Merry Christmas 2022

I always enjoy the quiet aftermath of Christmas when the wrapping paper is thrown everywhere and everyone is content and exploring gifts.  Alia ended up with some cool craft gifts this year.  She decided to start with her yarn tree.  Avery immediately started putting together his newest ant colony habitat.

Her number one wish this year was for a soda stream so she could carbonate fruit juices.  Avery was spoiled learning to drive with the leaf and having a back up camera so he really wanted one in his car.  Now he has another project with his car, installing a new display and backup camera.

Years ago Scott and Avery finished the Eragon series together and loved it.  Avery got Scott another book by the same author and then created a hunt for the gift.  He wrapped the gift in so many different layers, boxes, and gift bags.  

That pile shows all of the various things he used to wrap that small book.

Lotion and earrings from Alia and homemade dark chocolate fudge from Avery. 

Christmas Vacation- Victoria, Canada

 For Christmas break we spent a week in Canada in Victoria.  It's a fast 90 minute ferry ride from Port Angeles.  We rode on the Black Ball ferry.  It was a great experience and no one got sea sick.

As we were pulling onto the island the snow started to fall.  Victoria has weather similar to Vashon so we were not expecting to camp in the snow.  The boarder patrol agent was quite surprised we had our rv with.  We woke the next morning with over 2 feet of snow.  The water lines froze over night and we had to use snow to cook and clean.  

I had to carry the dogs out to the newly plowed road or I would have lost them.  They enjoyed the snow, Luna was running and pulling like a sled dog.

Victoria was beautiful in the snow.  It was interesting getting around because they didn't plow the streets.  

We found a cozy pub for lunch and enjoyed Shepard's pie and poutine.  

Avery was excited they had a bug zoo.  We went for the ant colony they have but found out the largest colony which had over a million sadly died over the summer.  We were still able to see a smaller leaf cutter colony.  

That's a leaf cutter ant carrying a blackberry leaf she just cut.

Scott is holding a walking stick.

These were really pretty cockroaches.

We visited Craigdarroch Castle which was built by a wealthy coal baron, Robert Dunsmuir in 1890.  The castle is 29,000 sq ft with over 39 rooms.  We were all tired of walking by the time we finished the tour. 

 

We were able to see Buchart Gardens in the snow and it was a magical winter wonderland.

They had the 12 days of Christmas represented around the gardens.  I loved the 3 French hens, especially since Scott walked up and said, "Why are there 3 chickens there?"  

This was hard to capture but the tree canopy had thousands of lasers pointed in it.  

We tried a horror escape room, Motel 66.  It wasn't as well done as some of the other ones we've done.  

Traveling home was treacherous as Vashon had an ice storm over night.  The kids had fun sliding home, but Scott didn't appreciate the challenge in the rv.  Thankfully nothing was in the cul-de-sac and he only slid toward the ditch.