Jan 02 2008
Holiday’s Are For Relaxing?
Happy New Year everyone! I hope that 2008 will be a great year for you all.
I’ve been trying to find the time to write this post, but with all the activity over the holiday’s, it’s been hard to find the time just to write anything..
So I’ll put it all in one long post here! 
On Christmas Eve, we made plans to go over to my wife’s uncle (my uncle-in-law?), for brunch. Around 9:30 in the morning, my neighbour came over and knocked on my door and asked what I was doing later that morning. I told him of our plans, and then he said “that’s too bad. I have an extra seat available on a one-hour flight over the Vancouver area”. I looked at my wife, and she said that it was fine to skip out on brunch. My friend Mark has been telling me for quite some time that if I came back to Oshawa again, he’d take me on a flight, but I haven’t been back to Ontario for years now.. This was a great opportunity for me!
My neighbours Steve and Caroline and I drove out to the Pitt Meadows Airport (YPK) and were introduced to the pilot. He took us out to his Cessna 182, a little 4 seater plane. Fortunately, it was a nice clear day, so I’d be able to see a lot! We took off and flew around the area including Pitt River, Pitt Lake, and Stave Lake. After that, we flew over Mission, Abbottsford, Langley, White Rock, Surrey and then back to Pitt Meadows. I have to say I enjoyed it a lot. The landing was a lot smoother than the commercial airlines that I have been on. I’ve got a lot of photo’s on my Facebook Profile, but here’s a couple pictures from the trip!
This first picture is over Pitt Meadows or Maple Ridge. I believe that those are cranberry fields below, but I’m not sure.
This next one is a picture over Stave Lake.. well.. the water level is low now..
The third picture is me!
This shot is of Vancouver Island off in the distance, but I was impressed that I caught the propeller in this shot…
Next is a shot of us landing..
And last, this is a shot of my standing next to the plane.. I wish that my neighbour wasn’t talking to me as he was taking the picture!
So, that was a pretty good start to Christmas Eve.. The rest of the day was fairly typical of our family. We had a good day together and after dinner we started a new tradition for us.
For years, I have never really liked the idea of opening a gift on Christmas Eve.. I have always thought that we should wait until Christmas morning. But my wife had a really good idea. She thought that every year, we should let our kids (and us) open a gift.. but they will always be new pyjamas! This way, they would look nice for Christmas morning pictures. So, the kids opened them up and were more excited about the PJ’s than I thought that they would be.. they put them on, and shortly after went to bed.
Now, the part I have left out is that my in-laws had given us a gift to open on Christmas Eve as well. For about a month, I was looking at this wrapped gift, wondering what it was. The only clue I was given is that I would want it the night before Christmas; I would be disappointed if I opened it the next morning..
Well, I opened it after the kids went to bed.. It was a video camera! I was very happy indeed.
Christmas morning came and the girls opened their gift. Considering the year that we’ve had, we did quite well! Elisabeth was excited about the Wii that we bought her. Another gift that seems to be a hit with all three of them was a toy vacuum cleaner. Naturally, it doesn’t actually actually clean anything, but it makes cool noises and talks to you!
We had some friends over for dinner, and had a great day..
On Boxing Day, we celebrated my wife’s birthday. Even though her birthday is on the 27th, we thought that we’d have a night where we went out with friends for dinner for her birthday, and leave the 27th for a family type of night.
New Year’s Eve was not so exciting. We celebrated with the kids at 9pm, watching the ball drop in New York.. after that, it was off to bed for the kids, and Colleen and I stayed up to watch TV.. Colleen was asleep by 11pm, but considering she was up since 4:30am for work, I’m impressed she made it that late. I stayed awake (playing with the Wii!), woke her up at midnight to wish her a happy new year, and then we both went to bed.. Not very exciting, but was fun.
Yesterday, (Jan 1st!), we went to see our friend Sharie who just got home from the hospital from having a baby! (Congratulations!).. After a couple hours, we went to Richmond to go to a restaurant were we were invited to celebrate another friends (Socheary and Vince) baby girl. I don’t know much about Chinese culture, but it seems that they have a big party for a baby (and parents), when they are one month old. Either way, the 10 course meal was very good and I finally got to meet their baby girl.
So, in case I forgot to say it, congratulations to Sharie and Keith on the birth of your little girl, Taylor, and congrats to Soch and Vince on Ashley’s birth/one month celebration!
Well.. I think that is about it.. 