Merry Christmas

I write this from Hope's house in Orleans. Pete, Matt, and I spent almost 7 hours in the car to get here. But don't feel sorry for us! We had a marvelous trip.

We drove through the north country - Haliburton, Bancroft, and Renfrew. We drove through snow covered hills, through small villages shining with Christmas lights, through forests, hills, and valleys covered in snow. We had carols softly playing and hot coffee and the best ham -filled pitas ever. The roads were clear and everywhere we stopped (which was fairly often due to my rather small bladder!) the people were happy and enjoying the season. We arrived so calm and mellow.

We had phoned Hope and Gregg when we reached the cut-off at St. Laurent, to tell them that we would be about 10 minutes. We drove in the driveway to find Sydney seated in front of the screen door in her Princess chair awaiting our arrival. After lots of hugs and cuddles we were given the "grand tour" of the Christmas tree, stockings hung with care and the "garlic" hanging on the stairs - apparently, that's her word for "garland"! She has a system to figure out which presents are hers.

She reads the tags and looks for the letter "S". Good thing that her Grandad Syd, her Aunt Sarah, and Steve's presents aren't there already or she would be somewhat disappointed in the morning.

Liam however, doesn't give two hoots for the presents. It's the bows for him! We have a wonderful picture (which I will try to post later) of Liam wearing a red bow on his head. Soooo cute!

So, tomorrow Sarah, Steve, Ethan, Nick and Max are coming over for brunch. What a lot of fun we have had trying to find food that everyone can eat - Debbie, Liam, Hope, and Sarah friendly - what a hoot! The kids get to open their presents from the grandparents and their aunts and uncles. The place will be noisy, busy, and wonderful. Should Christmas be any other way? Oh, and all of the kids and most of the adults are contagious - strep throat, colds, pink eye, and any number of other awful illnesses. I'm throwing the mistletoe out the window!

It was raining here today but now there is a soft, fluffy, snow gently falling and it looks good for a white Christmas. Rumour has it that we have to go tobogganing Christmas day. I do hope a strong male offers to pull me up the hill!

The Lawley, Senechal, and Lacroix families wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a wonderfully relaxing and rejuvenating holiday!

Much love,

Debbie