's slobbery mouth and try to find it for you? He would have bitten my hand off!" This made him laugh, and he said "You tell Daddy what happened to my reindeer. And the bit about why you not get it back." We got home and found another pompom on one of his sister's dress-up hats, pulled it off the hat and voilà! Rudolph is all better.

Now I'm going to watch some TVA and Radio Canada to find out what happened in the Quebec Election. I could watch the English CBC, but watching Quebec news en français soothes my late-night twinges of homesickness. Plus I get to feel good when they air tomorrow's météo! (Sorry).

Peacock Parade

As the market plummets, realtors find a new client base seeking improved lodging for the winter months.

No, I haven't completely abandoned my blogs... I've just been distracted by work and school, as well as parades and other pre-Christmas festivities. I'm almost tempted to write this post in point form, so I can get all caught up. So much for the lull...

Following the last episode, I went off to the library where I borrowed books with titles like "How to behave so your preschooler will too", and "Easy to love, difficult to discipline". I haven't actually read them yet, just having them is somehow reassuring. We thankfully haven't had any scenes quite as dramatic as the last one, and I find that my old December refrain of "Santa's watching" is still working to our benefit. (If I looked at the books they'd probably nix that technique, but oh well.)

Two weeks ago we had a lovely visit with my Vancouver sister and her children (known to readers of this blog as Amalia and George). Their visit coincided with the November Christmas parade (as opposed to the December parades coming up this weekend). We decided to get in the spirit of things, despite the fact that yes, it was still November, heading first to the Empress where there are over a hundred Christmas trees lining the halls and lobby, decorated by local businesses as a fundraiser for local charities. I had already walked through and had the idea of setting a little scavenger hunt-style checklist for the kids, so all the children (except Sam, who chose to skip the outing and stay home with Dylan), happily traipsed around the trees, hunting for the one with the giant sea star on top, etc. and picking their favorites. When they had checked off everything on their lists and won their chocolate letters, we went on to Munro's, where the children's department was hosting a pre-parade event. We were a little early, so the kids got good seats for the Christmas stories. It soon filled up to the point of near-claustrophobia, so once they'd heard a few stories and won some door prizes we squeezed back out to find people already setting up their lawn chairs along the sides of Government St. We went home for a quick supper before heading back out to the parade. This time we convinced Sam to join us, and Dylan came too. I never attended the Santa parade in Montreal because the idea of trudging downtown and standing in the cold and the crowd with three small children seemed too much like a recipe for disaster, but here in Vic, with the mild weather, and living only two blocks away from the starting point of the parade, it all seemed much more manageable. And it was quite a lovely evening parade, with all the floats lit up with Christmas lights. The only snag was a little run-in my sister had with some local diehard Santa fans. As we had not set up lawn chairs hours before the start, we walked along, aiming for the strip in front of the Empress, and when we found a spot where the crowd was not too thick, the cousins all squeezed towards the front, followed by their aunt (Dylan hung back because he's tall enough to see over heads, and I stayed back with Sam who was already fussing about wanting to go home). I asked Dylan if he could see them, and he said "yes - they're in a little kerfuffle". I later heard from my sister that the people they were standing next to, a few adults on lawn chairs, had complained loudly, saying they had been waiting 45 minutes, and now their view was blocked. Seeing as the children were only next to them, and not actually in front of them, my sister felt this was ridiculous as well as unjustified and said firmly: "It's a SANTA parade. And they're CHILDREN." Really. I'm glad it was my brave sister who was up there with them and not me. I probably would have apologised meekly and pulled the children back. I couldn't believe this when I first heard it, because all the adults in front of me and Sam kept offering to let us through so he could be at the front. He flatly refused until he realised that candy was being given to all the children in the front row, and then finally agreed to go stand with his sisters. We enjoyed a happy Sunday of pancakes and running around the Royal BC Museum before they headed home across the Straight. We have the Lighted Truck Parade and the Lighted Ship Parade to choose from this Saturday (is there a way to catch both? how can we choose? why do they both have to be the same evening? stay tuned next week for answers to these and other questions).

In the meantime, we had, last Sunday, a very unique parade. It was Dylan who spotted it first out the window. They were walking down the street, slowing traffic. I ran out with my camera and got the photos you see above and below. I don't know where they headed next, as I retreated inside after a passerby commented on my "cute pyjamas". I came in and said to my husband "I don't know how you did it - I've never had a peacock parade for my birthday before", to which he replied "I tried to get more, but they only let out six at a time."